Professor Dave here, let’s learn about Jimmy Carter.
James Earl Carter, Jr. had been a peanut farmer, and Governor of Georgia before he was elected
president in the bicentennial year of 1976.
A self-professed born again Christian of the Southern Baptist variety, he was the last
democrat to win the South in a general election, winning every state except Virginia.
On his first day in office, Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for all Vietnam War protesters,
vowing to remove the trappings of the so-called “Imperial Presidency.”
He was a visionary when it came to his search for alternatives to fossil fuels, the first
President to actively propose alternative sources of power, creating the Department
of Energy, and even installing solar panels on the roof of the White House.
But his refusal to play by traditional Washington rules of trading favors and passing pork barrel
legislation soured many Democrats and drove off many potential allies who saw him as self-righteous,
a personality trait that would eventually alienate voters and lead to his defeat.
Carter was a victim of the stagnant economy and high inflation that plagued every administration
from the Vietnam era onwards.
The second oil embargo in 1979 had a catastrophic impact, just as the first did in 1973, bringing
rising prices, long lines at gas stations, shortages of fuel, and gas rationing.
Moreover, after years of protest and activism, the disco culture of the mid-to-late 70s replaced
the discredited hippie counterculture and resulted in a severe rejection of hippie anti-materialism,
love, communal life, and spiritual enlightenment, in favor of a trendy hedonism, embracing money,
materialism, cocaine, and elitist lifestyles.
Carter famously addressed the nation’s “malaise” in a televised speech that was widely ridiculed
and made him seem out of touch with the times, scolding the American people for his own failures
of leadership.
His single greatest triumph and most catastrophic disasters were in foreign policy.
As a devout Christian, he took a special interest in the Holy Lands, and in the finest moment
of his presidency, he arduously negotiated the Camp David Accords, a peace treaty between
Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s right-wing Menachem Begin.
It brought peace between the two countries and resulted in Nobel Peace Prizes for both
men, but it would also lead to Sadat’s assassination by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Two major crises in the Muslim world, both mishandled by Carter, would also lead to the
rise of radical Islam.
Carter had placed a high priority on human rights, which the US had turned a blind eye
towards throughout the Cold War as long as our allies were sufficiently anti-Communist.
Carter rejected these notions as being outmoded Cold War policies, insisting that the United
States should set an example in calling out human rights abuses, especially by our allies.
Carter was following in the idealistic footsteps of Woodrow Wilson, and like Wilson, his political
naiveté would have tragic consequences.
One of Carter’s biggest challenges was the Iranian hostage crisis.
Long a bulwark against Communism in the Middle East, Iran had been a trustworthy US ally
for decades, a prosperous nation with a well-educated middle class.
The Shah of Iran bragged that he had brought his people kicking and screaming into the
20th century.
But his secret police, the SAVAK, whose agents had been trained by the CIA, had turned a
considerable number of his people against him.
Although in many ways the Shah had been a progressive leader, sponsoring land reform,
the enfranchisement of women, and the sales of state-owned businesses, he was also an
absolute monarch and there was still censorship and other oppressive measures of authoritarian
rule.
But an early assassination attempt had made him paranoid, and his many critics ranged
from the leftist secular intellectuals to the exiled radical Shia cleric, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, who had long decried Western influence and dreamt of a Muslim Republic
for Iran, declaring that the Shah was trying to destroy Islam in the country.
Carter had reminded the Shah of the importance of human rights upon taking office and the
Shah had relented, releasing some political prisoners, but events soon raced out of control.
Meanwhile, secular leftist intellectuals began demanding greater freedom and an end to censorship.
Taken aback by the protests, the Shah tried to negotiate with his critics and the tensions
seemed to have cooled by mid-summer of 1978.
However, when an anonymous newspaper article attacked Khomeini, riots broke out and symbols
of Western influence such as bars, movie theaters, and banks were torched.
As clashes between police and protesters became more frequent, Carter began pressuring the
Shah to make more concessions.
However, on August 19th, 1978, four arsonists barricaded a movie theater and set it ablaze,
killing over 420 people.
The Shah was blamed and riots erupted once more, the crowds chanting, “Burn the Shah!”
and “Death to the Shah!”
Khomeini masterminded a media campaign, presenting himself to the Western press as a mystical
holy man with no desire for power, but merely the desire to see his country free from oppression.
The press ate it up and Carter continued pressuring the Shah for more reforms, which were enacted
but only emboldened the revolutionaries.
By November, the Shah had ordered martial law but his troops began to mutiny.
Carter’s administration was torn as to how to handle the crisis.
A cable from the Ambassador William Sullivan in Iran warned of the inevitable fall of the
Shah and that the U.S. should facilitate his abdication.
National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski was adamantly opposed while the Secretary
of State Cyrus Vance and Ambassador Sullivan saw Khomeini as a moderate who wished to establish
a democracy.
This split in the Administration was mirrored in Iran when a top ranking American general
went to Iran to check out Iranian military support for a coup.
The Shah appointed a new Prime Minister and then went into exile in January 1979.
The new Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar went about dismantling the Shah’s regime, freeing
all political prisoners, dissolving the SAVAK and welcoming Khomeini to return to Iran.
But Khomeini soon outmaneuvered him.
Though the Ayatollah had repeatedly said he had no interest in power, immediately upon
his return he announced he was establishing Shariah Law and appointed his own Prime Minister.
Within a month, Bakhtiar fled the country, only to be assassinated by an agent of the
Iranian Islamic Republic 12 years later.
The Carter Administration had helped facilitate Khomeini’s rise to power, hoping for good
relations with the new Islamic Republic.
But the memory of the Mossadegh coup in 1953 was still fresh in their memory, and it soon
became apparent that for Ayatollah Khomeini, America would forever be “The Great Satan.”
While Iran was evolving into a theocracy, its neighbor Afghanistan was collapsing into
a brutal civil war between rival hard-line Communist factions.
Their patron, the Soviet Union was appalled at the bloody coups that took place in 1978
and ‘79, and watched as the country collapsed into anarchy.
The Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin begged the Soviets for assistance and on Christmas of
1979 the USSR sent troops into the country to help stabilize the warring country.
Carter was seemingly caught completely off-guard by the invasion and felt betrayed by the Russian
incursion, although some scholars argue this outrage was for show, and that the administration
was luring the Soviets into invading.
Either way, Carter worried that with two neighboring Islamic states in turmoil the entire region
could erupt, and he sent American destroyers to guard the strategic Straits of Hormuz,
the major shipping lane of oil to the West.
Urged on by the hawkish Brzezinski, Carter slapped sanctions on the Soviets and called
for a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
The decade of softened relations between the two superpowers was over.
Brzezinski also urged the support of the mujahideen, the Islamic resistance to the secular atheist
Communists.
This holy war against the godless Soviets, as well as the Iranian Revolution, would radicalize
groups of Muslims around the world.
Much of Carter’s surprised reaction to the Soviet invasion was due to his preoccupation
with events in Iran.
The Shah developed lymphoma and requested entry into the U.S. for medical treatment.
The State Department urged Carter not to allow him into the U.S. for fear of possible reprisals,
and the President himself was reluctant, fearing it would harm relations with the new Iranian
government led by Khomeini.
But under pressure from influential figures like Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller,
Carter relented and allowed the Shah into the United States.
The Iranian outrage was immediate.
A group of students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and began a 444-day occupation,
holding 52 American diplomatic employees hostage.
It was an act of war, a total violation of international law and sovereignty; overnight
the United States was plunged into its most intense international incident since the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
Resisting cries to declare war, Carter maintained his commitment to negotiate the release of
the hostages.
Initially, the students, with Khomeini’s support, demanded the Shah be returned to
Iran and stand trial as a condition for the release of the hostages.
But the Shah’s death reduced their motivation to release the captives, and the Iranians
took delight in negotiating humiliating terms for their release, only to have the Ayatollah
veto any deal at the last minute.
Images of trash being emptied on American flags and reports of beatings and torture
outraged the American public.
On April 24th, 1980 a rescue attempt ended in failure as American helicopters sent to
free the hostages crashed in the Iranian desert during a sandstorm.
Carter’s chances for re-election died in the desert sands of Iran that day, and though
he defeated Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, he lost the general election in
a landslide to Ronald Reagan.
Although rated as one of the weaker presidents, Jimmy Carter would find his true calling as
an ex-president.
In this, he ranks as one of the most influential former American heads of state in U.S. History.
Not content to sit on boards, or write his memoirs, Carter never left the world stage
but instead re-invented presidential retirement.
He founded the Carter Center, which became a respected think tank for defending human
rights and finding solutions to alleviate suffering around the world, especially in
developing nations.
It has mediated international conflicts, monitored 96 elections in 38 countries, resolved conflicts
in many nations, and helped to completely eradicate Guinea worm disease, which once
affected millions.
For his ceaseless efforts in promoting world peace, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2002, the only former president to have been so honored.
In recent years, Carter has criticized Israel for breaking treaties and its human rights
violations regarding the Palestinian territories, calling it an “apartheid state.”
He has also criticized both Democratic and Republican Administrations for the Guantanamo
Bay detention camp tortures, the NSA domestic surveillance programs, and the growing income
inequality and eradication of the American Middle Class, saying in 2015 that the United
States is now “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.”
Although historians rank Carter’s presidency low, his post-presidency has been the most
exemplary in American history, the moral conscience of a troubled time.