James Earl Carter Jr or Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States who passed away earlier this week at 100, has left a legacy that is far bigger than his one-term Presidency (1977-1981). He was the longest-lived US President, though he was just 56 when he left office.
Born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, Carter grew up in a rural farming community. In fact, he was a peanut farmer in his formative years. Carter experienced a harsh life during the Great Depression, a fact that may have shaped his subsequent political career. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and served in the US Navy until 1953.
Carter entered politics in the 1960s, serving as a Georgia State Senator and later as the Governor of Georgia. In 1976, he won the Presidential Election, defeating incumbent Gerald Ford, a Republican. His promise to “never lie to the American people” resonated widely among the populace fed up with Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
During his Presidency, Carter focused on energy policy, Universal Healthcare, environmental conservation (he was perhaps the first US President to take the then-nascent concept of Climate Change seriously), and human rights. He brokered the Camp David Accords, a historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, and established diplomatic relations with China based on the “One China” policy.
During and after his Presidency, Carter was known for his dedication to human rights, diplomacy, and humanitarian work. After leaving office in 1981 following his election loss to former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan, Carter continued his humanitarian work through the Carter Center, an organisation dedicated to promoting peace, health, and human rights worldwide. He was also involved in Habitat for Humanity, quite literally building homes for those in need around the world, as he was pictured doing masonry work on some of the houses. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his post-Presidency efforts to advance human rights and democracy. He became only the third US President after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to get the Nobel Prize.
Although Carter grew up with a Segregationist father, he championed racial equality once in office. “I say to you quite frankly,” he declared in his inaugural speech, “that the time for racial discrimination is over”. Long before Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) became a buzzword, he appointed many African Americans and women to top posts in his administration.
His Presidency was marred by several crises. He could not respond properly to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, to which later administrations would send US troops. Carter himself abhorred war – on his first full day in office, he pardoned hundreds of thousands of men who had evaded military service in Vietnam – either by fleeing abroad or failing to register with their local Draft Board.
He also had to tackle an energy crisis as the ripple effects of the 1973 oil crunch were still being felt when Carter assumed Office. In his inaugural speech, President Carter called the crisis “the moral equivalent of war” and called on Americans to conserve energy. He outlined a plan to tackle the crisis, focusing on conservation, efficiency, and domestic technologies to reduce the heavy dependence on foreign oil. The US Department of Energy (DOE) was created under his watch. His words and actions vis-à-vis the energy crisis are still applicable today, when the world is facing a far greater energy and climate crisis. He was even mocked for turning down the central heating at the White House and wearing jerseys. But in doing so, he drew attention to the need for conserving energy.
But the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran was the biggest challenge he faced, one which would eventually cause his downfall. In this incident, Fifty-three United States diplomats and citizens were taken hostage on November 4, 1979 by students who supported the Revolution. The students, some of whom later became top leaders of Iran, were said to be angered by US support for the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in 1979. Carter’s decision to grant asylum to the former Shah on medical grounds made matters worse.
Although the US severed diplomatic ties with Iran in the immediate aftermath of the incident and even mounted a disastrous military bid to rescue the hostages, President Carter managed to start negotiations with the new Iranian Government through intermediaries under the Algiers Accords and finally secured the release of the hostages in the very last days of his administration. Iran, however, timed their release (after 444 days) to coincide with the inauguration of President Reagan on January 20, 1981. The hostage crisis sealed Carter’s fate at the 1980 election and forever tainted his Presidential record.
Yet, Carter redeemed himself in the almost five decades that he spent outside the corridors of power in Washington, DC, embodying the essence of the American dream in more ways than one. He undertook several peace missions in his twilight years and became a universally revered figure whose demise leaves a huge void in global diplomacy and politics.
