The end of a year is often a time for reflection of the past twelve months and what has been accomplished on a personal level. That’s not what’s on my mind today as I write this. Instead, I’m reflecting on the life and legacy of Former-President Jimmy Carter, a man I greatly respected and admired, especially in his post-presidency.
This cartoon from Counterpoint.com sums up that non-political part of Carter’s life perfectly:
Carter was elected at a time when the United States was reeling from the Vietnam war, the Watergate scandals, and unrest in the country. He ran as a man who could bring stability, and people believed that promise. Sort of reminds me of the election of 2020, but that’s not what this post is going to be about.
In 1976, I voted for Carter because of the fact that he wasn’t a seasoned politician. He didn’t have deep roots in Washington, and I was naïve enough to think that a good man could accomplish so much in that highest office in the country, by simply being a man of deep faith and high integrity and wisdom.
And he did manage to do so many things.
Right after the election, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders, and during his term in office he created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology.
Young people today might not be aware of the fact that Carter negotiated a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. He invited the leaders of both countries to Camp David where they stayed for ten days to hammer out the agreement, which became know as the Camp David Accords. The document, signed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, established an historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
Carter helped establish the Panama Canal Treaty, that guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the canal at the end of 1999. Since 1903, the United States had governance over the canal that they had built, but people in Panama believed from the start that they should be the ones to control what was in their nation.
Carter agreed.
He also supported NASA’s efforts to build the space shuttle. Congress had been calling for the program to be scaled back, or scrapped, and Carter was feeling pressure from within his administration. Officials with the Office of Management and Budget pushed to cut NASA’s funding, but Carter rescued the shuttle by giving NASA the resources needed to see the project through. The president earmarked nearly $200 million in additional funds in 1979 and an extra $300 million the following fiscal year.
I was always of the opinion that Carter was too “good” for Washington. He didn’t play political games and therefore the politicians in D.C. made things very difficult for him. On The Daily Podcast on Monday morning Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times related a few incidents of when Carter wasn’t “presidential” enough. One of which was when then Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill was invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting and was insulted when only pastries were served. According to Baker, O’Neill made quite a fuss over not having a hot breakfast and didn’t hesitate to tell other members of Congress about what he considered a slight.
The biggest black mark of Carter’s presidency was the Iranian Hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979 when Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans. The American diplomats were held for 444 days, finally released on January 20, 1981, just hours after Ronald Reagan took office after soundly beating Carter in the election of 1980.
Ironically, Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christophe in the Carter administration had negotiated the release, but Iranian officials held the plane that was to bring the hostages home at the airport until after Reagan was sworn in. So, Carter was never credited with finally ending that crisis.
There’s so much more information about the life of Jimmy Carter, personal and political, and this obituary at Vox.com is filled with the highlights of both.
Sunday night President Biden had this to say about Carter, “He lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds,” and added, “We would all do well to be a little more like Jimmy Carter.”
Amen to that!
“Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!” Oscar Wilde