Rosalynn Carter
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May 14, 2024 · CNN — Jimmy Carter’s grandson said Tuesday that the former president is “coming to the end” in a brief update about the 39th president’s health. “ (My grandfather) is doing OK,” Jason...
His proposals resulted in comprehensive civil service reform, an emphasis on renewable energy, and federal protection of more than 100 million acres of land. President Carter’s focus on accountability also extended abroad as he challenged both allies and foes on their human rights records.
- Overview
- Presidency of Jimmy Carter
Beginning with his inaugural walk with Rosalynn down Pennsylvania Avenue, Carter tried to reinforce his image as a man of the people. In his inaugural address Carter also reflected this approach, saying:
You have given me a great responsibility—to stay close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.
He adopted an informal style of dress and speech in public appearances, held frequent press conferences, and reduced the pomp of the presidency. Early on in his administration, Carter introduced a dizzying array of ambitious programs for social, administrative, and economic reform. Most of those programs, however, met with opposition in Congress despite the Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. On one hand, Congress, in the post-Watergate environment, was more willing to challenge the executive branch; on the other, Carter the populist was quick to criticize Congress and to take his agenda to the American people. In either case, Carter’s difficulties with Congress undermined the success of his administration, and by 1978 his initial popularity had dissipated in the face of his inability to convert his ideas into legislative realities.
Two scandals also damaged Carter’s credibility. In summer 1977 Bert Lance, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and one of Carter’s closest friends, was accused of financial improprieties as a Georgia banker. When Carter stood by Lance (whom he eventually asked to resign and who later was acquitted of all charges), many questioned the president’s vaunted scruples. Carter’s image suffered again—though less—in summer 1980 when his younger brother, Billy (widely perceived as a buffoon), was accused of acting as an influence peddler for the Libyan government of Muammar al-Qaddafi. Senate investigators concluded that, while Billy had acted improperly, he had no real influence on the president.
Read President Carter’s Britannica essay on the Camp David Accords.
In foreign affairs, Carter received accolades for championing international human rights, though his critics charged that his vision of the world was naive. Carter’s idealism notwithstanding, his major achievements were on the more pragmatic level of patient diplomacy. In 1977 he obtained two treaties between the United States and Panama that gave the latter control over the Panama Canal at the end of 1999 and guaranteed the neutrality of that waterway thereafter. In 1978 Carter brought together Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, and secured their agreement to the Camp David Accords, which ended the state of war that had existed between the two countries since Israel’s founding in 1948. The difficult negotiations—which lasted 13 days and were salvaged only by Carter’s tenacious intervention—provided for the establishment of full diplomatic and economic relations on condition that Israel return the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. On January 1, 1979, Carter established full diplomatic relations between the United States and China and simultaneously broke official ties with Taiwan. Also in 1979, in Vienna, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a new bilateral strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) intended to establish parity in strategic nuclear weapons delivery systems between the two superpowers on terms that could be adequately verified. Carter removed the treaty from consideration by the Senate in January 1980, however, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He also placed an embargo on the shipment of American grain to the Soviet Union and pressed for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics due to be held in Moscow.
Beginning with his inaugural walk with Rosalynn down Pennsylvania Avenue, Carter tried to reinforce his image as a man of the people. In his inaugural address Carter also reflected this approach, saying:
You have given me a great responsibility—to stay close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.
He adopted an informal style of dress and speech in public appearances, held frequent press conferences, and reduced the pomp of the presidency. Early on in his administration, Carter introduced a dizzying array of ambitious programs for social, administrative, and economic reform. Most of those programs, however, met with opposition in Congress despite the Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. On one hand, Congress, in the post-Watergate environment, was more willing to challenge the executive branch; on the other, Carter the populist was quick to criticize Congress and to take his agenda to the American people. In either case, Carter’s difficulties with Congress undermined the success of his administration, and by 1978 his initial popularity had dissipated in the face of his inability to convert his ideas into legislative realities.
Two scandals also damaged Carter’s credibility. In summer 1977 Bert Lance, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and one of Carter’s closest friends, was accused of financial improprieties as a Georgia banker. When Carter stood by Lance (whom he eventually asked to resign and who later was acquitted of all charges), many questioned the president’s vaunted scruples. Carter’s image suffered again—though less—in summer 1980 when his younger brother, Billy (widely perceived as a buffoon), was accused of acting as an influence peddler for the Libyan government of Muammar al-Qaddafi. Senate investigators concluded that, while Billy had acted improperly, he had no real influence on the president.
Read President Carter’s Britannica essay on the Camp David Accords.
In foreign affairs, Carter received accolades for championing international human rights, though his critics charged that his vision of the world was naive. Carter’s idealism notwithstanding, his major achievements were on the more pragmatic level of patient diplomacy. In 1977 he obtained two treaties between the United States and Panama that gave the latter control over the Panama Canal at the end of 1999 and guaranteed the neutrality of that waterway thereafter. In 1978 Carter brought together Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, and secured their agreement to the Camp David Accords, which ended the state of war that had existed between the two countries since Israel’s founding in 1948. The difficult negotiations—which lasted 13 days and were salvaged only by Carter’s tenacious intervention—provided for the establishment of full diplomatic and economic relations on condition that Israel return the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. On January 1, 1979, Carter established full diplomatic relations between the United States and China and simultaneously broke official ties with Taiwan. Also in 1979, in Vienna, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a new bilateral strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) intended to establish parity in strategic nuclear weapons delivery systems between the two superpowers on terms that could be adequately verified. Carter removed the treaty from consideration by the Senate in January 1980, however, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He also placed an embargo on the shipment of American grain to the Soviet Union and pressed for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics due to be held in Moscow.
Overview. Democrat Jimmy Carter served as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Carter was unable to solve most of the problems plaguing the country during his administration, including an ailing economy and a continuing energy crisis.
- What has Carter done to deserve a Nobel prize?He won it for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to p...
- What does the phrase, " making him the first elected president to be unseated by the American people...He was the first president since Herbert Hoover in 1932, who had been elected (i.e. hadn't become president by being vice president and the preside...
- I think that it contribute to the poor people and the farmers.The Carter presidency was a hopeful time. After the scandal of the corrupt Nixon administration, and a brief breather with Gerald Ford as president...
- Carter a conservative? He was a liberal. "Carter has been compared to Herbert Hoover, another presid...No, he was a Conservative. Not a very good one though.
U.S. Presidents. Jimmy Carter: Life in Brief. By Robert A. Strong. Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is remembered for the events that overwhelmed it—inflation, energy crisis, war in Afghanistan, and hostages in Iran.
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Feb 22, 2023 · From pioneering the use of solar energy to helping to eradicating disease, here are just a few ways the 39th U.S. president has made the world a better place. By Erin Blakemore. February 22, 2023...
Oct 25, 2023 · President Jimmy Carter, whose office announced in February, 2023 that he had entered hospice care after several recent hospital stays, is much more highly regarded today than when he lost his bid for reelection in 1980.
