America needs more Jimmy Carters
Jimmy Carter: A Wonderful Ambassador to the United States During the 1976 Iran Seismoarthing and Vietnam War, and His Legacy as a Legacy
There’s no predicting history’s verdict. Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100 on Sunday in Plains, Ga., has been depicted as a middle-of-the-pack president thanks to his one term in office remembered for the Iranian seizure of 52 Americans. He is considered to be one of America’s greatest ex-presidents because of his use of the office to help his successors and the country as a peacemaker, backstage diplomat, human rights champion, monitor of free elections and advocate for the homeless while finding time to write poetry.
In 2002, having been nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Carter finally won it for his “vital contribution” to the Camp David agreement, which set the stage for peace between Israel and Egypt, as well as for his commitment to human rights, his work fighting tropical diseases and for furthering democracy everywhere.
Mr. Carter’s party was the only one who lent him anything to the presidency. Assembling a formidable coalition of small-town and rural voters, white blue-collar voters and African Americans, he surprised everyone in America — except perhaps himself and his wife, Rosalynn — when he beat Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
In retrospect, he could not have run at a more auspicious moment. The United States had gone through a lot in the previous decade. One president, Lyndon Johnson, chose not to seek another term because of rising public anger at an unwinnable war in Vietnam. Another, Richard Nixon, resigned to avoid impeachment. The death of another Kennedy, Bobby, and that of the nation’s premier civil rights leader,Martin Luther King Jr., were the result of assassinations. The war ended in humiliating failure.
The “Maskaise” Speech: Jimmy Carter Jr. Revisited in the ‘1989-00 SALT Conference Room
Plains, Ga., was the location of James “Jimmy” Earl Carter Jr.’s birth, and he spent his childhood on a farm there. His mother was a nurse, while his father was a peanut farmer. He was the first president of the United States to be born in a hospital.
“Other than Jimmy Carter, no person from the Deep South since the American Civil War had been elected president,” said Steven Hochman, a longtime assistant to the former president who works for the Carter Center.
Growing up on the farm, Carter learned the value of hard work and determination. He qualified for the U.S. Naval Academy and became an engineer, working on submarines. After his father died, Carter resigned from the Navy.
But a grassroots effort changed that, Hochman said. He would campaign on the street corners and at radio stations. He was running for president, so nobody knew who he was.
The peanut brigade, friends and family of Carter from Georgia, traveled to New Hampshire, Iowa and other places to talk to people about Carter, the dependable Southerner who wanted to be president.
During the campaign, Carter told audiences, “I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I will never disregard or disrespect the trust that those who have confidence in me have in me.
Dan Carter, a historian, said that it was primarily an attempt to draw a distinction between what he viewed as the people’s presidency and the more imperial presidency of Richard Nixon.
The accords led to a peace treaty, but the relationship between the two Mideast countries remained tenuous. The Panama Canal treaties were signed by Carter while he was in office and he worked on the SALT II nuclear weapons agreement.
A federal energy policy was created by Carter. He created two new departments, Energy and Education. Still, he lost his bid for reelection by a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan. When Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981, 52 hostages were released. Carter was allowed to welcome them home.
Domestic problems included an energy crisis and inflation. Carter held a series of meetings among his Cabinet members that resulted in a blunt television address in 1979 that came to be known as the “malaise” speech.
The real problems of our nation are deeper than just gas lines, energy shortages, or inflation. Carter made a plea for assistance as he admitted that he desperately need your help.
Source: Jimmy Carter, former U.S. president and peace activist, dies at 100
Jimmy Carter: A United States President for Peace, Peace and Freedom, During the Great War, and in the Post-Holocaust Era
Carter spoke for the first time after he received official word that the aircraft carrying 52 Americans hostages had cleared Iranian airspace and that all of them were well and free.
After leaving office, Carter devoted himself to promoting democracy, monitoring elections, and building Habitat for Humanity homes in some of the poorest countries in the world. In 1982, the president and his wife opened the Carter Center in Atlanta.
In an interview with NPR in 2007, Carter talked about his experiences. “And for the last 25 years, my life could not have been more expansive and unpredictable and adventurous and gratifying,” he said.
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil, but no matter how necessary, it is always evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children,” Carter said.
The former President met with leaders from countries like North Korea, which the US refused to acknowledge. In 2008, he met with the exiled leader of the militant Islamist group Hamas, despite harsh criticism from the U.S. government.
Historian Dan Carter said that the former president did prove to be a kind of honest broker for peace in many cases and that as Jimmy Carter grew older, he was less afraid of speaking out.
Carter entered hospice care in February 2023. The longest-lived former president had suffered from a series of health challenges in recent years, including surviving cancer, a broken hip and other recent hospitalizations for a fractured pelvis and a urinary tract infection.
Following the demise of former US President Jimmy Carter, US President Donald Trump said, “I have lost a brilliant leader and an even brillianter gentleman.” Trump added on Twitter, “Condolences to his family, to the country, and to all of us who were fortunate to have known him.” Carter had served as the president from 1977 to 1981.