Jimmy Carter

Born James Earl Carter Jr. on October 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, Carter grew up in the nearby community of Archery and was the first American president to be born in a hospital. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a farmer and businessman, and his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a registered nurse; the family owned a peanut farm, warehouse and store and was wealthy by rural Georgia standards, yet the house he was brought home to lacked electricity and indoor plumbing.⁠[1][1][2][2][2]

As a boy he worked on the family farm and sold produce in town, and by age thirteen had used his savings to buy five houses around Plains that the Great Depression had put on the market at low prices, which he rented out. Postcards from an uncle serving in the Navy inspired him to join the Navy, and before entering high school he had written to the US Naval Academy for a catalogue. In 1941 he graduated as valedictorian of his local high school.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

To improve his chances of admission to the Naval Academy, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College (1941–1942) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (1942–1943); he was admitted to the Naval Academy in 1943 and graduated in the top ten percent of his class in August 1946 with a B.S. degree.⁠[3][2][2][1]

On July 7, 1946, Carter married Rosalynn Smith, also of Plains and three years his junior; they had three sons and a daughter.⁠[1][2][1]

In the Navy Carter served in the submarine service in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Chosen by Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, for the nuclear submarine program, he was assigned to Schenectady, New York, where he took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics and served as senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine. He later said that, second to his own father, Rickover had more effect on his life than any other man.⁠[1][1][1][2]

In 1952, when a nuclear reactor accident occurred at a Canadian research facility, Carter led a team of Americans who assisted, taking turns entering the contaminated facility to shut down and secure the reactor. While his submarine was moored in the Bahamas, British officials invited only white crew members to a party; partly at Carter’s urging, the entire crew refused to attend.⁠[2][2][2]

After his father died in 1953, Carter resigned his naval commission and returned with his family to Georgia to take over the family farms, operating Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and farm supply company, with his wife. A severe drought in 1954 left the farm with net profits of just $187 for the year; with hard work and good management, it was prosperous by 1959.⁠[1][1][2][2]

In 1955 Carter ran for office for the first time and won a seat on the Sumter County Board of Education, eventually becoming its chairman; he also served on local boards for hospitals and libraries and was a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Plains Baptist Church.⁠[2][2][2]

After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, the White Citizens Council, formed to maintain segregation, spread across the South, including in Plains. In 1958 Carter came under heavy pressure to join and was the only white man in Plains to refuse; council members boycotted his business, but the boycott eventually fizzled out.⁠[2][2][2]

When federally ordered reapportionment opened a new seat in the Georgia State Senate in 1962, Carter entered the race; initially defeated in the Democratic primary, he proved that his opponent’s victory rested on widespread vote fraud in Quitman County, and after a judge threw out the fraudulent votes he won the election. During two terms in the state senate he promised to read every bill before voting, attacked wasteful government practices and supported repealing laws designed to discourage African Americans from voting.⁠[2][2][2][2]

Carter had planned to run for Congress but instead ran for governor of Georgia, finishing third in the Democratic primary and incurring substantial campaign debt. After the defeat he reexamined his life and faith and did missionary work in Georgia, Mexico City, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; thereafter he was described as a born-again Christian.⁠[2][2][2][2]

In the 1970 governor’s race Carter ran as a moderate, calling for an end to busing to desegregate public schools, criticized state officials for withdrawing an invitation to George Wallace to speak, and sought the endorsement of several avowed segregationists. The state’s leading newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution, refused to endorse him and described him as an “ignorant, racist, backward, ultra-conservative, red-necked South Georgia peanut farmer.” With the support of rural voters, born-again Christians and some segregationists, he defeated former governor Carl Sanders in a runoff.⁠[2][2][2][2]

Carter became Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971; his inaugural address surprised many Georgians by calling for an end to segregation and drew national attention. As governor he increased the number of African American state employees by 25 percent, consolidated some 300 state agencies into two dozen “superagencies,” and promoted environmental protection and greater school funding; but he worked poorly with traditional Democratic politicians, and some legislators considered him arrogant.⁠[1][2][2][2][2]

Carter became chair of the Democratic Governors’ Campaign Committee in 1972 and in 1974 served as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee for that year’s congressional and gubernatorial elections, gaining access to Democrats nationwide. On December 12, 1974, he announced his candidacy for president while still largely unknown nationally; the leading newspaper in his home state headlined the news “Jimmy Who Is Running For What!?”⁠[4][1][1][4]

After Vietnam and Watergate, voters were drawn to leaders outside Washington, and Carter ran under the slogan “A Leader, For A Change,” presenting himself as an outsider who could “clean up the mess in Washington.” He entered every primary and caucus, won a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses followed by the New Hampshire primary, beat George Wallace and Scoop Jackson in Florida, won more than half the primaries, secured the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention, and chose Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale as his running mate.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4]

Carter had a double-digit lead going into the fall, but in an interview with PlayboyPlayboy, Inc.Playboy, Inc. is a publicly traded American consumer brand and licensing company that owns brands including Playboy magazine and the Rabbit Head Design, and operates the lingerie brand Honey Birdette.Open the full entry magazine, asked whether his Christian values would make him seem sanctimonious in Washington, he replied that everyone sins and needs God’s forgiveness and, as an example, admitted to sometimes feeling “lust in his heart” at the sight of beautiful women. Many voters found this disconcerting, and his lead slipped.⁠[4][4][4][4]

On November 2, 1976, Carter narrowly defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford. He won the entire Old South except Virginia along with northern industrial states such as New York and Pennsylvania, and Democrats held large majorities in both houses of Congress.⁠[1][5][4][4]

Carter was sworn in as the 39th president of the United States on January 20, 1977. On inauguration day he and his wife left their car and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House; he wanted to govern with austerity and avoid an “imperial presidency.” Early on he pardoned Vietnam-era draft resisters and killed funding for the B-1 bomber; he appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser and Cyrus Vance as secretary of state, who clashed throughout his presidency over foreign policy.⁠[3][1][6][6][7][7][7]

Carter made human rights part of US foreign policy, criticizing the Soviet Union and Eastern European states as well as allies such as South Korea for repressing dissent, and protesting the human rights practices of Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Uganda through measures such as suspending military or economic aid. Political scientist Robert A. Strong considers the record mixed: the administration toned down its criticism of the Soviet Union after Moscow threatened to end arms control talks, and Carter refused to halt military sales to Iran, whose government violently repressed its opponents; conservative Republicans attacked him for undercutting allies by criticizing them, attacks that hurt him in the 1980 election.⁠[7][7][7][7][7][7][7]

Carter had campaigned as a man of honesty, but about a year into his administration his budget director, Bert Lance, had to be fired over questionable banking practices in Georgia; Lance was later exonerated. Other officials also faced allegations: his treasury secretary was accused of having allowed a company he chaired to make illegal payoffs, and his chief of staff was accused of using cocaine, charges later shown to be false; nevertheless the episodes damaged Carter’s reputation for honesty.⁠[6][6][6][6]

During the campaign Carter had said he would not surrender practical control of the Canal Zone, but after the election Sol Linowitz and Cyrus Vance persuaded him of the importance of a new treaty, and he made concluding negotiations with Panama a priority. On September 7, 1977, he and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed two treaties: the Neutrality Treaty allowed the United States to use its military to defend the canal’s neutrality, and the Panama Canal Treaty provided that the Canal Zone would cease to exist on October 1, 1979, and that the canal would be handed over to Panama on December 31, 1999.⁠[8][8][8][8]

The treaties were unpopular with the American public—some polls showed about three-quarters opposed transferring the canal—and conservatives such as Senator Strom Thurmond strongly opposed them. The Senate ratified the two treaties on March 16 and April 18, 1978, each by a vote of 68 to 32, one vote more than the two-thirds needed; Republicans thereafter attacked Carter as “weak” for “giving away” the canal, a theme that hurt him in the 1978 midterms and the 1980 presidential election.⁠[7][8][8][7][7]

From September 5 to 17, 1978, Carter hosted Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Camp David, shuttling between the two delegations for twelve days to reach the Camp David Accords: Israel would withdraw from the entire Sinai Peninsula, the United States would set up monitoring posts, the two countries would recognize each other and sign a peace treaty, and Israel pledged to negotiate with the Palestinians. The accords were initialed on September 17, and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty was formally signed in Washington on March 26, 1979.⁠[9][7][7][7]

This is regarded as the Carter administration’s most significant foreign policy achievement, and Begin and Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize for it; but Carter gained little politically and won fewer Jewish American votes in 1980 than in 1976. Sadat’s prime minister resigned at the end of the negotiations, believing Egypt had been outmaneuvered by the Americans and Israelis.⁠[7][7][7]

Energy policy was Carter’s main domestic achievement. He got Congress to pass the Emergency Natural Gas Act, created a Department of Energy to regulate energy suppliers and fund research into new sources such as wind and solar power, and signed his first energy package into law on November 9, 1978; the resulting deregulation of oil and natural gas prices greatly increased energy supplies in the 1980s. Foreign oil’s share of consumption fell from 48 percent when he took office to 40 percent in 1980. He also deregulated the airline, trucking and railroad industries and got Congress to create a “superfund” to clean up toxic waste sites.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In early 1979 the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was forced into exile and religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini returned to take power. That year, former Chase Manhattan chairman David RockefellerDavid RockefellerDavid Rockefeller (1915–2017) was an American banker and philanthropist and the youngest son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. He worked at Chase Manhattan Bank for 35 years, serving as chairman and chief executive officer from 1969 to 1981; he led institutions including The Rockefeller University and the Council on Foreign Relations for many years and co-founded the Trilateral Commission in 1973.Open the full entry and his longtime friend, former Secretary of State Henry KissingerHenry KissingerHenry Kissinger (1923–2023) was a German-born American diplomat and political scientist who served as US national security adviser from 1969 to 1975 and as the 56th secretary of state from 1973 to 1977, the first person to hold both posts at once. He led the opening to China, détente and arms control talks with the Soviet Union, the Vietnam ceasefire negotiations and shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, and shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Le Duc Tho; his role in Chile, Cambodia, South Asia and East Timor drew lasting criticism.Open the full entry, helped persuade Carter to admit the Shah, then in exile in Mexico, to the United States for medical treatment; Carter agreed, a move that enraged Muslim fundamentalists in Iran and helped precipitate the hostage crisis.⁠[7][7][10][10]

The Carter administration formally recognized the People’s Republic of China on January 1, 1979, severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and unilaterally terminating the 1955 Mutual Defense Treaty effective January 1, 1980. Conservative Republicans sued over the treaty termination; the federal district court ruled for the opponents, the appeals court upheld the president’s power to end the treaty without Senate consent, and the Supreme Court dismissed the case on the question of Senator Barry Goldwater’s standing without a ruling on the merits. Congress also passed the Taiwan Relations Act, maintaining unofficial relations through the American Institute in Taiwan.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

In the summer of 1979 the Iranian revolution led to long gas lines and higher prices in the United States. On July 15 Carter gave the “Crisis of Confidence” speech, later known as the “malaise” speech, describing Americans’ lack of confidence in the nation’s purpose and future. Critics said he blamed the crisis of the American spirit on the people themselves; he then fired four cabinet secretaries, transferred others and asked dozens of lower-level officials to resign, and commentators wondered whether he was losing his grip. His poll ratings fell sharply and never recovered.⁠[6][3][6][6][6]

In November 1979 Islamic student militants loyal to Khomeini overran the US embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, demanding that the Shah be returned to stand trial, that his assets abroad be returned, and that the United States apologize. Carter immediately froze billions of dollars of Iranian assets in the United States and opened secret negotiations, but nothing worked; nightly television news counted the days of “America Held Hostage,” and the public grew impatient with the president.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

Three days after the embassy was seized, Senator Edward Kennedy announced a challenge to Carter for the Democratic nomination.⁠[4]

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, the SALT II arms treaty, already signed and sent to the Senate, stalled; Carter withdrew the treaty, though both sides agreed to abide by its terms. He also cut off grain sales to the Soviet Union and ordered a US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics; many Americans saw the boycott as punishing American athletes more than Soviet leaders, reinforcing his image of weakness.⁠[7][7][7][7]

Carter approved a secret military mission to free the hostages, but three of the eight helicopters developed mechanical problems, and one crashed into a transport aircraft in a remote Iranian desert, killing eight servicemen; Iran then dispersed the hostages around the country, making rescue impossible. The failure reinforced the perception that he could not get things done, and his approval ratings fell.⁠[7][7][7]

Carter fended off Kennedy at the Democratic convention to win renomination but made policy concessions to secure Kennedy’s support. A televised debate with Republican nominee Ronald Reagan a few days before the election went badly for him; Reagan replied “There you go again” and asked voters, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Carter lost by nearly 10 percentage points in the popular vote and by 440 electoral votes, the first elected incumbent president to lose reelection since Herbert Hoover in 1932. His chief strategist, Hamilton Jordan, attributed the defeat to weak economic performance, the prolonged hostage crisis and the party divisions caused by Kennedy’s challenge.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Robert A. Strong holds that there is growing evidence that members of Reagan’s campaign team privately urged Iranian officials not to release the hostages before the election, to avoid an “October surprise” that might have helped Carter.⁠[7]

After losing the election, Carter concluded an executive agreement with Iran: the United States would unblock all Iranian funds, the two sides would settle financial claims through a tribunal at The Hague, and the United States pledged not to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs, in return for the release of the hostages. Carter left office at the end of his term on January 20, 1981.⁠[7][7][1]

In 1982 Carter became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta and, with Rosalynn Carter, founded The Carter Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights and prevent disease; the center has led the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease. The permanent facilities of the Carter Presidential Center were dedicated in October 1986 and include the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, administered by the National Archives.⁠[1][1][1][1]

For more than 30 years, until 2020, the Carters volunteered one week a year for Habitat for Humanity, building homes for families in need; he also taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.⁠[11][1][1]

Carter and The Carter Center engaged in conflict mediation in Ethiopia and Eritrea (1989), North Korea, Liberia, Haiti and Bosnia (all 1994), Sudan, the Great Lakes region of Africa, Venezuela, Nepal and elsewhere, and sent 114 election observation missions to the Americas, Africa and Asia. In 1994 he helped the US government resolve a nuclear weapons dispute with North Korea.⁠[1][1][12]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Carter the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The committee’s chairman said Carter ought to have received the prize as early as 1978, when he mediated peace between Egypt and Israel.⁠[1][13][13]

Carter published Palestine Peace Not Apartheid in 2006, and the word “apartheid” in the title drew controversy; the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix announced before his visit that it would demonstrate against the book. On December 15, 2006, Carter responded with an open letter to Jewish citizens of America: he met with six rabbis to discuss the book, said it described conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories rather than in Israel itself, defined “apartheid” as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land with one dominating and persecuting the other, and said its basis was not racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land; he denied ever claiming that American Jews control the news media and reiterated his condemnation of terrorist acts against civilians.⁠[1][14][14][14][14][14][14][14]

Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100, the longest-lived president in US history. Political scientist Robert A. Strong holds that he was more highly regarded at his death than when he lost reelection in 1980, and that his post-presidency was exemplary.⁠[1][5]

Carter wrote 32 books, including the autobiography Why Not the Best? (1975), the presidential memoir Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982), Turning Point (1992) about his 1962 state senate campaign, the childhood memoir An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood (2001), the novel The Hornet’s Nest (2003), White House Diary (2010) and A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety (2015).⁠[1][1][1][2][2][1][1][1]

The Carter Center: Official website: https://www.cartercenter.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum: Official website: https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]