Jimmy+Carter


 * Jimmy Carter: A Misunderstood Man**
 * __Article__**


 * Overview**

James Earl Carter Jr., or Jimmy Carter, as he was more commonly known, was the 39th president of the United States and a strong supporter of human rights. Carter was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, making him the first and only president of the United States to have left office prior to receiving this award. As president, Carter focused his attention on issues involving foreign policy, education and the environment, and his presidency was characterized by his accomplishments in the early portion of the term slowly degrading into what some felt were failures in presidential duties.

Carter’s strong support of human rights came into play after he left office in the founding of the Carter Center and his strong affiliations with Habitat for Humanity. The Carter Center is a nonprofit, nongovernment and nonpartisan organization founded by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter. Carter is still out in the community today involved regularly in church and community activities.

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 * Table of Contents**
 * **﻿**Early life
 * Carter’s Presidency
 * Election
 * Foreign Policy
 * Domestic Affairs
 * Legacy
 * The Carter Center
 * Habitat for Humanity
 * The Nobel Peace Prize

Jimmy Carter was born on October 1st, 1924, in Plains, which was a small agricultural town in Georgia. Carter childhood took place in a town nearby known as Archery with his parents. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., worked as a business man and farmer, while his mother, Lillian Gordon Carter, was a registered nurse. The Carter family ran a peanut farm and was devoted to the local Baptist church.
 * Early Life**

After attending Plains public schools through high school, he went on to college, where, in 1946, he earned a bachelor’s degree in science, specifically involving nuclear reactors, from theU.S. Naval Academy. Later in 1946, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. After hearing of his father’s death in 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and his graduate studies in nuclear reactors and physics and returned to Plains to takeover his now-unmanaged family farm with his wife.

In 1962, after strong involvement in thesocial and community institutions around him, Carter got into politics by becoming a Georgia state senator. Carter was unsuccessful in 1966 with his first gubernatorial campaign, but won hisnext in 1970, when he was elected the 76th governor of Georgia.

__Election__
 * Carter’s Presidency**

In the beginning of his presidential campaigns, the name “Jimmy Carter” was only recognized by a mere 2% of primary voters. Beginning with his campaigning in 1974, Carter’s fame rose until, in 1976, he won the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. His religious position as a devout Christian was helpful in winning over many American citizens. He won the presidential election over Gerald Ford on November 2nd, 1976.

__Foreign Policy__

Serving as president of the United States from January 20th, 1977 to January 20th, 1981,Carter made several advances and actions involving foreign affairs. His policies focused around his care for humanity rather than communism. Some of Carter’s recognized achievements in foreign policy include the Camp David Accords, which was the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt; the Panama Canal treaties, which involved American control over the canal; the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, which was based on a halt of arms production; and the Iran Hostage Crisis, when the Iranian government forces invaded the U.S.Embassy in Iran and took over 50 hostages. In addition to these advances, Carter also made diplomatic relations possible with the People’s Republic of China. Despite his many advances, Carter’s popularity decrease was due to the overall failure of the SALT II agreement, controversy over the Panama Canaltreaties and the Iran Hostage Crisis by the end of his presidency. The latter especially, given Carter’s inability to show the public any sort of progress in solving the crisis,contributed to his lack of strength in the 1980 presidential election.

__Domestic Affairs__

The human approach Carter took to his presidency was evident in his foreign policy, as well as his domestic actions. In entering the presidency,Carter was left with an economic recession, lower government approval and support due to Vietnam and Watergate, growing threats in foreign affairs and an energy crisis on his plate. Due to his lack of support from congress, Carter lacked the opportunity to make advances in bettering the country, especially with legislation involving the economic recession. Despite this, he helped put a new energy plan in action and established the Department of Energy, put environmental awareness advances into planning and began to increase military strength, among other domestic policy accomplishments.


 * Legacy**

__The Carter Center__

The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. This nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is actively coordinated by President Carter to address both domestic and international issues involving human rights. Endorsing democracy, resolving conflicts, preventing disease and protect the rights of humans are all efforts that The Carter Center puts forth. __Habitat for Humanity__ Habitat for Humanity is a nongovernment, nonprofit organization that makes international efforts to build “simple, decent, and affordable” housing units for those in need. The Carters’ affiliations with Habitat for Humanity have lasted more than 25 years, especially due to the development of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

__Nobel Peace Prize__ Jimmy Carter was chosen as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Carter received this 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.” Carter concluded his acceptance speech with, “ We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make changes - and we must.”
 * __Analysis__**

The fact that Jimmy Carter was president of the United States is influence enough to show his impact on American history, even more so due to his “outsider” status as president. Carter had never served in Washington D.C. prior to his presidential term, but his passion for human rights helped drive him into the election in 1976. Carter’s presidency cannot be characterized into either a success or a failure because of the numerous occasions of both successful and unsuccessful actions, during his presidency, involving domestic affairs, foreign affairs and Carter’s public relations.

Carter entered the oval office with ambitions of bettering a damaged country. This meant restoring the American peoples’ trust in government, which had been lost through over a decade of what many call an “Imperial Presidency,” a result of Nixon’s policies earlier in the decade, as well as getting the economy back on track and solving crucial energy issues. This was a massive undertaking for an outsider like Carter. One of Carters biggest issues entering his term was finding a way to communicate his intentions to Congress. Carter’s lack of experience in Washington made making progress in legislation difficult. Despite this difficulty, Carter was able to get some bills passed, such as the deregulation of utility vehicles, which helped lower fuel emissions, and the better control over toxic wastes. Carter’s most successful domestic measures involved energy issues. At the time of Carter’s election, America had become overwhelmingly dependent on foreign oil and consumed more energy than any other nation on the planet; he sought to change that. Carter’s first successful step was convincing Congress to pass the Emergency Natural Gas Act, and furthere stablishing the Department of Energy to preside over national energy issues. However, the president’s success and recognition for these achievements was overshadowed by the fact that the public had little way to see the significance; all people saw were the rising gas prices as a byproduct of this progress.

Carter’s passion for human rights was clearly evident in his actions involving foreign affairs; instead of looking to the military for tactics, Carter turned in the direction of diplomacy and negotiation. There were many successful and neutral actions taken by the administration to promote peace-making and human rights, such as the recognition of the Republic of China as a partner in commerce and, most importantly, Carter’s successful negotiations with Egyptian and Israeli leaders in the Camp David Accords. The Camp David Accords are considered by some to be the most successful foreign policy measure of Carter’s presidency. After much negotiation between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the fall of1978, the Camp David Accords were signed by all three leaders as a peace agreement between the nations and the Israeli and Egyptian governments being recognized by the other. This was aprime example of the type of policies Carter was passionate about initiating. On the other hand, there were also multiple examples of failed foreign policy measures by Carter, including the SALT II treaty between Soviet Russia and the U.S. and the Iran Hostage Crisis. The Iran Hostage Crisis is considered by some to be the downfall of Carter’s presidency and what destroyed his chances of reelection. After the exiled Iranian Shah had received help from the U.S.,several Islamic student militants conducted an invasion of the U.S. Embassy in Iran in November of 1979. Over 50 American representatives were held hostage for 444 days, until they were freed on the day of Reagan’s presidential inauguration, January 20th, 1981. President Carter approved a secret mission to free the hostages, but it resulted in the loss of soldiers’ lives and the dispersion of the hostages. After over 400 days of daily news coverage and ridicule against Carter, along with multiple negotiation attempts, the hostages were freed. Even though Carter was a significant part of the negotiations for their freedom, recognition was never awarded to him. In addition to his policies and actions as president of the United States, Jimmy Carter also showed both success and failure in his relations with the American public. When Carter was campaigning for election, he appealed to the American public not with ambitions for military growth and a continuation of any sort of “Imperial Presidency,” but with his down-to-earth lifestyle and strong religious beliefs. Growing up on a farm and developing a passion for the environment and people, Carter appealed to voters. However, during his presidency, his public image continuously degraded. Some perceived him as arrogant and almost condescending as he spoke, and his approval ratings had plummeted by the end of his term. In addition to all this, there were also scandals in the Carter family that threatened his humility. One of these scandals involved his brother, Billy Carter, receiving almost $250,000 from Libya, which supported terrorist groups within the nation, for an unknown reason. Frankly, many feel Jimmy Carter just had bad luck with the media.

Jimmy Carter’s presidency may not have been the key to putting America back together after a decade of this “Imperial Presidency” created by Nixon, but it was not afailure. Today Carter has built up afairly prestigious image of himself among the American public through his continued passion for human rights and diplomacy. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, work with Habitat for Humanity annually and have established a non-profit, non-government organization known as The Carter Center. To say the least, Jimmy Carter has proved himself to be a successful and passionate man, especially after leaving office. He may not have been the most loved or most successful president, but he was no failure because of both his successful and unsuccessful actions in domestic affairs, foreign affairs and his public relations as president. Jimmy Carter is a misunderstood president, a committed and passionate humanitarian, and he will be remembered.

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