Jimmy Carter Add a review

James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate and from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia. He was the longest-lived president in U.S. history and the first to live to the age of 100.

Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the U.S. Navy's submarine service. He married Rosalynn Smith and they worked closely together throughout their lives. Carter returned home after his military service and revived his family's peanut-growing business. Opposing racial segregation, Carter supported the growing civil rights movement and became an activist within the Democratic Party. After serving in the Georgia State Senate and then as governor of Georgia, Carter ran for president in the 1976 presidential election. Initially a dark horse candidate not well known outside Georgia, he secured the Democratic nomination during the party's primaries and selected Senator Walter Mondale to be his running mate. In the general election, Carter and Mondale narrowly defeated the Republican nominees (incumbent president Gerald Ford and Senator Bob Dole).

On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. Carter successfully pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He also confronted stagflation. His administration established the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Education. The end of his presidency was marked by the Iran hostage crisis and an energy crisis due to the Iranian Revolution, the Three Mile Island accident, the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, the Nicaraguan Revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to the invasion, Carter escalated the Cold War by ending détente, imposing a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciating the Carter Doctrine, and leading the multinational boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Carter and Mondale sought re-election in the 1980 presidential election, and were re-nominated by the Democratic Party after Carter defeated Senator Ted Kennedy in the party's primaries. However, they lost general election in a landslide defeat by the Republican ticket of former California governor Ronald Reagan and his running mate George H. W. Bush.

After the conclusion of his presidency, Carter established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights, and received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in relation to it. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and further the eradication of infectious diseases. Carter was a key figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. He also wrote numerous books, ranging from political memoirs to poetry, while continuing to comment on global affairs; two of his books are about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter in the third quartile of U.S. presidents. Scholars and the public more favorably view his post-presidency, which was the longest in U.S. history.