Jimmy first served us as a cadet in the U.S. Naval Academy and subsequently as an officer in the various naval assignments, including on a nuclear submarine. He was extensively educated in nuclear physics.
First, as a Governor of Georgia he instituted many reforms in state government, and as a so called southern moderate, he began the process of awakening Georgia to necessary racial reforms for its black citizens to give them full citizenship, long denied.
As a Presidential candidate, Jimmy ran a brilliant campaign based on restoring honesty and integrity to our Presidency, post Richard Nixon. His campaign communications, considered one of the best ever undertaken was directed by University of Texas Communications graduate Gerald Rafshoon who managed his own Atlanta based ad agency. It struck a tone of a populist restoration of our democracy by a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia.
His Presidency was marked by speeches acknowledging America's loss of confidence in its federal government resulting from Nixon's criminality and the damage to America by the Vietnam war. His speeches were critically appraised by Republicans as not sufficiently uplifting with the myth of America's greatness. He chose rhetorical honesty over mythical nonsense.
He acknowledged forthrightly early in his Presidency the need to relieve his OMB director of his duties resulting from revelations of alleged financial improprieties while a Georgia banker. Bert Lance was later acquitted of these charges. And he tamped down the behavior of his erratic brother and distanced himself from his actions undermining Jimmy's credibility. Sound familiar?
But these reputational setbacks did not dissuade him from pursuing the acclaimed and successful Israel-Egypt peace treaty and for his administration to negotiate a guarantee of the neutrality of the Panama Canal with Panama. He also negotiated full diplomatic relations with China. One of his signature accomplishments was a new bilateral strategic arms treaty with the Soviet Union limiting nuclear weapons delivery systems. This agreement was later withdrawn from Senate consideration when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and boycotted our participation in the Moscow summer olympics.
He kept us out of war with Iran, advocated by many hawks in Congress during the Iran hostage crisis. Many hawks saw this as a U.S.and Carter leadership weakness, while rational people advocated continued negotiations for their release which was undermined through back channel communications with the hostage takers by candidate Ronald Reagan to damage Carter's re-election prospects. Reagan went on to commit the Iran-Contra scandal.
His early environmental policy, including addressing our dependence on foreign oil and advocacy for alternative, cleaner energy sources was largely responsible for huge oil price increases causing massive inflation, which further damaged his domestic policy agenda. He basically went to war with our oil industry and they retaliated with lying about the impact of carbon on the environment and manipulating their pricing to damage Carter. Carter lost that war and his Presidency.
Undeterred by domestic opposition to undermine his Presidency, he created the Superfund to clean up toxic waste dumps.
His post presidency Carter Center initiated legendary foreign election oversight, intervened in Nicaragua promoting the return of Miskito Indians to their homeland and worked on solving conflicts in Ethiopia, Haiti and Bosnia. The Carter Center negotiated to end nuclear weapons in North Korea.
Jimmy Carter's work for Habitat For Humanity is legendary and his break with the Southern Baptist Convention, as a born again Christian for their opposition of equality of women is less legendary but enormously significant.
Jimmy, you are an honorable, brilliant and thoroughly decent person and Americans thank you for your amazing service to humankind and our Nation.
