Jimmy Carter

B

Election of 1976

Carter apparently decided as early as 1972, halfway through his four-year term as governor, that he would seek the presidency of the United States. Soon after the 1972 election, his campaign manager drew up a detailed campaign strategy. Carter followed the plan closely, beginning an exhausting schedule of campaigning as soon as his gubernatorial term ended.

When Carter formally announced in January 1975 that he was a candidate for president, he had almost no national reputation. There were nine other Democratic candidates in the nomination race, some of whom had been prominent in national politics for decades. But from the first Democratic caucuses in Iowa and the first primary in New Hampshire in 1976, Jimmy Carter's ability to win votes was evident. Carter did not win by talking about issues; in fact, he became notorious for being vague.

In his campaign, Carter promised to restore morality and honesty to the federal government. Voters were troubled by the country's experience in the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and the Watergate scandal. The Vietnam War had ended in 1975 when the government of South Vietnam, which the United States had supported in the war, surrendered to the North Vietnamese. Many Americans felt discouraged by the loss of a war that had caused significant dissent at home and U.S. casualties in Vietnam. The confidence of the people in their government was further eroded by the Watergate scandal, which had implicated high officials in the administration of President Richard Nixon and led to his resignation from the presidency in 1974. Carter, who was not part of the political scene in Washington, D.C., had an advantage. However, his frequent references to his evangelical Southern Baptist faith became a controversial aspect of his campaign. While it made his emphasis on moral values more credible to some, others found his pious tone overbearing.

Oddly enough, those most inclined to trust Carter were blacks, who gave him more than 90 percent of their votes. Other Democrats were suspicious of Carter as a Southerner and a man who seemed to be running against his own party. Those who believed that the war in Vietnam had been wrong were particularly critical of his long-standing support of that war and feared that his naval background would lead him to favor high military spending. Labor leaders were not eager to support him because he was a businessman from an antiunion state. He gained some support, however, by endorsing national health insurance and a bill to guarantee a job for all Americans who wanted one.

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Carter achieved important wins in several state caucuses, won 17 of the 30 primaries he entered, and easily secured the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention. His choice of the liberal senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota as his vice-presidential candidate helped him to win the active support of labor unions.

Public opinion polls immediately after his nomination gave Carter a huge lead, but his advantage dwindled steadily after President Gerald R. Ford was nominated as the Republican candidate. Because Carter's campaign was based primarily on personality, the Republicans could point to the difference between the two sides of himself that Carter displayed, the canny politician and the born-again Christian who promised never to tell a lie. In three televised debates between the two candidates, Ford also challenged Carter's credibility on issues. He attacked Carter as a liberal whose spending on social programs would produce higher rates of inflation and require tax increases for most Americans.

Carter achieved a narrow victory, however, by sweeping most of the South and narrowly winning a few major Northern industrial states. He won 297 electoral votes to Ford's 241, and 40.8 million popular votes to Ford's 39.1 million.

IV

President of the United States

A

Foreign Affairs

A

1

Panama Canal Treaties

Though Carter had promised during the campaign to reduce the defense budget and arms sales overseas, both continued to climb sharply. Nevertheless, his administration was generally conciliatory in foreign affairs. In 1977 the United States and Panama agreed on two new treaties to replace their 1903 agreement about control of the Panama Canal. These treaties recognized Panamanian sovereignty over the Canal Zone, and control of the canal itself, beginning in 2000; however, they left the United States the right to defend the canal's neutrality. The treaties took effect in 1979.

A

2

Camp David Accords

Carter did prove to be an able negotiator. In September 1978, he met at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, with Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. They agreed on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt. This framework, called the Camp David Accords, led to a peace treaty between the two countries that was signed in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 1979.

In 1979 Carter formally recognized the government of Communist China and severed diplomatic ties with the Chinese Nationalist regime on Taiwan. He also signed in June 1979 the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This agreement set precise limits on the numbers and types of strategic arms that each nation would maintain.

A

3

Iran

The Islamic revolution in Iran created the first major foreign-policy problem for Carter. In January 1979 the followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a conservative Muslim clergyman, forced Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had ruled Iran for 37 years, to flee abroad. In November 1979, militant Iranians, who supported the ayatollah and opposed Western influences, especially the United States, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehrān (Teheran), the capital of Iran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Thirteen were soon released, but for the release of the other 53, Iran demanded a U.S. apology for acts committed in support of the shah, his return to face trial (unimportant after his death in July 1980), and return of the billions of dollars that he was said to have hoarded abroad. Negotiations did not secure their release, nor did a U.S. commando raid the following April. See also Iran: History.

A

4

Afghanistan

In 1979 the USSR invaded Afghanistan to support a Soviet-backed government that was fighting Muslim insurgents. In response to the invasion, Carter halted arms-control talks with the USSR and asked the Senate not to ratify the second Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty. He also stopped U.S. participation in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, but neither of these actions caused the USSR to remove its troops from Afghanistan. See also Afghanistan: History.

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