Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

He was a member of the Democratic Party, the longest-lived president in U.S. history, and the first to live to 100 years of age.

Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the U.S. Navy's submarine service. Carter returned home after his military service and revived his family's peanut-growing business. Opposing racial segregation, he supported the growing civil rights movement as a Georgia politician. Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination as an outsider dark horse candidate, defeating incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.

Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office. 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. He was the only president to serve a full term without appointing a justice to the Supreme Court. The end of his presidency was marked by the Iran hostage crisis, an energy crisis, and the end of détente (with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan leading to a grain embargo, the Carter Doctrine, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott). Carter defeated Ted Kennedy in the 1980 Democratic primaries, but lost the general election to Republican Ronald Reagan.

Post-presidency, Carter established the Carter Center, the driving force behind the campaign to eradicate dracunculiasis, and was a major figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and further the eradication of neglected tropical diseases. His writings cover diverse topics, from political memoirs and global affairs to poetry. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank him as a below-average president, but scholars and the public more favorably view his post-presidency, the longest in U.S. history.

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

Early life

James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother worked as a registered nurse. Carter thus became the first American president born in a hospital. He was the eldest child of Bessie Lillian Gordy and James Earl Carter Sr., and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1635. In Georgia, numerous generations of Carters worked as cotton farmers. Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carter's birth. His father was a successful local businessman who ran a general store and was an investor in farmland. Carter's father had previously served as a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I.

During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times, settling on a dirt road in nearby Archery, which was almost entirely populated by impoverished African American families. His family eventually had three more children: Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. Carter got along well with his parents even though his mother was often absent during his childhood since she worked long hours, and although his father was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed Jimmy to befriend the black farmhands' children. Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew, packaged, and sold peanuts. Carter also rented out a section of tenant housing that he had purchased.

Education

Carter attended Plains High School from 1937 to 1941, graduating from the eleventh grade since the school did not have a twelfth grade. By that time, Archery and Plains had been impoverished by the Great Depression, but the family benefited from New Deal farming subsidies, and Carter's father took a position as a community leader. Carter himself was a diligent student with a fondness for reading. A popular anecdote holds that he was passed over for valedictorian after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a hot rod. Carter's truancy was mentioned in a local newspaper, although it is not clear he would have otherwise been valedictorian. As an adolescent, Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team, and also joined Future Farmers of America, which helped him develop a lifelong interest in woodworking.

Carter had long dreamed of attending the United States Naval Academy. In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus, Georgia. The next year, Carter transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where civil rights icon Blake Van Leer was president. While at Georgia Tech, Carter took part in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. In 1943, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from U.S. Representative Stephen Pace, and Carter graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946. He was a good student but was seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen. While at the Academy, Carter fell in love with Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister Ruth. The two wed shortly after his graduation in 1946, and were married until her death on November 19, 2023. Carter was a sprint football player for the Navy Midshipmen.

He graduated 60th out of 821 midshipmen in the class of 1947 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign.James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was a member of the Democratic Party, the longest-lived president in U.S. history, and the first to live to 100 years of age.

Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the U.S. Navy's submarine service. Carter returned home after his military service and revived his family's peanut-growing business. Opposing racial segregation, he supported the growing civil rights movement as a Georgia politician. Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination as an outsider dark horse candidate, defeating incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.

Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office. 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. He was the only president to serve a full term without appointing a justice to the Supreme Court. The end of his presidency was marked by the Iran hostage crisis, an energy crisis, and the end of détente (with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan leading to a grain embargo, the Carter Doctrine, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott). Carter defeated Ted Kennedy in the 1980 Democratic primaries, but lost the general election to Republican Ronald Reagan.

Post-presidency, Carter established the Carter Center, the driving force behind the campaign to eradicate dracunculiasis, and was a major figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and further the eradication of neglected tropical diseases. His writings cover diverse topics, from political memoirs and global affairs to poetry. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank him as a below-average president, but scholars and the public more favorably view his post-presidency, the longest in U.S. history. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

Early life

James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother worked as a registered nurse. Carter thus became the first American president born in a hospital. He was the eldest child of Bessie Lillian Gordy and James Earl Carter Sr., and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1635. In Georgia, numerous generations of Carters worked as cotton farmers. Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carter's birth. His father was a successful local businessman who ran a general store and was an investor in farmland. Carter's father had previously served as a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I.

During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times, settling on a dirt road in nearby Archery, which was almost entirely populated by impoverished African American families. His family eventually had three more children: Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. Carter got along well with his parents even though his mother was often absent during his childhood since she worked long hours, and although his father was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed Jimmy to befriend the black farmhands' children. Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew, packaged, and sold peanuts. Carter also rented out a section of tenant housing that he had purchased.

Education

Carter attended Plains High School from 1937 to 1941, graduating from the eleventh grade since the school did not have a twelfth grade. By that time, Archery and Plains had been impoverished by the Great Depression, but the family benefited from New Deal farming subsidies, and Carter's father took a position as a community leader. Carter himself was a diligent student with a fondness for reading. A popular anecdote holds that he was passed over for valedictorian after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a hot rod. Carter's truancy was mentioned in a local newspaper, although it is not clear he would have otherwise been valedictorian. As an adolescent, Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team, and also joined Future Farmers of America, which helped him develop a lifelong interest in woodworking.

Carter had long dreamed of attending the United States Naval Academy.

 In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus, Georgia. The next year, Carter transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where civil rights icon Blake Van Leer was president. While at Georgia Tech, Carter took part in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. In 1943, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from U.S. Representative Stephen Pace, and Carter graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946. He was a good student but was seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen. While at the Academy, Carter fell in love with Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister Ruth. The two wed shortly after his graduation in 1946, and were married until her death on November 19, 2023. Carter was a sprint football player for the Navy Midshipmen. He graduated 60th out of 821 midshipmen in the class of 1947 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign.

Presidency (1977–1981)

 

Carter was inaugurated as the 39th president on January 20, 1977. One of Carter's first acts was the fulfillment of a campaign promise by issuing an executive order declaring unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War-era draft evaders, Proclamation 4483. Carter's tenure in office was marked by an economic malaise, a time of continuing inflation and recession and a 1979 energy crisis. Under Carter, the U.S. experienced its first ever government shutdown in May 1980, though it affected only the Federal Trade Commission.

Carter attempted to calm various conflicts around the world, most visibly in the Middle East with the signing of the Camp David Accords; giving back the Panama Canal to Panama; and signing the SALT II nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. His final year was marred by the Iran hostage crisis, which contributed to his losing the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. Whistleblowers have alleged, most recently in 2023, that people working on the Reagan campaign's behalf convinced Iran to prolong the crisis to reduce Carter's chance of reelection.

Soviet Union

On February 8, 1977, Carter said he had urged the Soviet Union to align with the U.S. in forming "a comprehensive test ban to stop all nuclear testing for at least an extended period of time", and that he was in favor of the Soviet Union ceasing deployment of the RSD-10 Pioneer. During a June 13 press conference, he said that at the beginning of the week, the U.S. would "work closely with the Soviet Union on a comprehensive test ban treaty to prohibit all testing of nuclear devices underground or in the atmosphere", and Paul Warnke would negotiate demilitarization of the Indian Ocean with the Soviet Union beginning the following week.

At a December 30 news conference, Carter said that during "the last few months, the United States and the Soviet Union have made great progress in dealing with a long list of important issues, the most important of which is to control the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons", and that the two countries sought to conclude SALT II talks by the spring of the next year. The talk of a comprehensive test ban treaty materialized with the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II by Carter and Leonid Brezhnev on June 18, 1979.

In 1979, the Soviets intervened in the Second Yemenite War. The Soviet backing of South Yemen constituted a "smaller shock", in tandem with tensions that were rising due to the Iranian Revolution. This played a role in making Carter's stance on the Soviet Union more assertive, a shift that finalized with the impending Soviet-Afghan War.

In his 1980 State of the Union Address, Carter emphasized the significance of relations between the two regions: "Now, as during the last 3½ decades, the relationship between our country, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union is the most critical factor in determining whether the world will live at peace or be engulfed in global conflict."

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Communists under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power in Afghanistan on April 27, 1978. The new regime signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in December of that year. Due to the regime's improvement of secular education and redistribution of land coinciding with mass executions and political oppression, Taraki was deposed by rival Hafizullah Amin in September. Amin was considered a "brutal psychopath" by foreign observers and had lost control of much of the country, prompting the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan on December 24, 1979, execute Amin, and install Babrak Karmal as president.

In the West, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was considered a threat to global security and the oil supplies of the Persian Gulf, as well as the existence of Pakistan. These concerns led Carter to expand collaboration between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which had begun in July 1979, when the CIA started providing $695,000 worth of non-lethal assistance (e.g., "cash, medical equipment, and radio transmitters") to the Afghan mujahideen. The modest scope of this early collaboration was likely influenced by the understanding, later recounted by CIA official Robert Gates, "that a substantial U.S. covert aid program" might have "raise[d] the stakes", thereby causing "the Soviets to intervene more directly and vigorously than otherwise intended."

According to a 2020 review of declassified U.S. documents by Conor Tobin in the journal Diplomatic History: "The primary significance of this small-scale aid was in creating constructive links with dissidents through Pakistan's ISI that could be utilized in the case of an overt Soviet intervention ... The small-scale covert program that developed in response to the increasing Soviet influence was part of a contingency plan if the Soviets did intervene militarily, as Washington would be in a better position to make it difficult for them to consolidate their position, but not designed to induce an intervention."

On December 28, 1979, Carter signed a presidential finding explicitly allowing the CIA to transfer "lethal military equipment either directly or through third countries to the Afghan opponents of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan" and to arrange "selective training, conducted outside of Afghanistan, in the use of such equipment either directly or via third country intermediation." His finding defined the CIA's mission as "harassment" of Soviet troops; at the time, "this was not a war the CIA expected to win outright on the battlefield," in the words of Steve Coll.

Carter was determined to respond harshly to what he considered a dangerous provocation. In a televised speech on January 23, 1980, he announced sanctions on the Soviet Union, promised renewed aid and registration to Pakistan and the Selective Service System, and committed the U.S. to the Persian Gulf's defense. Carter imposed an embargo on grain shipments to the USSR, tabled SALT II, requested a 5% annual increase in defense spending, and called for a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which was ultimately joined by 65 other nations. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher enthusiastically backed Carter's tough stance. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski played a major role in organizing Carter's policies on the Soviet Union as a grand strategy.

In early 1980, Carter determined the thrust of U.S. policy for the duration of the war: he initiated a program to arm the mujahideen through Pakistan's ISI and secured a pledge from Saudi Arabia to match U.S. funding for this purpose. Despite huge expenditure, the Soviet Union was unable to quell the insurgency and withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 amid the economic, political, and social turmoil within the USSR, precipitating its collapse two years later. The routing of U.S. aid through Pakistan led to some controversy, as weapons sent to Karachi were frequently controlled by Pakistan, whose government influenced which rebels received assistance. Despite this, Carter has expressed no regret over his decision to support what he still considers the Afghan freedom fighters.

Personal life

Carter building homes despite having a black eye from a fall, 2019

Carter's hobbies included painting, fly fishing, woodworking, cycling, tennis, and skiing. He also had an interest in poetry, particularly the works of Dylan Thomas. During a state visit to the UK in 1977, Carter suggested that Thomas should have a memorial in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey; this later came to fruition in 1982.

Carter was a personal friend of Elvis Presley, whom he and Rosalynn met on June 30, 1973, before Presley was to perform onstage in Atlanta. They remained in contact by telephone two months before Presley's sudden death in August 1977. Carter later recalled an abrupt phone call received in June 1977 from Presley who sought a presidential pardon from Carter, to help George Klein's criminal case; at the time Klein had been indicted for only mail fraud, and was later found guilty of conspiracy. According to Carter, Presley was almost incoherent because of barbiturates; although he phoned the White House several times again, this was the last time they spoke. The day after Presley's death, Carter issued a statement and explained how he had "changed the face of American popular culture".

Carter filed a report with both the International UFO Bureau and the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena, stating that he sighted an unidentified flying object in October 1969.

Family

Carter had three younger siblings, all of whom died of pancreatic cancer: sisters Gloria Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Stapleton (1929–1983), and brother Billy Carter (1937–1988). 

He was first cousin to politician Hugh Carter and a distant cousin to the Carter family of musicians. He is related to Motown founder Berry Gordy by way of their white great-grandfather James Thomas Gordy, who had a relationship with a black female slave he owned.

Carter married Rosalynn Smith on July 7, 1946, in the Plains Methodist Church, the church of Rosalynn's family. They had three sons, Jack, James III "Chip", and Donnel; one daughter, Amy; nine grandsons (one of whom is deceased), three granddaughters, five great-grandsons, and eight great-granddaughters. Mary Prince (an African American woman wrongly convicted of murder, and later pardoned) was their daughter Amy's nanny for most of the period from 1971 until Jimmy Carter's presidency ended. Carter had asked to be designated as her parole officer, thus helping to enable her to work in the White House.

The Carters celebrated their 77th anniversary on July 7, 2023. On October 19, 2019, they became the longest-wed presidential couple, having overtaken George and Barbara Bush at 26,765 days. After Rosalynn's death on November 19, 2023, Carter released the following statement:

Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.

The Carters' eldest son, Jack Carter, was the 2006 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada and lost to Republican incumbent John Ensign. Jack's son Jason Carter is a former Georgia state senator, and in 2014 was the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, losing to the Republican incumbent, Nathan Deal. On December 20, 2015, while teaching a Sunday school class, Carter announced that his 28-year-old grandson Jeremy Carter had died of unspecified causes.

Longevity

A video published by Joe Biden wishing Carter a happy 100th birthday in 2024

At 100 years old, Carter was the longest-lived former U.S. president. He has been the earliest-serving living former president since Gerald Ford's death in 2006. In 2012, he surpassed Herbert Hoover as the longest-retired president. In 2017 and 2021, Carter became the first president to live to the 40th anniversary of his inauguration and post-presidency respectively. In 2017, Carter, then 92, became the oldest former president ever to attend an American presidential inauguration. 

On March 22, 2019, he became the longest-lived US president, surpassing George H. W. Bush, who died a few months earlier at the age of 94 years, 171 days. He said in a 2019 interview with People that he never expected to live as long as he had and that the best explanation for longevity was a good marriage. Carter entered hospice care six months before celebrating his 99th birthday at his home.

The Carter Center announced Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song, an event concert to celebrate Carter's 100th birthday that featured appearances by musicians and celebrities. The event took place on September 17, 2024, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. On October 1, 2024, Carter turned 100, the first president to do so. Local events to celebrate his birthday included a F-18 Super Hornet flyover formation by eight Navy pilots from Naval Air Station Oceana, which Carter viewed from his backyard, and a naturalization ceremony for 100 new citizens at Plains High School, which Chip Carter attended.

Carter made arrangements to be buried in front of his home at 209 Woodland Drive in Plains. In 2006, he said that a funeral in Washington, D.C., with visitation at the Carter Center was also planned. Carter asked President Biden to deliver his eulogy.

Death

Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. His son, James E. Carter III, announced his death that afternoon. This followed his decision in February 2023 to enter hospice care, after being diagnosed with melanoma in 2015 that metastasized to his brain and liver.