James Carter Jr.
Oil Crisis, Hostages, and a Humanitarian
The Election of 1976
Republican- Gerald Ford
- Popular vote- 49%
- Electoral vote- 240
- Fighting the memory of the Watergate scandal and Nixon
Democrat- James Earl Carter Jr.
- Popular vote- 51%
- Electoral vote- 297
- 51 year old farmer
- Governor of Georgia
- "I'll never lie to you"- his campaign promise
- African Americans and the South largely voted for Carter
Humanitarian Efforts
September 1978- Camp David- Carter invited President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel to Camp David to help relive the tensions in the Middle East
- September 17, 1978- the two countries signed an accord that was a stepping stone to peace
- Israel- withdraw from land conquered in the 1967 war
- Egypt- respect Israels borders
Panama Canal- control and ownership was given to the Panamanians by 2000
Tensions with the Soviet Union looked like they were going to heat up again
- Arms control negotiations helped stop this
Economic and Energy Crisis
- Prices rose at a rate of +10%
- OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)- increased the price of oil
- US began to depend on foreign countries more and more due to the extensive amounts of oil in other countries
- It became harder to receive a loan with interest rates going up
- Carter blamed the dependence on oil- tried to pass a legislation for energy conservation
- Mohammed Reza Pahlevi- shah of Iran- overthrown in January 1979
- Muslim fundamentalists- took over, did not like western culture or the United States
- Oil from Iran stopped going to other countries- OPEC raised the price of oil even more
- July 15, 1979- Carter returned form another Camp David trip- blamed the nation for being to materialistic and dependent on oil
Iranian Hostage Crisis- 1979
SALT II
- June 1979- Carter and Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev- sign the SALT II agreement
- Limited the level of lethal strategic weapons in both the US and the Soviet arsenal
- Never ratified by Senate
- November 4, 1979- Anti-American Muslims took the United States embassy in Iran and all of its occupants as hostages
- Iran's demanded for the return of the Shah would was in the US for medical treatment
- Carter tried a rescue mission but it failed
- The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (right next to Iran)
- Carter stopped the export of grain and technology to the Soviet Union and called for a boycott of the coming Olympic games that were to be held in Moscow