James E. Carter Jr.
Election of Carter
Election of 1976
- Republican candidate was Gerald R. Ford v. Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter
- Won by a narrow margin of 51% of the popular vote
- Was Ford's first actual election, was unpopular due to the Ford Pardon of Nixon
- Won 297 of the electoral college votes, as opposed to Ford's 240
- 97% of African Americans voted for Carter
Humanitarian Efforts
- Human rights guided Carter's foreign policy
- Rhodesia(later Zimbabwe) and S. Africa, Carter and U.N. ambassador Andrew Young fought for the black majority
- September 1978-Camp David- relations between Egypt and Israel were tense, Carter invited Egyptian President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin of Israel
- Could've been disastrous, but Carter negotiated between them and got them to peacefully sign the Camp David accords on September 17th, 1978
- Resumed full diplomatic relations with China after a 30 year interruption
- Proposed 2 treaties that gave full control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians by the year 2000
Economic and Energy Issues
- Prices were rising at a rate of >10% annually by 1974
- Oil price increases from OPEC in 1974 took a toll on the economy as well
- Inflation was >13% by 1979
- Bill for imported oil was $40 billion by 1978
- Americans paid more for foreign products than than they could earn from selling products overseas
- "oil shocks"- showed Americans that they could no longer attempt to pursue economic isolation
- Drove % of GNP that was based on foreign trade from 10% to 27%
- Carter saw that the poor economy stemmed from the nation's dependence on foreign oil
- Pushed for energy conservation legislation, opposed by congress, indifferent public, led to little improvement
- Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran, installed by CIA in 1953, was overthrown in January 1979
- Led to shortages in oil from Iran, causing OPEC to raise prices again
- July 1979-held a leader's conference at Camp David, announced to the American people that they were falling into a "moral and spiritual crisis" by being too concerned with "material goods" and then a few days later, fired 4 cabinet secretaries
Beginning of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979
- Iranian Hostage Crisis-November 4, 1979- anti-American Muslims stormed the US embassy in Teheran, Iran and held everyone inside hostage
- Demanded that the US ship back the injured exiled shah who had been flown to the US for medical care
- Unstable Iranian government refused to intervene against those holding the US embassy hostage
- US struggled between keeping the Persian Gulf stable(considering how close it was to the USSR) and saving those being held hostage
- December 27th, 1979- Soviets invaded through Afghanistan, ready to attack Iran
- Carter imposed an embargo of grain and high-tech machinery against Russia and boycotted the Moscow Olympics
- Soviets met harsh resistance in Afghanistan--"Russia's Vietnam"
- Iranian hostage crisis- Captive Americans, Iranian disrespect of burning American flags and Uncle Sam
- Carter tried to apply economic sanctions, didn't work, sent in a rescue raid, aircraft collided and killed 8 of the rescuers, mission was a failure