Foreign Policy in the Middle East
President Jimmy Carter 1976-1980
The Good Stuff...
1978-The Camp David Accords
The president invites the President of Egypt, Anwar el-Sadat and the Prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin to a retreat. This retreat at Camp David produced Carter's greatest accomplishment, the Camp David Accords. This was a peace agreement for the middle east reached after 13 days of meeting.
The Not so Good Stuff...
Opposition against the Shah
The US had been a supporter of the Iranian king or Shah for over 20 years when Iran was undergoing a drastic change. Iran, like many other countries, was making the shift to becoming a more urban country and moving away from the traditional agricultural society. Anyone who was discovered to be against this was severely punished. These opposition members were lead by Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamic spiritual leader who was disliked for his criticism towards the Shah and his policy.
The Iran Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Klomeini and his supporters drove the Shah out of his country and took control of the government. This lead to the November 4th attack on the US embassy in Tehran. Close to 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. They were beaten and blindfolded the entire time. Several were able to be rescued initially, but many survived in these conditions for over a year. To protest, the US did not import Iranian oil and froze Iranian assets in American banks.
My Opinion of the Event...
I think President Carter was right to try and mend the United States' relations with the middle east. However, he should have been cautious going into this. With the many wars and struggles the US had been in, we were in no position to get into yet another conflict. It was a bad move for the American public. It lowered there trust of the US government even more, and lowered their optimism about a future for America