Carter
By Paulina Gonzalez
Election
- President Ford tried to get elected on his own
- the Democrats chose Jimmy Carter.
- Carter banked on being a “Washington outsider,” untainted by the supposed corruption of D.C.
- The election was close,
- Republicans had been too tarnished by Watergate.
- Carter won 297 to 240.
- Congress also went heavily Democrat.
- During his "honeymoon period" Carter got a new Dept. of Energy established.
- He also got a tax cut through.
- Carter's honeymoon was short.
- Being a political outsider was good during the election, not good inside Washington D.C.
Humanitarian efforts
- Carter was a Christian and had a high concern for human rights.
- would be his guiding principle when it came to foreign policy.
- he expressed his concern and support for the oppressed people of Rhodesia.
- Carter's foreign policy achievement was a Middle East peace settlement.
- Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli president Menachem Begin met Carter at Camp David in 1978.
- shook hands and agreed that Israel would withdraw from lands gained in the Six-Day War (1967) and Israel's borders would be respected.
- diplomatic relations with China were reestablished.
- planned to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000
- Carter's policies seemed nice, but soft and too willing to give.
- the Cold War kept on going.
- Thousands of Soviet backed Cuban troops showed up in various African countries to support communist forces there.
- Carter was unresponsive.
Economic and energy issues
- the economy was tanking.
- Inflation was rose by 13% in 1979
- The cost of importing oil was shooting up.
- Carter proposed energy conservation laws, didn't go anywhere.
- Interest rates were very high.
- in 1979 when the shah of Iran was ousted by Islamic fundamentalists Carter got problems.
- The shah had been put into power with help from the CIA and was seen as a symbol of the West and the U.S.
- The new Muslim government took over the oil fields.
- Oil production went down and OPEC raised oil prices farther.
- Carter went to Camp David, talked with energy experts, then got angry at America for its dependence on oil and materialism.
- he fired four cabinet members and reverted to his close-knit Georgia crew in just a couple of days.
- Some wondered if Carter was losing touch with the people.
Beginning of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979
- Carter came with the SALT II agreements.
- met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and agreed to limit nuclear weapons.
- the Senate didn't want to ratify the agreement.
- simultaneously, militant Muslim radicals in Iran stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran
- took everyone hostage.
- The militants demanded that the U.S. hand over the shah who'd fled earlier.
- bad event at the same time mixed the Cold War, oil, and the Muslim World.
- The Soviet Union suddenly attacked and took over Afghanistan (Dec. 1979). This move threatened
- to expand communism
- oil fields and production,
- Iran.
- Carter placed an embargo on the U.S.S.R.
- boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow.
- proposed "Rapid Deployment Force" for trouble-spots and asked that young people, including women, be required to register for a possible military draft.
- Carter admitted he'd misjudged the Soviets at the SALT II talks.
- This is when SALT II died.
- The Iran hostage situation was still going
- Become the undoing of Carter.
- The U.S. tried economic sanctions and failed.
- A secret rescue mission was planned and tried.
- Actually went down in flames in a sandstorm.
- Carter was unable to resolve the Iran hostage situation.