Carter used simplicity and openness as a way of achieving the highest possible national goals. However, Carter, like Ford, was a victim of a domestic economy neither could master. The huge debts incurred in fighting the Vietnam War and increases in the cost of petroleum had driven up the rate of inflation; at the same time, these and other economic factors triggered relatively high unemployment. These domestic factors might have undone any administration, but Carter also was victim to some international events he could not control. The Soviet Union, perceiving Carter’s weakness, invaded Afghanistan and increased Soviet support to leftists in countries including Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Angola. In Iran the revolution against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi turned into a revolution against the United States, and in 1979 Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran, holding fifty-two embassy employees hostage. Carter’s administration was not able to release them.
In November 1980 the American people rather decisively voiced their judgment of Carter’s failure by replacing him with Ronald W. Reagan. What had gone wrong? In one essay, Jürgen Scheunemann of Yale University delivers a verdict on Carter’s foreign policy as one of failure, from its misguided inception to its ignominious end. In the second essay, though, Itai Sneh of Columbia University argues that Jimmy Carter had some notable international successes: in negotiating arms reductions and in the Middle East. Carter brought together President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachim Begin of Israel, a remarkable achievement that earned both Sadat and Begin the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps Carter should have shared in this honor, but it was characteristic of him to allow others to take credit. Since his forced retirement Carter has emerged as an international spokesman for human rights, overseeing elections in Haiti and other nations that have begun the process of moving from dictatorship to democracy. The American electorate judged Carter harshly; history may take a different view.
“Carter: Was Jimmy Carter a Successful President in the Realm of Foreign Policy?" In History in Dispute, edited by Robert J. Allison, 11-18. Vol. 2, American Social and Political Movements, 1945-2000: Pursuit of Liberty. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. U.S. History in Context (accessed June 6, 2017). http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2876200010/UH..
Source #2:
The presidency of James Earl “Jimmy” Carter was successful in many foreign-policy arenas: Carter brought a new style to U.S. foreign policy; introduced human rights as a foreign-policy goal in itself for the first time; brokered some of the twentieth century’s most important agreements and treaties, such as the Middle East Peace Accord and the Panama Canal Treaty; and began a new era in North-South relations. In addition, Carter almost succeeded in implementing a new disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II). These are milestones in international diplomatic history that no critique of the Carter presidency can diminish. Even Carter’s worst defeat, which was partly responsible for Ronald W. Reagan’s election in November 1980, namely the hostage crisis in Tehran, was, in reality, a success for Carter, since the hostages were freed unharmed, thanks to shrewd and skillful diplomacy…
By the same token, however, these diplomatic achievements only reflect some of the highlights of the Carter administration. They by no means fully represent the greater part of his foreign policy in the years from 1977 to 1981. In fact, most of Carter’s goals for a new foreign policy proved to be failures, because they were ill conceived and often poorly executed. Measured by the Carter administration’s own goals and standards, a great deal of his foreign policy was confusing and confused. Even though many of the crises Carter faced around the globe were beyond his control, ultimately the responsibility for having not successfully resolved many of them remained in the hands of his administration… Carter, in a sense, was the first post-Cold War U.S. president… Carter tried to break free from the frozen, but stable, confrontational Cold War pattern of bipolar military and ideological warfare between the United States and the Soviet Union… [Carter’s foreign policy] implied a weakened United States, as it saw the world dominated and led by three blocs of power: the United States, the Western European nations, and Japan. One of the most important aspects of this model… The aim was not only to integrate Latin American states into the international community but also to break away from the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ focus on the Soviet Union and the many local theaters of conflict that were so typical of the Cold War era. In the end, however, Carter stayed within the familiar framework of the Cold War.
—JÜRGEN SCHEUNEMANN, FOX FELLOW, YALE UNIVERSITY “Carter: Was Jimmy Carter a Successful President in the Realm of Foreign Policy?" In History in Dispute, edited by Robert J. Allison, 11-18. Vol. 2, American Social and Political Movements, 1945-2000: Pursuit of Liberty. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. U.S. History in Context (accessed June 6, 2017). http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2876200010/UH..
Source #3:
Hostage, 1979. Graphite, porous point pen, ink, and opaque white over blue pencil underdrawing. Published in the Washington Post, November 15, 1979. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Source #4:
The Guardian, Some of the American hostages paraded by their militant Iranian captors outside the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis
Source #5:
On 4 November 1979, Islamic militants overran the American embassy in Teheran, Iran, initiating a crisis that lasted through the end of President Jimmy Carter's term. The militants held fifty-two of the embassy's personnel hostage for 444 days. Relations between the United States and Iran began to disintegrate in early 1979, during the Iranian revolution. Following the overthrow of the U.S. ally Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, the new government, led by the Muslim fundamentalist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, focused much of its fervor against the United States, culminating with the embassy takeover following Carter's decision to allow the shah to enter the United States for cancer treatment. The United States attempted to pursue political, diplomatic, and economic measures to broker the release of the hostages. Carter also organized a military contingency plan in the event that nonmilitary solutions failed.
The White House attempted several failed diplomatic initiatives and mounted a campaign of international pressure on Iran, which brought condemnations from governments around the world. The sole successful diplomatic measure was an initiative from Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) representatives that gained the release of thirteen female and African American hostages. Carter also signed an order to freeze all of Iran's assets in American banks. Despite continued pressure on Iran, the hostages remained in captivity five months after the crisis began, and pressure mounted on the Carter administration to find a more effective solution. After much deliberation, Carter authorized an ill-fated military mission to rescue the hostages. The 24 April 1979 rescue mission suffered from military miscalculations and untimely mechanical failures, forcing the mission to be aborted. The final mishap came during a refueling stop, when two of the helicopters collided, killing eight servicemen. When President Carter informed the nation of the mission and its failure, he suffered politically. The failure of the rescue mission did not end negotiations, but the administration appeared to be paralyzed by the crisis. The Iranians released the hostages on 20 January 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as president. U.S. relations with Iran did not return to their earlier cordial nature during the twentieth century. Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton faced a hostile Islamic state on the borders of the Persian Gulf.
McConnell, Stephanie Wilson. "Iran Hostage Crisis." In Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed., edited by Stanley I. Kutler, 420-421. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. U.S. History in Context (accessed June 6, 2017).
Source #6:
Carter took the unusual step of having two speeches upon accession to the presidency in January, 1977: one to Americans, another to the rest of humanity. In his inaugural address to the people of the world, Carter promised to address the needs of non-Americans. He repeated and acted upon his beliefs during his presidency, a time when regular vigilance with respect to abuses of human rights all over the world was evident. His strategy, especially in Latin America, took the form of outreach to people rather than collaboration with their oppressive leaders or outright interventions in their internal affairs… Carter’s most impressive achievement was probably his personal negotiation of the September 1978 Camp David Agreements that facilitated the March 1979 Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. Only thanks to Carter’s tenacity and personal involvement did these two archenemies reach a deal, such highly problematic issues as the Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula and whether the Palestinians had a right to self-determination notwithstanding. Even the subsequent Reagan and Bush administrations, while repudiating Carter’s policies, did not move far away from his positions.
—ITAI SNEH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY “Carter: Was Jimmy Carter a Successful President in the Realm of Foreign Policy?" In History in Dispute, edited by Robert J. Allison, 11-18. Vol. 2, American Social and Political Movements, 1945-2000: Pursuit of Liberty. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. U.S. History in Context (accessed June 6, 2017). http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2876200010/UH..
Your Task:
Select what you believe is the most significant foreign policy success or failure of President Carter's term in office and evaluate the importance of this event or development by crafting a well-developed paragraph or political cartoon.
Save your paragraph or political cartoon, because you will add to it for your final task!