The Carter Administration

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The Carter Administration

• 1976 - 1980

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• James Earl (Jimmy) Carter (Dem ,GA)
• Former Governor of Georgia
• Washington outsider
• Led to challenges in dealing with Congress

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A. Domestic Policies

• 1. Economic Issues
• He inherits an unstable economy and isnt able
  to improve it
• gtProblems include inflation, high unemployment,
  business failures, etc.
• Stagflation rising prices coupled with high
  unemployment, largely due to recent and
  dramatic rise in oil prices

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• 2. Energy Issues
• OPEC had been continually raising prices since
  1973
• In 1977 Carter creates new cabinet department,
  the Department of Energy
• Will also later create the Department of
  Education

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• In 1978 a National Energy Act is passed,
  containing following directives
• 1.) Tax the sales of gas guzzling cars
• 2.) Convert new utilities to fuels other than
  oil or natural gas He has solar panels
  installed at the White House
• 3.) Deregulate prices for domestic oil and
  natural gas
• 4.) Tax credits for homeowners using solar
  energy and for energy efficiency improvements
• 5.) Fund research for alternative energy
  sources and synthetic fuels
• Three Mile Island nuclear power seemed a
  promising, though controversial, alternative
  energy source and concerns were validated with
  1979 partial reactor meltdown at a nuclear power
  plant near Harrisburg, PA

gtNo one hurt, voluntary evacuations took place,
reactor later dismantled, did hurt the nuclear
power industry China Syndrome movie released 12
days before this
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• 3. Civil Rights Issues
• Makes good on promise to grant full pardon to
  Vietnam War draft dodgers, which received mixed
  reactions
• Appoints many African Americans to important
  positions
• Ex. Andrew Young as Ambassador to the United
  Nations

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• Affirmative Action
• gtPolicy started during Johnson Administration
  to make up for past discrimination by
  establishing hiring and University enrollment
  quotas for minorities
• gt1974 Bakke vs California
• - A white applicant to U.C. Davis Medical
  school is refused admission and sues the school
  claiming that reserving 16 of 100 class spaces
  for minority applicants amounted to reverse
  discrimination
• - The Supreme Courts complex ruling
• 1.) Ordered Bakke be admitted
• 2.) Upheld schools right to consider race as
  one factor in admission decisions
• 3.) Forbade the use of numerical quotas
• Doesnt ban concept of affirmative action
  but does signal the start of a backlash
  against it

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B. Foreign Policy

• Little diplomatic experience prior to taking
  office
• Personal beliefs and support for human rights
  guide his approach

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• 1. 1978 Camp David Accords
• Israel and neighboring Arab nations had fought
  several wars, the most recent in 1967 and 1973
• Carter invites Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
  and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp
  David, the Presidential retreat in Maryland
• Carters personal diplomacy helps them agree to
  a peace treaty known as the Camp David Accords
  whereby
• gtIsrael would withdraw from Egypts Sinai
  peninsula, which it had held since 1967 war
• gtEgypt became the first Arab nation to
  recognize Israels existence as a nation
• Sadat Begin will share the Nobel Peace
  Prize for this historic agreement

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• 2. U.S. Soviet Relations
• Détente was at a high point when Carter took
  office
• Ex. 1975 Apollo Soyez joint space mission
• Carters support for human rights angers
  U.S.S.R. when he spoke in support of Soviet
  dissidents activists and writers who criticized
  their government
• 1979 SALT II Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign
  new treaty limiting nuclear warheads and missiles
• However, Carter withdraws the treaty from
  Senate consideration for ratification following
  the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan (to
  support a pro-soviet regime there)
• He will also impose a boycott of the 1980
  Summer Olympics, which some 60 other nation will
  join
• Détente was then effectively dead and Cold War
  tensions resume

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• 3. 1979 The Iran Hostage Crisis
• Worst foreign policy crisis of Carters
  administration (and does much to prevent Carters
  re-election)
• Despite the corruption and repression of his
  regime, the U.S. had supported Irans Shah
  (king), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for years
• Why? gtHe had modernized westernized Iran
• gtHe was a reliable source for oil
• In January 1979 an anti-western Muslim
  fundamentalist revolution breaks out in Iran by
  the supporters of the religious leader the
  Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini

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• The Shah flees Iran and Carter allows him to
  enter the U.S. to get medical attention (for
  cancer)
• In Iran, outraged fundamentalists seize the
  U.S. embassy and hold 52 American hostages for
  444 days
• Carters efforts to free the hostages included
  diplomacy, breaking diplomatic relations
  freezing Iranian assets in the U.S., and a
  commando rescue attempt that ends in disaster (in
  a desert sandstorm)
• Khomeini was demanding the Shahs return to
  Iran for trial, but didnt release the hostages
  even after the Shah died

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• 4. The Panama Canal
• In the early 1900s President Theodore
  Roosevelt acquires the land to build the Panama
  Canal
• As the 1900s progress many in Latin America
  resent the U.S.s presence in Panama
• In 1978, despite bitter debate in Congress,
  Carter convinces the Senate to sign two treaties
  dealing with the canal
• 1.) The U.S. agreed to return the canal to
  Panama by the year 2000
• 2.) The U.S. asserted the right to take
  military action to keep the canal open in any
  crisis
• These protected American strategic interests
  (though we certainly lose money) while
  improving relations with Latin America

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C. 1980 Presidential Election

• Dems re-nominate Carter (after fending off a
  challenge from Teddy Kennedy)
• gtDespite success in the Middle East peace
  process, the economy still struggled with
  inflation and high unemployment (7)
• gtApproval rating was at only 21 and even
  Carter spoke of a crisis of confidence, a
  national malaise
• Repubs nominate Ronald Reagan, Governor of
  California
• gtOptimistic conservative who almost gained
  nomination in 76
• Result Reagan wins in landslide 489 to 49
  electoral votes
• Republicans are swept into office nationwide
  on Reagans coattails
• Carter does go on to a distinguished
  post-Presidential career as an international
  statesman, humanitarian, and 2002 Nobel Peace
  Prize winner