Jimmy Carter facilitated the landmark Camp David Accords signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978 – Photo Brittanica

 

Jimmy Carter’s Legacy: What We Can Learn from It

By Zahid Hussain
Ottawa, Canada

 

Jimmy Carter, the 39 th president of the United States of America, died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. He is the first US president to reach the centenarian milestone.

Carter was president during a tumultuous period from 1977 to 1981 when the US faced grave domestic and international issues on several fronts. He faced an economy with high inflation, low growth, and high unemployment. In March 1979, the meltdown of a reactor and the release of radioactive gases at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, raised grave concerns about the safety and health effects on the people in the nearby communities.

On the international stage, the Carter administration had to deal with a Sandinista-led revolution in Nicaragua against the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1978-79 that destabilized the Central American country. In 1979, the then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan starting a decade-long war with US-backed Afghan Mujahideen in the region.

As his key achievements, Jimmy Carter facilitated the landmark Camp David Accords signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978. These accords led to the two countries signing a peace treaty in 1979 ending the state of war between them following the 1973 Arab-Israel war. In 1977, Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian leader signed a treaty resulting in the control of the canal, which the US had exercised since 1903, transferred to Panama. More importantly, the treaty allowed the US to retain the right to defend the crucial seaway from any future threats.

In the end, Carter’s presidency was overshadowed by the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. A revolution in Iran overthrew the US-supported Shah of Iran who was then granted asylum in the US. Soon after, a group of revolutionaries stormed and overtook the US embassy in Tehran and captured 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage demanding the return of the Shah to Iran to stand trial. This crisis was a major factor in the downfall of Carter's presidency and his loss in the re-election bid for the second term to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. The hostages were eventually released after 444 days of captivity on the very day of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the next president.

Overall, Carter’s presidency was considered below average by analysts and historians. However, his post-presidency activities are seen in an exceptionally positive light.

Carter had a long record of public service. As a young man, he joined the US Navy and served there for seven years. His political career started with a run for a Georgia State Senate seat which he won and served for four years. He then served as governor of Georgia for four years before becoming the President of the US and serving for four years.

Jimmy Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, a small town of about 600. After leaving the White House in 1981 he returned to his hometown to resume running the family peanut farm.

After the end of his presidency, Carter remained active in public life. Unlike some other former presidents, he did not use his public profile and status as a former president to enrich himself. Instead, he dedicated his 43-year-long post-presidency life to diplomacy and social causes. His stature as former president opened many doors for him to meet kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders around the world. He leveraged this privilege to gain their support to benefit the causes he supported.

Carter remained active until a few years before his death when poor health forced him to withdraw from public life. He traveled extensively around the world to promote human rights, conduct election monitoring, and help fight infectious diseases. His peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts, since he left office, made Carter renowned as one of the most successful ex-presidents in American history. For his post-presidency work, Carter received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn were key figures for Habitat for Humanity, a non-government nonprofit organization dedicated to building affordable housing for low-income and disadvantaged people worldwide. He joined other volunteers on several projects to provide hands-on labor to build houses. He was seen banging a hammer to build a house structure in his mid-90s.

Carter did not shy away from commenting and writing on contentious domestic and international issues often against the policies of the government of the time. He criticized President George W. Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq in 2002. He wrote several books including political memoirs, poetry, and on global issues. He authored two books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land .

A devout Christian, Carter had a deep commitment to evangelical Christianity. He attended Baptist church from a young age, became a deacon, and taught Sunday school at a church in his hometown Plains, Georgia until a few years before his death. He practiced what he preached and maintained a simple lifestyle.

Jimmy Carter set an example for political leaders on how best to spend their post-political life in the public service domain. They can learn from Carter’s legacy of how to leverage their stature and influence to support worthwhile causes. We can learn graciousness, humility, and volunteerism from Jimmy Carter.

In a news story in 2009, the newspaper Independent remarked, ‘ Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president .’

(The author is based in Canada and writes on international and political affairs. He