Five defining moments of Jimmy Carter’s presidency

Former President Carter’s post-presidential life lasted decades, putting his career in the White House in a deep rearview mirror in many ways. Carter died Sunday, according to the Carter Center.

It was a memorable four-year term, and one that has some parallels to today’s battles over inflation, and how to deal with an unstable Iran and Middle East.

The Carter years brought a Democrat to office after the short presidency of Gerald Ford, who took office after the Watergate controversy that ended the Nixon administration. But the Georgia Democrat’s presidency was ended by the Reagan revolution, which impacted the political scene for the following decades.

Here are five defining moments from Carter’s presidency.

Camp David Accords

Carter’s crowning achievement as president was the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1978.

Carter invited Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Camp David in Maryland to negotiate a peace agreement. After nearly two weeks of intense negotiations, which very nearly failed multiple times, the three men signed the Camp David Accords.

The agreements included a process for Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza, an outline for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and frameworks for peace among Israel and its other neighbors in the region. The Sinai Peninsula was demilitarized, and Israeli ships won free passage through the Suez Canal.

Sadat and Begin would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later in 1981; Sadat was assassinated two years later.

While the treaty did not lead to a lasting peace throughout the Middle East and was opposed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Arab states, it cast a long shadow on peace negotiations in the region, including a 2000 effort by former President Clinton.

The intervention by Carter remains among the most significant diplomatic accomplishments by a president in modern history.

‘Malaise’ speech

In mid-1979, the U.S. was facing high inflation, rising interest rates and both unemployment and energy crises. The problems were crippling Carter’s presidency. In July 1979, with an approval rating of just 29 percent, Carter decided to address the American public.

In a nationally televised speech from Camp David, Carter laid out energy proposals such as increased domestic production, restricting foreign imports and taxing energy profits to fund research for new energy technologies. 

But the speech wouldn’t be remembered for Carter’s vision to curb the economic and energy crisis facing the nation. Instead, Carter’s speech on July 15, 1979, would be remembered as his “malaise” or “crisis of confidence” speech.

Carter said the U.S. was facing a “fundamental threat to American democracy” — what he called a “crisis of confidence.” He argued Americans had lost faith in the ability to govern themselves and the future of the nation.

It was a sober assessment by Carter, but it was one that voters did not greet kindly. Instead, it dropped public confidence in the embattled president even further.

Olympic boycott

Against the backdrop of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Carter ordered a boycott by U.S. athletes of the 1980 Summer Olympics that were set to be held in the Soviet Union.

Carter convinced other countries, including Canada, West Germany and Japan, to boycott the event. Ultimately, 66 countries in total boycotted the games in an effort to isolate Moscow, which kept troops in Afghanistan.

The 1980 boycott led the Soviet Union to boycott the 1984 Olympics hosted by the United States in Los Angeles, an effort joined by other Soviet states.

In both Games, the boycotts had a huge impact on the competition, given the countries involved. Some athletes who had trained for years to compete at the Games were angry with Carter’s decision.

When the idea was floated for athletes from boycotting nations to compete in the Games under a neutral banner, Carter threatened to revoke the passports of U.S. athletes.

Still, many Americans saw the decision as another way to fight against the Soviet regime.

The U.S. has not launched a similar boycott of the Olympics since 1980.

Creation of the Department of Education

Carter oversaw the creation of the Department of Education, a sizable expansion of the federal government that was opposed strongly by many Republicans at the time.

GOP candidates more than 40 years after the decision still talk about ending the federal department.

The newly established department was an offshoot of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It was created, in part, to meet Carter’s commitment to make the federal government more efficient.

Before signing off on the creation of the agency in 1979, Carter argued that the federal government had beleaguered education in the U.S. because of “bureaucratic buck passing.” Even though he thought the federal government played a “junior role” to states and localities on education, he argued that a new federal bureaucracy was needed to streamline federal responsibilities.

But Carter’s move to create the department also came after he picked up the influential 1976 endorsement of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the U.S. He committed himself to creating the department to secure the endorsement.

The department faces enduring Republican dissent, with many over the years calling for it to be abolished. By 2022, the department’s annual budget was more than $80 billion.

Iranian hostage crisis

The Carter presidency was badly shaken by the Iranian hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days.

The 1980 presidential campaign took place against the backdrop of the hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 after the U.S. admitted the Iranian shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the country to receive medical treatment following the Islamic Revolution that toppled him.

Daily newscasts on the hostage crisis added to Carter’s already deep political problems, contributing to a sense of a nation defeated and in decline.

Carter at one point ordered a rescue mission to try to release the U.S. hostages. It ended in failure, with eight U.S. service members dying when a helicopter crashed into a transport craft.

Carter worked tirelessly to secure the release of the hostages, but they were not freed until minutes after former President Reagan was sworn in on Jan. 20, 1981.

While polls weeks ahead of the 1980 presidential election showed a close race, Reagan won in a landslide.

Carter won just six states plus the District of Columbia, taking 49 electoral votes to 489 won for the Reagan ticket. Reagan won the popular vote by more than 8 million votes.