Download Presidency Chart – Calvin Coolidge (30th) (1923

Presidency Chart – Jimmy Carter (39th) (1977 - 1981)
The Election of 1924
United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in the wake
of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the
relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. Ford was saddled
with a slow economy and paid a political price for his pardon of Nixon. Carter ran as a Washington "outsider"
and reformer and won a narrow victory. He was the first presidential candidate elected directly from the Deep
South since 1848. Eugene McCarthy ran as an independent candidate.
Major Events in Carter’s Presidency
Energy Crisis
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to reduce supplies of oil available to the
world market. This sparked an oil crisis and forced oil prices to rise sharply, spurring price inflation throughout
the economy, and slowing growth.
Economy
During Carter's administration, the economy suffered double-digit inflation, coupled with very high interest
rates, oil shortages, high unemployment and slow economic growth. Productivity growth in the United States
had declined to an average annual rate of 1 percent, compared to 3.2 percent of the 1960s. There was also a
growing federal budget deficit which increased to 66 billion dollars. The 1970s are described as a period of
stagflation, meaning economic stagnation coupled with price inflation, as well as higher interest rates.
Domestic policies
Jimmy Carter's reorganization efforts separated the Department of Health, Education and Welfare into the
Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. Efforts were also made to reduce
the number of government departments and employees as Carter had done when he was Governor of Georgia.
He signed into law a major Civil Service Reform, the first in over a hundred years. Despite calling for a reform
of the tax system in his presidential campaign, once in office he did very little to change it.
Foreign policies
During his first month in office Carter cut the defense budget by $6 billion. One of his first acts was to order the
unilateral removal of all nuclear weapons from South Korea and announce his intention to cut back the number
of US troops stationed there. In 1977 Major General John K. Singlaub, chief of staff of U.S. forces in South
Korea, publicly criticized President Carter's decision to lower the U.S. troop level there.
Arab/Israel Conflict
Carter's Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski paid close attention
to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Diplomatic communications between Israel and Egypt increased significantly after
the Yom Kippur War and the Carter administration felt that the time was right for comprehensive solution to the
conflict.
Camp David Accords:
One of Carter's most important accomplishments as President was the Camp David Accords on September 17,
1978. They were a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt negotiated by President Carter, which followed up
on earlier negotiations conducted in the Middle East. In these negotiations King Hassan II of Morocco acted as a
negotiator between Arab interests and Israel, and Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania acted as go-between for Israel
and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO, the unofficial representative of the Palestinian people). The
Camp David Accords produced two frameworks for peace between Egypt and Israel, and a peace treaty was
later signed on March 26, 1979.
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Rapid Deployment Forces
On October 1, 1979, President Carter announced before a television audience the existence of the Rapid
Deployment Forces (RDF), a mobile fighting force capable of responding to worldwide trouble spots, without
drawing on forces committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Human Rights
President Carter initially departed from the long-held policy of containment toward the Soviet Union. In its
place Carter promoted a foreign policy that put human rights at the front. This was a break from the policies of
several predecessors, in which human rights abuses were often overlooked if they were committed by a nation
that was allied with the United States. The Carter Administration ended support to the historically U.S.-backed
Somoza regime in Nicaragua and gave aid to the new Sandinista National Liberation Front government that
assumed power after Somoza's overthrow.
People’s Republic of China
Carter continued the policy of Richard Nixon to normalize relations with the People's Republic of China by
granting them full diplomatic and trade relations, and not with Taiwan (though the two nations continued to
trade and the U.S. unofficially recognized Taiwan through the Taiwan Relations Act). In the Joint Communiqué
on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations dated January 1, 1979, the United States transferred diplomatic
recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The U.S. reiterated the Shanghai Communiqué's acknowledgment of the
Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.
Panama Canal Treaty
One of the most controversial moves of President Carter's presidency was the final negotiation and signature of
the Panama Canal Treaties in September 1977. Those treaties, which essentially would transfer control of the
American-built Panama Canal to the nation of Panama, were bitterly opposed by a majority of the American
public and by the Republican Party. Those that supported the Treaties argued that the Canal was built within
Panamanian territory therefore, by controlling it, the United States was in fact occupying part of another country
and this agreement was intended to turn back to Panama the sovereignty of its complete territory.
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) II
A key foreign policy issue Carter worked laboriously on was the SALT II Treaty, which reduced the number of
nuclear arms produced and/or maintained by both the United States and the Soviet Union. It was NOT ratified
by the Senate b/c of the USSR invasion of Afghanistan.
Intervention in Afghanistan
The United States secretly began sending aid to anti-Soviet, Afghan Islamist factions on July 3, 1979. In
December 1979 the USSR invaded Afghanistan, after the pro-Moscow Afghanistan government, put in power
by a 1978 coup, was overthrown. At the time some believed the Soviets were attempting to expand their borders
southward in order to gain a foothold in the region. The Soviet Union had long lacked a warm water port, and
their movement south seemed to position them for further expansion toward Pakistan in the East, and Iran to the
West.
Iran Hostage Crisis:
U.S. boycotts 1980 Olympics:
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