Jimmy Carter

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Carter, Jimmy - 39th President
20 January 1977 to 20 January 1981

Russell Renka
Southeast Missouri State University

General Sources: The Miller Center's American President.org site has American President - Jimmy Carter.
    The usual American Experience The Presidents Jimmy Carter PBS site has nothing but a brief Overview, but it points toward American Experience Jimmy Carter. This site is organized differently from those for earlier presidents, but it is not less comprehensive. See the American Experience Jimmy Carter Teacher's Guide for several important facets of the Carter presidency (along with high school activity suggestions). The American Experience Jimmy Carter Timeline covers Carter's long life, with most detail on the presidential years of 1977 through 1980. American Experience Jimmy Carter Timeline 2 has the presidency only; and Jimmy Carter Timeline 3 has the intensely active post-presidential career of Carter. Jimmy Carter People & Events has important details on the election of 1976, the Camp David peace accords, the Iran hostage crisis, and the election of 1980. American Experience Jimmy Carter Gallery has presidential and Carter family photographs.
   The IPL POTUS -- James Earl Carter Jr. has eight subsections.
    The Links to Related Sites from The Jimmy Carter Library has numerous working links and a few nonfunctional ones as well.

Personal Biographies: Encyclopedia Americana Jimmy Carter is written by Robert Huckshorn of Florida Atlantic University. The Carter Center has The Carter Center - President Carter Biography Information. A brief official White House biography is at Jimmy Carter. See also James E. (Jimmy) Carter Jr. Biography from The Hall of Public Service.

Works on presidency of: Character Above All James Carter Essay is by former Carter speechwriter Hendrik Herzberg.
The Passionless Presidency: The trouble with Jimmy Carter's Administration - 79.05 is by former Carter speechwriter James A. Fallows for The Atlantic Monthly in May 1979.

Oral Histories: The Exit Interview Program at Oral History Transcripts from the Jimmy Carter Library includes rich text format interviews with 15 principals among Carter staffers and officers, including several leading ones. To define who held what position, see also the Exit Interview Project subheading at List of Oral Histories in the Jimmy Carter Library.
C-SPAN produced voice files and transcripts of the Miller Center interviews of Jimmy Carter and many of his staffers in 2003 (C-SPAN Jimmy Carter Oral History). The Miller Center of Public Affairs site is American President - Jimmy Carter Oral History Project.
NPR Presidents and the Constitution: Jimmy Carter from NPR's Morning Edition on 22 October 2004 with Cokie Roberts includes both text and voice recording.

Documents and Photographs: Documents and Photographs from the Jimmy Carter Library Collections has many. See also American Experience Jimmy Carter Gallery.

1976 General Election: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections has 1976 Election Results. Carter won narrowly in both popular vote and Electoral College over the unelected incumbent Gerald Ford. By clicking on 'Counties' one can see that the South was still Democratic territory those days, especially with a native son from the State of Georgia.

1980 General Election: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections has 1980 Election Results. Time ran out on Carter as Ronald Reagan won easily. Carter won only one of eleven former Confederacy southern states (his home state of Georgia).

Major Speeches: History Channel has seven Carter speeches using RealPlayer; see alphabetical listing under Carter to access these. Speeches by Jimmy Carter: The Crisis of Confidence is the often-lamented 'malaise' speech of midsummer 1979. Carter's 1977 pronouncement for human rights as an American foreign policy objective is at HUMAN RIGHTS AND FOREIGN POLICY (1977). Also see State of the Union Addresses for 1978 through 1980. For Camp David Accords of 1978, see the links below. The americanpresidency.org Audio-Video Archive - Jimmy Carter has 15 speech excerpts.

Administrative Actions: Carter's abrupt firing of several Cabinet officers in summer 1979 (often dubbed "The Midsummer Massacre') is profiled indirectly at Cabinet Officers in the Carter Administration.

Executive Orders and Proclamations: See Federal Register - Executive Orders - Jimmy Carter.

Energy Policy: This was a period of "energy crisis" in the President's own words. An interview with Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Alm at U.S. EPA History: EPA and the energy crisis illustrates the climate of concern about supply and pricing of oil and gas.

Foreign Policy with Carter: Carter Era 1976-1980 outlines major Cold War-related policies of the Carter presidency. Mixed in are a few other important events during this period.

    Camp David Accords: This is widely considered Carter's finest foreign policy achievement after a quarter century. The Camp David Accords from the Carter Library has four files, including a Camp David Accords 25th Anniversary retrospective. Camp David Accords 25th Anniversary Photographs has 25 good jpg images.
    The Camp David Accords -- Framework for Peace by Terry Sullivan at the University of North Carolina (and co-produced produced by PRESIDENT and the Jimmy Carter Library) shows this historic event. Camp David Accords -- The Tour has subheadings for Prelude -- Searching for a Framework; then Preparations for Camp David; the very detailed Negotiations -- Realizing the Opportunity; and finally the historical Legacy: From Foundation to Peace. An excellent site.
    The Department of State, has 1969-1989 Diplomacy of Detente and the Waning of the Cold War and Carter and the Camp David Accords.
    The Avalon Project has The Avalon Project Camp David Accords; September 17 1978.
    The Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy Chaim Herzog Center - Camp David Related Documents has an excellent chronology of steps to this event--but does not include the Carter speech to Congress.
    Jimmy Carter on the situation of the Holy Land is a CIN archival statement of recollection by Jimmy Carter from 26 November 2000.
    Another interesting recollection is Interview With President Jimmy Carter at George Washington University.

Hostages in Iran: The Hostage Crisis in Iran from the Carter Library is a brief background for this event, which lasted 444 days from November 1979 to the Carter presidency's departure after 20 January 1981. See also The Hostages and The Casualties by Doyle McManus, and Excerpts from an Iran Hostage's Diary.

Human Rights advocacy: President Carter emphasized this perspective in full, expanding greatly upon principles set down in Helsinki in 1975. For source materials and recent journal documents, see H-Net's Diplomatic History site Documents Relating to Human Rights. Carter spoke in 1977 on this objective, at HUMAN RIGHTS AND FOREIGN POLICY (1977).

Soviet Union, Afghanistan and 1980 Olympics Boycott: Carter's SALT II arms control agreement with the Soviets is profiled at Oyos - Carter & SALT II (Introduction) by Matthew Oyos.

Panama Canal Treaty: Panama Canal Treaty: List of Documents from the Library has 18 documents on this.

Presidential Pardons: Presidential Pardons - Historic - Notable Clemencies from Presidents Washington to George H.W. Bush - Included are files on the 21 January 1977 Carter pardon of Vietnam War draft resisters, including link to Federal Register-Proclamation 4483.

Person of the Year: Time Magazine awarded this not during Carter's presidency, but in recognition of his remarkable and unlikely successful run for the office in 1976: Jimmy Carter - 1976.

Former President and and active ex-president Carter: See The Carter Center to understand the former President's concentration upon promotion of international peace and human rights. At The Carter Center - Op-Eds are four years of recent Carter statements. The Carter Center - Waging Peace takes a name identical to Eisenhower's post-presidential biography; but the Center policies in post-Cold War context are decidedly different from 1950s American policy abroad. In October 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize; see Carter Center synopsis.

Book bibliography of President Carter: See Bibliography of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and the Carter Administration from the Carter Library.

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