Jimmy Carter held a unique place in US politics: he was the oldest former president and a Nobel peace laureate, but his one term in office was forever tainted by his inability to end the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, arguably wielded his greatest influence not during his 1977-1981 term in the White House, but in the decades following, when he served as a global mediator, rights activist and elder statesman.
The Southern Democrat, who left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 1981 after a crushing election loss to Ronald Reagan, was perceived as naive and weak in the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politics.
Even within his own party, the Georgia native with the broad toothy grin — a “born-again” Christian who taught Sunday school well into his 90s — was something of a persona non grata for a long time.
But as the years passed, a more nuanced image of Carter emerged, one that took in his post-presidential activities and reassessed his achievements, like the brokering of a peace deal between Israel and Egypt.
He placed a commitment to human rights and social justice at the core of his tenure as the 39th president of the United States.
That dedication later served as the cornerstone of The Carter Center, which he founded in 1982 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy, earning broad international praise.
Carter represented a new generation of Southern men who were more tolerant and progressive on issues of race.
The former president — who had been both a naval officer and a peanut farmer — heartily embraced his roots.
“I am a Southerner and an American,” said Carter, a virtual unknown on the national political scene when he launched his presidential campaign ahead of the 1976 election.
From farm to White House
James Earl Carter Jr. — the full name he rarely used — was born on October 1, 1924 in the small farm town of Plains, Georgia, south of Atlanta — the same town where he lived out his golden years.
After seven years in the navy, where he worked on the nuclear submarine program and rose to the rank of lieutenant, he returned home to run the family peanut farm.
But eventually, politics came calling.
He served in Georgia’s state senate and took over as governor in 1971. Only a few years later, his unlikely White House bid began.
Carter arrived in Washington in January 1977, sworn in to head a country needing a strong leader to dispel the gloom left over from the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and a deep recession.
For the first time since 1968, the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, so hopes were high as Carter took office.
‘Extraordinarily difficult’
He enjoyed a strong first two years, with high approval ratings.
A shining moment of his term in office was the historic 1978 Camp David Accords signed by Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, which ultimately led to a peace treaty the following year.
Carter also established diplomatic relations with China following the rapprochement initiated by then-president Richard Nixon, and endorsed solar energy, even installing solar panels on the White House.
But his administration hit numerous snags, the most serious being the Iran hostage crisis and the disastrous failed attempt to rescue the 52 captive Americans in 1980.
His handling of the renewed oil crisis in 1979-1980 was also sharply criticized. Images of cars lined up at gas stations were long associated with his presidency.
In the wake of Carter’s defeat at the polls, the Democratic Party weathered a political storm — 12 years of Republican presidents in Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Even now, few Democrats claim to be picking up Carter’s mantle.
In a biography published in 2010, historian Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University, said Carter had fallen victim to “an extraordinarily difficult set of circumstances that would have challenged any president.”
‘Best ex-president’
But Carter bounced back in perhaps the most spectacular reinvention of any US leader and was often called America’s “best ex-president.”
Carter founded his eponymous center in Atlanta and emerged as a prominent international mediator, tackling some of the most intransigent global dilemmas — including North Korea and Bosnia in the 1990s.
He monitored dozens of elections around the world, from Haiti to East Timor, and went to Cuba in 2002 for a historic meeting with then longtime communist leader Fidel Castro to prod him on human rights.
Carter won a host of awards including the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize and the highest US civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He won three Grammys for best spoken-word album, a category that included audiobooks.
Carter maintained a busy schedule into his 90s. He and wife Rosalynn helped build houses for the charity Habitat for Humanity for decades.
Rosalynn died in November 2023 at age 96. The couple had three sons and a daughter.
In August 2015, Carter revealed he had cancer on his brain and was undergoing radiation treatment.
At the time of his diagnosis, Carter said that while the presidency was the “pinnacle” of his political career, “life since the White House has been personally more gratifying.”
During a church service in November 2019 in Plains, Carter looked back — with serenity, and a touch of humor — at his battle with cancer.
“I assumed, naturally, that I was going to die very quickly,” he said.
“I obviously prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death.”
“And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death.”
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