The Wilsonian Redux - The Presidency of James Earl Carter
President James Earl Carter sought to recalibrate America's internal moral compass
and return to a foreign policy based on idealism.
The 1970’s have been described by some historians as “the years of malaise”, defined as “a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness, lethargy or discomfort”. Analyze the foreign and domestic factors that led many American to feel uneasiness with life in the 1970’s
In 1976, Jimmy Carter barely squeezed by Gerald Ford (297 to 240), promising to never lie to the American public, and he also had Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. After 4 years of the Carter presidency, both inflation and unemployment were considerable worse that at the time of his inauguration;
Energy Issues To save on rising oil prices, Carter asked Americans to conserve fuel in their homes, cars, and businesses. He also created a new Cabinet department, the Department of Energy.
Unemployment: 8 million people out of work; nationwide average of about 7.7% by the time of the election campaign, but it was considerably higher in some industrial states.
Inflation: Rose from 4.8% in 1976 to 6.8% in 1977, 9% in 1978, 11% in 1979, and hovered around 12% at the time of the 1980 election campaign.
Stagflation:persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country's economy.
Deficits: Although Carter had pledged to eliminate the deficit (the amount by which something, especially a sum of money, is too small.), the deficit for 1979 totaled $27.7 billion, and for 1980 was nearly $59 billion.
Source: Beaver Falls News Tribune John Shevchik, 1973
The 1973 oil crisis began in October 1973 when the Arab members of the OPEC plus Egypt,Syria and Tunisia) proclaimed an oil embargo. By the end of the embargo in March 1974,the price of oil had risen from $3 per barrel to nearly $12.
The oil crisis, or "shock", had many short-term and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy. It was later called the "first oil shock", followed by the 1979 oil crisis, termed the "second oil shock."
In mid-1979, in the wake of widespread shortages of gasoline, Carter advanced a long-term program designed to solve the energy problem.
He proposed a limit on imported oil; Gradual price control on domestically produced oil; A stringent program of conservation
Development of alternative sources of energy such as solar, nuclear, and geothermal power, oil and gas from shale and coal, and synthetic fuels. In what was probably his most noted domestic legislative accomplishment, he pushed a significant portion of his energy program through Congress.
Carter agrees to transfer Panama Canal to Panama [September 7, 1977]
President Jimmy Carter signs a treaty that will give Panama control over the Panama Canal beginning in the year 2000. The treaty ended an agreement signed in 1904 between then-President Theodore Roosevelt and Panama, which gave the U.S. the right to build the canal and a renewable lease to control five miles of land along either side of it.
The Camp David Accords: On September 17, 1978, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel signed some accords at Camp David. Mediated by Carter after relations had strained, this was a great success. Israel agreed to withdraw from territory gained in the 1967 war, while Egypt would respect Israel’s territories.
A CIA coup in Iran ousts the country’s democratically elected prime minister, and ushers in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and the rise of anti-Americanism in the Middle East.
Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) in Vienna in June 1979, setting limits on the numbers of Soviet and U. S. nuclear-weapons systems.
In spite of his vigorous campaign, however, the treaty was not ratified by the Senate and eventually was placed in limbo by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
That invasion also resulted in Carter's insistence on an American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.
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