America

The 7 most relevant moments of Jimmy Carter’s presidency

Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat (left), Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (right) and US President Jimmy Carter (center). CONSOLIDATED NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)

( Spanish) – Jimmy Carter’s term as president, between 1977 and 1981, coincided with one of the most tense moments of the Cold War and a period of transition in the United States marked by economic difficulties.

Carter, of the Democratic Party, in fact failed to win re-election in the 1980 elections, when he was defeated by the Republican Ronald Reaganand his presidency is remembered both for its important successes and for the serious unresolved problems.

These are the 7 most relevant moments, for better or worse, of Carter’s presidency, started January 20, 1977 after his victory in the 1976 elections against Republican Gerald Ford.

The 1970s were filled with difficulties for the United States economy. After the recession recorded between 1973 and 1975caused in part by the oil crisis of 1973, the United States Gross Domestic Product began to grow again, but at a slow pace and with high levels of unemployment and inflation, in a process sometimes described like stagflation.

In fact, inflation reached its historic peak in the United States in 1980, reaching 13.5%, according to data from the World Bank, while the unemployment rose to 8.5%one of the highest records, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1981.

In the midst of all this, the United States suffered a severe energy crisis in 1979, marked by high fuel prices and widespread shortages, which put an end to meager growth and propped up stagflation.

These factors help explain Carter’s low popularity at the end of his term and his defeat in the 1980 elections. But that does not mean that his administration has not tried to revive the economy: the White House initiated a policy of fiscal austerity which would be continued in the 1980s, and a national energy policy to face the crisis and increase local oil production.

The Carter administration is best remembered for establishing a shift in the focus of US foreign policy toward the protection of human rights, which led Washington to maintain tense relations with South Korea, Iran, Argentina, South Africa and Rhodesia. (current Zimbabwe), among other countries.

Carter received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for these and other efforts in foreign policy and diplomacy.

On September 17, 1978, Carter reached what is probably the greatest milestone of his presidency: Egypt and Israel signed at Camp David, the US presidential residence in Maryland, an agreement that would end 31 years of war—after the signing of the treaty. of peace in 1979—and charted, for better and worse, the future of the Middle East.

The agreement, mediated by the United States, marked the first time that an Arab country recognized Israel and had an enormous impact on the entire region and especially in Palestine.

In another of the most memorable events of the Carter administration, the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, was stormed and diplomatic staff taken hostage during the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah of Persia and established the current Islamic Republic.

Carter’s inability to successfully negotiate the release of the hostages became a major political liability: the hostages were finally freed on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

One of the most important milestones of the Carter government in Latin America was the negotiation with the president of Panama, Omar Torrijos, of the agreements that would eventually lead to the surrender of control of the Panama Canal to the Central American country in 1999.

Carter and Torrijos signed the treaties on September 7, 1977, and these were ratified in 1978.

In 1980, the last year of Carter’s presidency, some 125,000 Cubans arrived in the United States in what has become known as the Mariel exodus, after the name of the Cuban port from which the boats departed.

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Carter then declared an “open arms” policy, in accordance with the United States National Archives, and approved a special reception program for Cubans and Haitians (the CHEPfor its acronym in English) that arrived during the exodus.

Building on the approaches made by Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Carter deepened the relationship between Washington and Beijing and in 1979 the countries established formal diplomatic relations for the first time since the emergence of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

This meant that the United States moved its embassy from Taipei, in Taiwan (then recognized by Washington as the legitimate government of China), to Beijing.

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