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- Physicist Otto Robert Frisch, 1904
- Architect Giacomo (Jacopo) Barozzi (Barocchio) da Vignola, 1507
- 39th President of the United States James Earl (Jimmy) Carter, Jr., 1924
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia, from 1971 to 1975, and was a peanut farmer and naval officer.
As president, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II). Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He returned the Panama Canal Zone to
Panama and faced criticism at home for what was widely seen as yet
another signal of US weakness. He took office during a period of
international stagflation which
persisted throughout his term and eroded his popularity. The final year
of his presidential tenure was marked by several major crises,
including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran and holding of hostages by Iranian students, an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. By 1980, Carter had become so unpopular that Ted Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 election. Carter survived the primary challenge, but lost the election to Republican Ronald Reagan in a 44 state landslide. After leaving office, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded The Carter Center in 1982, a non governmental, not-for-profit organization that
works to advance human rights. He has traveled extensively to conduct
peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention
and eradication in developing nations. Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project, and also remains particularly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jimmy Carter is a native Georgian, born and raised in the tiny southwest Georgia hamlet of Plains near the larger town of Americus. The Carter family originated from southern England (Carter's paternal ancestor arrived in the American Colonies in 1635), and
had lived in the state of Georgia for several generations; his
great-grandfather, Private L.B. Walker Carter (1832–1874), served in the Confederate States Army. The first president born in a hospital, he was the eldest of four children of James Earl Carter and Bessie Lillian Gordy.
Carter's father was a prominent business owner in the community and his
mother was a registered nurse. He was a gifted student from an early
age who always had a fondness for reading. By the time he attended
Plains High School, he was also a star in basketball. He was greatly
influenced by one of his high school teachers, Julia Coleman
(1889–1973). While he was in high school he was in the Future Farmers of America , which later changed its name to the National FFA Organization , serving as the Plains FFA Chapter Secretary. After high school, Carter enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College, in Americus. He would later apply to the United States Naval Academy and, after taking additional mathematics courses at Georgia Tech, he was admitted in 1943. Carter graduated 59th out of 820 midshipmen. Carter had three younger siblings: his brother, William Alton "Billy" Carter (1937–1988), and sisters Gloria Carter Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Carter Stapleton (1929–1983). During Carter's Presidency, his brother Billy was often in the news, often in an unflattering light. He married Rosalynn Smith in 1946. They had four children: John William "Jack" Carter (born 1947); James Earl "Chip" Carter III (born 1950); Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, (born 1952) and Amy Lynn Carter (born 1967). He is a cousin of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. on his mother's side, and a cousin of the late June Carter Cash. Carter served on surface ships and on diesel-electric submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine. He applied for the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program run by then Captain Hyman G. Rickover.
Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter
later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest
influence on him. Carter has said that he loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations.
Carter felt the best route for promotion was with submarine duty since
he felt that nuclear power would be increasingly used in submarines.
During service on the diesel-electric submarine USS Pomfret, Carter was almost washed overboard. After six years of military service, Carter trained for the position of engineering officer in submarine USS Seawolf, then under construction. Carter completed a non-credit introductory course in nuclear reactor power at Union College starting
in March 1953. This followed Carter's first-hand experience as part of
a group of American and Canadian servicemen who took part in cleaning
up after a partial nuclear meltdown at Canada's Chalk River Laboratories reactor in 1952. Upon
the death of his father, James Earl Carter, Sr., in July 1953,
Lieutenant Carter immediately resigned his commission, and he was
discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953. This
cut short his nuclear powerplant operator training, and he was never
able to serve on a nuclear submarine, since the first boat of that
fleet, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), was launched on January 17, 1955, over a year after his discharge from the Navy. After
his naval service, Carter then took over and expanded his family
business in Plains. There he was involved in a peanut farming accident
that left him with a permanently bent finger. His farming business was
successful, and during the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, he was
considered a wealthy peanut farmer. From
a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity, serving
as a Sunday School teacher throughout his life. Even as President,
Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was
the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a
sermon he had heard as a young man, called, "If you were arrested for
being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Jimmy
Carter started his career by serving on various local boards, governing
such entities as the schools, hospitals, and libraries, among others.
In the 1960s, he served two terms in the Georgia Senate from the fourteenth district of Georgia. His 1961 election to the state Senate, which followed the end of Georgia's County Unit System (per the Supreme Court case of Gray v. Sanders), was chronicled in his book Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. The election involved corruption led by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County;
system abuses included votes from deceased persons and tallies filled
with people who supposedly voted in alphabetical order. It took a
challenge of the fraudulent results for Carter to win the election.
Carter was reelected in 1964, to serve a second two-year term. For a time in State Senate he chaired its Education Committee. In
1966, Carter declined running for re-election as a state senator to
pursue a gubernatorial run. His first cousin, Hugh Carter, was elected as a Democrat and took over his seat in the Senate. In 1966, during the end of his career as a state senator, he flirted with the idea of running for the United States House of Representatives.
His Republican opponent dropped out and decided to run for Governor of
Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican Governor of his state,
and, in turn, dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race
to become Governor. Carter lost the Democratic primary, but drew enough
votes as a third place candidate to force the favorite, Ellis Arnall, into a runoff election, setting off a chain of events which resulted in the election of Lester Maddox. During this race Carter ran as a moderate alternative to both liberal Arnall and conservative Maddox. Although he lost, his strong third place finish was viewed as a success for a little-known state senator. For
the next four years, Carter returned to his agriculture business and
carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making
over 1,800 speeches throughout the state. During his 1970 campaign, he
ran an uphill populist campaign in the Democratic primary against
former Governor Carl Sanders, labeling his opponent "Cufflinks Carl". Carter was never a segregationist, and refused to join the segregationist White Citizens' Council,
prompting a boycott of his peanut warehouse. He also had been one of
only two families which voted to admit blacks to the Plains Baptist
Church. However, he "said things the segregationists wanted to hear", according to historian E. Stanly Godbold. Also, Carter's campaign aides handed out a photograph of his opponent celebrating with black basketball players. Following his close victory over Sanders in the primary, he was elected Governor over Republican Hal Suit.
Carter
was sworn in as the 76th Governor of Georgia on January 12, 1971 and
held this post for one term, until January 14, 1975. Governors of
Georgia were not allowed to succeed themselves at the time. His
predecessor as Governor, Lester Maddox, became the Lieutenant Governor.
However, Carter and Maddox found little common ground during their four
years of service, often publicly feuding with each other. Carter
declared in his inaugural speech that the time of racial segregation
was over, and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of
the state. He was the first statewide office holder in the Deep South to say this in public. Afterwards,
Carter appointed many African Americans to statewide boards and
offices. He was often called one of the "New Southern Governors" –
much more moderate than their predecessors, and supportive of racial
desegregation and expanding African-Americans' rights. Although "personally opposed" to abortion, after the landmark US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 (1973) Carter supported legalized abortion. He did not support increased federal funding for abortion services as president and was criticized by the ACLU for not doing enough to find alternatives to abortion. Carter
improved government efficiency by merging about 300 state agencies into
30 agencies. One of his aides recalled that Governor Carter "was right
there with us, working just as hard, digging just as deep into every
little problem. It was his program and he worked on it as hard as
anybody, and the final product was distinctly his." He also pushed
reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools
in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for
mentally handicapped children, and increased educational programs for
convicts. Carter took pride in a program he introduced for the
appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this
program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than
political influence. In 1972, as US Senator George McGovern of
South Dakota was marching toward the Democratic nomination for
President, Carter called a news conference in Atlanta to warn that
McGovern was unelectable. Carter criticized McGovern as too liberal on
both foreign and domestic policy, yet when McGovern's nomination became
a foregone conclusion, Carter lobbied to become his vice-presidential
running mate. During the 1972 Democratic National Convention he endorsed the candidacy of Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington. However, Carter received 30 votes at the Democratic National Convention in the chaotic ballot for Vice President. McGovern offered the second spot to Reubin Askew, from next door Florida and one of the "new southern governors", but he declined. After
the US Supreme Court overturned Georgia's death penalty law in 1972,
Carter quickly proposed state legislation to replace the death penalty
with life in prison (an option which previously didn't exist). When the legislature passed a new death penalty statute, Carter, despite voicing reservations about its constitutionality, signed new legislation on March 28, 1973 to
authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses, and to
implement trial procedures which would conform to the newly-announced
constitutional requirements. In 1976, the Supreme Court upheld
Georgia's new death penalty for murder; in the case of Coker v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional as applied to rape. Many in America were outraged by William Calley's life sentence at Fort Benning for his role in the My Lai Massacre;
Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to
drive for a week with their lights on in support of Calley. Indiana's
governor asked all state flags to be flown at half-staff for Calley,
and Utah's and Mississippi's governors also disagreed with the verdict. Despite
his earlier support, Carter soon became a death penalty opponent, and
during Presidential campaigns (like previous nominee George McGovern
and two successive nominees, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis), this was noted. Currently, Carter is known for his outspoken opposition to the death penalty in all forms; in his Nobel Prize lecture, he urged "prohibition of the death penalty".
Richard Russell, Jr., then-President pro tempore of the United States Senate, died in office on January 21, 1971. Carter, only nine days into his governorship, appointed state Democratic Party chair David H. Gambrell to fill an unexpired Russell term in the Senate on February 1. Gambrell was defeated in the next Democratic primary by the more conservative Sam Nunn. In 1973, while Governor of Georgia, Carter filed a report on his 1969 UFO sighting with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City. However,
in 2007, Carter stated that he did not remember why he filed the report
and that he believes he probably only did it at the request of one of
his children. He also stated he does not believe it was an alien
spacecraft, but rather believes it was likely some sort of military
experiment being conducted from a nearby military base. Carter made an appearance as the first guest of the evening on an episode of the game show What's My Line in 1974, signing in as "X", lest his name give away his occupation. After his job was identified on question seven of ten by Gene Shalit, he talked about having brought movie production to the state of Georgia, citing Deliverance, and the then-unreleased The Longest Yard. In 1974, Carter was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional, as well as gubernatorial, campaigns.
When
Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1976, he
was considered to have little chance against nationally better-known
politicians. He had a name recognition of
only two percent. When he told his family of his intention to run for
President, his mother asked, "President of what?" However, the Watergate scandal was
still fresh in the voters' minds, and so his position as an outsider,
distant from Washington, D.C., became an asset. The centerpiece of his
campaign platform was government reorganization. Carter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
He used a two-prong strategy: In the South, which most had tacitly
conceded to Alabama's George Wallace, Carter ran as a moderate favorite
son. When Wallace proved to be a spent force, Carter swept the region.
In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and
rural voters and had little chance of winning a majority in most
states. He won several Northern states by building the largest single
bloc. Carter's strategy involved reaching a region before another
candidate could extend influence there. He traveled over 50,000 miles,
visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other
candidates even announced that they were in the race. Initially
dismissed as a regional candidate, Carter proved to be the only
Democrat with a truly national strategy, and he eventually clinched the
nomination. The media discovered and promoted Carter, as Lawrence Shoup noted in his 1980 book The Carter Presidency and Beyond: Carter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of Playboy for
its November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks
before the election. It was here that in the course of a digression on
his religion's view of pride, Carter admitted: "I've looked on a lot of
women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." He
remains the only American president to be interviewed by this magazine.
As late as January 26, 1976, Carter was the first choice of only four
percent of Democratic voters, according to a Gallup poll.
Yet "by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only far ahead of the active
contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led
President Ford by a few percentage points", according to Shoup. He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his running mate. He attacked Washington in his speeches, and offered a religious salve for the nation's wounds. Carter
began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who was able to narrow
the gap over the course of the campaign, but was unable to prevent
Carter from narrowly defeating him on November 2, 1976. Carter won the
popular vote by 50.1 percent to 48.0 percent for Ford and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. He became the first contender from the Deep South to be elected President since the 1848 election. Carter
was elected over Gerald Ford and Eugene McCarthy in 1976. His tenure
was a time of continuing inflation and recession, as well as an energy
crisis. On January 7, 1980, Carter signed Law H.R. 5860 aka Public Law 96-185 known as The Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 bailing out Chrysler Corporation.
He led the plan to deregulate the airline industry. He canceled
military pay raises during a time of high inflation and government
deficits. He declared amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers. He encouraged
energy conservation, installed solar panels on the White House, and
wore sweaters while turning down the heat. While attempting to calm
various conflicts around the World, most visibly in the Middle East
resulting in the signing of the Camp David Accords, giving back the
Panama Canal and signing the SALT II nuclear arms reduction treaty with
the USSR, the final year of his administration was marred by the Iran hostage crisis which
contributed to his loss in his 1980 campaign for re-election to Ronald
Reagan. He wore a sweater on April 17, 1977 and delivered a fireside
chat where he famously declared that the energy situation was the moral equivalent of war while clenching his fist. Carter
wrote that the most intense and mounting opposition to his policies
came from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he attributed
to Ted Kennedy’s ambition to replace him as president. In 1981, Carter returned to Georgia to his peanut farm, which he had placed into a blind trust during
his presidency to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
He found that the trustees had mismanaged the trust, leaving him over
one million dollars in debt. In the years that followed, he has led an
active life, establishing The Carter Center, building his presidential
library, teaching at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and writing
numerous books. When he first left office, Carter's presidency was viewed by some as a failure. In historical rankings of US presidents,
the Carter presidency has ranged from #19 to #34. Although Carter's
presidency received mixed reviews from some historians, his all-around
peace keeping and humanitarian efforts since he left office have led
him to be widely renowned as one of the most successful ex-presidents in US history. Although Carter has also received mixed reviews in both television and film documentaries, such as the Man from Plains (2007), the 2009 Documentary, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace,
credits Carter's efforts at Camp David, which brought peace between
Israel and Egypt, with bringing the only meaningful peace to the Middle
East. The film opened the 2009 Monte-Carlo Television Festival in an
invitation-only royal screening on June 7, 2009 at the Grimaldi Forum in the presence of His Serene Highness Albert II, Prince of Monaco. The
film has not yet shown in the United States, an indication of Carter's
comparatively high popularity overseas versus at home in the U.S. Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are
the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On
December 11, 2006, they had been out of office for 25 years and 325
days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826. Jimmy Carter is one of only four presidents, and the only one in modern history, who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court. The Independent reported, "Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president." While he began his term with a 66% approval rating, this dropped to 34% approval by the time he left office, with 55% disapproving. In the wake of Nixon's Watergate Scandal, exit polls from the 1976 Presidential election suggested that many still held Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon against him, and Carter by comparison seemed a sincere, honest, and well-meaning Southerner. When Carter ran for reelection, Ronald Reagan's
nonchalant self-confidence contrasted to Carter's serious and
introspective temperament. Carter's personal attention to detail,
seeming indecisiveness and weakness with people was also accentuated by
Reagan's charm and easy delegation of tasks to subordinates. Ultimately, the combination of the economic problems, Iran hostage crisis, and lack of Washington cooperation made it easy for Reagan to portray him as an ineffectual leader. Since
leaving office, Carter's reputation has much improved. Carter's
presidential approval rating, which sat at 31% just prior to the 1980
election, was polled in early 2009 at 64%. Carter's
continued post-Presidency activities have also been favorably received.
Carter explains that a great deal of this change was owed to Reagan's
successor, George H.W. Bush, who actively sought him out and was far more courteous and interested in his advice than Reagan had been. Carter
has maintained working relationships with former Presidents Clinton and
George H.W. Bush, and despite their political differences the three men
all have become good friends over the years while working together in a
number of humanitarian and other projects. As
President, Carter expressed a goal of making government "competent and
compassionate." In pursuit of that vision, he has been involved in a
variety of national and international public policy, conflict
resolution, human rights and charitable causes. In 1982, he established The Carter Center in
Atlanta to advance human rights and alleviate unnecessary human
suffering. The non-profit, non governmental Center promotes democracy,
mediates and prevents conflicts, and monitors the electoral process in
support of free and fair elections. It also works to improve global
health through the control and eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm disease, river blindness, malaria, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis.
It also works to diminish the stigma of mental illnesses and improve
nutrition through increased crop production in Africa. A major
accomplishment of The Carter Center has been the elimination of more
than 99% of cases of Guinea worm disease,
a debilitating parasite that has existed since ancient times, from an
estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to fewer than 10,000 cases in 2007. The Carter Center has monitored 70 elections in 28 countries since 1989. It has worked to resolve conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and other countries. Carter and the Center actively support human rights defenders around the world and have intervened with heads of state on their behalf.
In 2002, President Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work "to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to
advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social
development" through The Carter Center. Three sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and
Barack Obama, have received the prize; Carter is unique in receiving
the award for his actions after leaving the presidency. He is, along
with Martin Luther King, Jr., one of only two native Georgians to receive the Nobel. In 1994, North Korea had expelled investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency and
was threatening to begin processing spent nuclear fuel. In response
then-President Clinton pressured for US sanctions and ordered large
amounts of troops and vehicles into the area to brace for war. Bill
Clinton secretly recruited Carter to undertake a peace mission to North
Korea, under the guise that it was a private mission of Carter's. Clinton saw Carter as a way to let North Korean President Kim Il-sung back down without losing face. Carter
negotiated an understanding with Kim Il-sung, but went further and
outlined a treaty which he announced on CNN without the permission of
the Clinton White House as a way to force the US into action. The
Clinton Administration signed a later version of the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its current nuclear program and comply with its nonproliferation obligations in exchange for oil deliveries, the construction of two light water reactors to replace its graphite reactors,
and discussions for eventual diplomatic relations. The agreement was
widely hailed at the time as a significant diplomatic achievement. However, in December 2002, the Agreed Framework collapsed as a result of a dispute between the George W. Bush Administration and the North Korean government of Kim Jong-il.
In 2001, President George W. Bush had taken a confrontational position
toward North Korea and, in January 2002, named it as part of an "Axis of Evil." Meanwhile, North Korea began developing the capability to enrich uranium. Bush Administration opponents of the Agreed Framework believed
that the North Korean government never intended to give up a nuclear
weapons program, but supporters believed that the agreement could have
been successful and was undermined. Carter
and experts from The Carter Center assisted unofficial Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators in designing a model agreement for
peace –- called the Geneva Accord –- in 2002–2003. Carter has also in recent years become a frequent critic of Israel's policies in Lebanon, West Bank, and Gaza. In April 2008, the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on his visit to Syria. The Carter Center initially did not confirm nor deny the story. The US State Department considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Within this Mid-East trip, Carter also laid a wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on April 14, 2008. Carter said on April 23 that neither Condoleezza Rice nor anyone else in the State Department had warned him against meeting with Hamas leaders during his trip. Carter spoke to Mashaal on several matters, including "formulas for prisoner exchange to obtain the release of Corporal Shalit." In
May 2007, while arguing that the United States should directly talk to
Iran, Carter stated that Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal. In December 2008, Carter visited Damascus again, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the Hamas leadership. During his visit he gave an exclusive interview to Forward Magazine, the first ever interview for any American president, current or former, with a Syrian media outlet. Carter held summits in Egypt and Tunisia in 1995–1996 to address violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Carter played a key role in negotiation of the Nairobi Agreement in 1999 between Sudan and Uganda. On July 18, 2007, Carter joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to announce his participation in a new humanitarian organization called The Elders. In October 2007, Carter toured Darfur with several of The Elders, including Desmond Tutu. Sudanese security prevented him from visiting a Darfuri tribal leader, leading to a heated exchange. On June 18, 2007, Carter, accompanied by his wife, arrived in Dublin, Ireland, for talks with President Mary McAleese and Bertie Ahern concerning human rights. On June 19, Carter attended and spoke at the annual Human Rights Forum at Croke Park. An agreement between Irish Aid and The Carter Center was also signed on this day. In November 2008, President Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, were stopped from entering Zimbabwe, to inspect the human rights situation, by President Robert Mugabe's government. Carter led a mission to Haiti in 1994 with Senator Sam Nunn and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell to avert a US-led multinational invasion and restore to power Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Carter visited Cuba in May 2002 and had full discussions with Fidel Castro and the Cuban government.
He was allowed to address the Cuban public uncensored on national
television and radio with a speech that he wrote and presented in
Spanish. In the speech, he called on the US to end "an ineffective
43-year-old economic embargo" and on Castro to hold free elections,
improve human rights, and allow greater civil liberties. He met with political dissidents; visited the AIDS sanitarium, a medical school, a biotech facility,
an agricultural production cooperative, and a school for disabled
children; and threw a pitch for an all-star baseball game in Havana. The visit made Carter the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban revolution of 1959. Carter observed the Venezuela recall elections on August 15, 2004. European Union observers had declined to participate, saying too many restrictions were put on them by the Hugo Chávez administration. A record number of voters turned out to defeat the recall attempt with a 59% "no" vote. The
Carter Center stated that the process "suffered from numerous
irregularities," but said it did not observe or receive "evidence of
fraud that would have changed the outcome of the vote". On the afternoon of August 16, 2004, the day after the vote, Carter and Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General César Gaviria gave
a joint press conference in which they endorsed the preliminary results
announced by the National Electoral Council. The monitors' findings
"coincided with the partial returns announced today by the National
Elections Council," said Carter, while Gaviria added that the OAS
electoral observation mission's members had "found no element of fraud
in the process." Directing his remarks at opposition figures who made
claims of "widespread fraud" in the voting, Carter called on all
Venezuelans to "accept the results and work together for the future". However, a Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll had
predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%; when the election
results showed him to have won by 20%, Schoen commented, "I think it
was a massive fraud". US News and World Report offered
an analysis of the polls, indicating "very good reason to believe that
the [Penn, Schoen & Berland] exit poll had the result right, and
that Chávez's election officials – and Carter and the
American media – got it wrong." The exit poll and the government's
programming of election machines became the basis of claims of election
fraud. Indymedia, citing the Associated Press,
reports that Penn, Schoen & Berland used Súmate [pro-recall]
volunteers for fieldwork, and its results contradicted five other
opposition exit polls. Following Ecuador's severing of ties with Colombia in March 2008, Carter brokered a deal for agreement between the countries' respective presidents on the restoration of low-level diplomatic relations announced June 8, 2008.
On
November 18, 2009, Carter visited Vietnam to build houses for the poor.
The one-week program, known as Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project
2009, would bring 32 houses to Dong Xa village in the northern province of Hai Duong. The project launch was scheduled for November 14, the news source quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga as saying. Administered by the non-governmental and non-profit Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI),
the annual program of 2009 would build and repair 166 homes in Vietnam
and some other Asian countries with the support of nearly 3,000
volunteers around the world, the organization said on its website. HFHI
has worked in Vietnam since 2001 to provide low-cost housing, water and
sanitation solutions for the poor. It has worked in provinces like Tien Giang and Dong Nai as well as Ho Chi Minh City. In 2001, Carter criticized President Bill Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich,
calling it "disgraceful" and suggesting that Rich's financial
contributions to the Democratic Party were a factor in Clinton's action. Carter has also criticized the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War. In a 2003 New York Times editorial, Carter warned against the consequences of a war in Iraq and urged restraint in use of military force. In March 2004, Carter condemned George W. Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war "based upon lies and misinterpretations" in order to oust Saddam Hussein.
In August 2006, Carter criticized Blair for being "subservient" to the
Bush administration and accused Blair of giving unquestioning support
to Bush's Iraq policies. In a May 2007 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,
he said, "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the
world, this administration has been the worst in history," when it
comes to foreign affairs. However, two days after the quote was published, Carter told NBC's Today that
the "worst in history" comment was "careless or misinterpreted," and
that he "wasn't comparing this administration with other
administrations back through history, but just with President Nixon's." The day after the "worst in history" comment was published, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that Carter had become "increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments." On May 19, 2007, Mr. Blair made his final visit to Iraq before stepping down as British Prime Minister, and Carter used the occasion to criticize him once again. Carter told the BBC that Blair was "apparently subservient" to Bush and criticized him for his "blind support" for the Iraq war. Carter
described Blair's actions as "abominable" and stated that the British
Prime Minister's "almost undeviating support for the ill-advised
policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the
world." Carter said he believes that had Blair distanced himself from
the Bush administration during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003,
it may have made a crucial difference to American political and public
opinion, and consequently the invasion might not have gone ahead.
Carter states that "one of the defenses of the Bush administration ...
has been, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world
thinks because Great Britain is backing us. So I think the combination
of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has
strengthened the effort and has made the opposition less effective, and
prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted." Carter
expressed his hope that Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, would be "less enthusiastic" about Bush's Iraq policy. In June 2005, Carter urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, which has been a focal point for recent claims of prisoner abuse. In September 2006, Carter was interviewed on the BBC's current affairs program Newsnight, voicing his concern at the increasing influence of the Religious Right on US politics. Due to his status as former President, Carter was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Carter announced his endorsement of Senator (now president) Barack
Obama. This occurred on June 3, 2008, near the end of the primary
season. Speaking to the English Monthly Forward gazine of Syria,
Carter was asked to give one word that came to mind when mentioning
President George W. Bush. His answer was: the end of a very
disappointing administration. His reaction to mentioning Barack Obama
was: Honesty, intelligence, and politically adept. In 2009 he put weight behind allegations by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, pertaining to United States involvement in the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt by a civilian-military junta, saying that Washington knew about the coup and may have taken part. Carter
continues to speak out against the death penalty in the US and abroad.
Most recently, in his letter to the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson,
Carter urged him to sign a bill to eliminate the death penalty and
institute life in prison without parole instead. The bill has already
been passed by the state House and Senate. Carter wrote: As
you know, the United States is one of the few countries, along with
nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba, which still carry out
the death penalty despite the ongoing tragedy of wrongful conviction
and gross racial and class-based disparities that make impossible the
fair implementation of this ultimate punishment. Carter also called for commutations of death sentences for many death-row inmates, including Brian K. Baldwin (executed in 1999 in Alabama), Kenneth Foster (sentence in Texas commuted in 2007) and Troy Anthony Davis (Georgia, case pending).
In a 2008 interview with Amnesty International,
Carter criticized the alleged use of torture in at Guantanamo Bay,
saying that it "contravenes the basic principles on which this nation
was founded." He
stated that the next President should publicly apologize upon his
inauguration, and state that the United States will "never again
torture prisoners."
Carter
has been a prolific author in his post-presidency, writing 21 of his 23
books. Among these is one he co-wrote with his wife, Rosalynn, and a children's book illustrated by his daughter, Amy. They cover a variety of topics, including humanitarian work, aging, religion, human rights, and poetry. In his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, published in November 2006, Carter states: While he recognizes that Arab citizens in Israel proper have equal rights, he declares that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid,
with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from
each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by
depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights." In an Op-Ed titled "Speaking Frankly about Israel and Palestine," published in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, Carter states: While
some – such as a former Special Rapporteur for both the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law
Commission, as well as a member of the Israeli Knesset – have
praised Carter for speaking frankly about Palestinians in Israeli occupied lands, others – including the envoy to the Middle East under Clinton, as well as the first director of the Carter Center –
have accused him of anti-Israeli bias. Specifically, these critics have
alleged significant factual errors, omissions and misstatements in the
book. Apparently
angered by Carter's book, Israeli security refused to provide Carter
protection during the first part of an April 2008 visit. The 2007 documentary film, Man from Plains, follows President Carter during his tour for the controversial book and other Humanitarian Efforts. In
December 2009, Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have
upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often
tense relationship. He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are also well-known for their work as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based philanthropy that helps low-income working people to build and buy their own homes. He teaches Sunday school and is a deacon in the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. In 2000, Carter severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, saying the group's doctrines did not align with his Christian beliefs. In April 2006, Carter, former-President Bill Clinton and Mercer University President Bill Underwood initiated the New Baptist Covenant. The broadly inclusive movement seeks to unite Baptists of
all races, cultures and convention affiliations. Eighteen Baptist
leaders representing more than 20 million Baptists across North America
backed the group as an alternative to the Southern Baptist Convention. The group held its first meeting in Atlanta, January 30 through February 1, 2008. Carter's hobbies include painting, fly-fishing, woodworking, cycling, tennis, and skiing. The Carters have three sons, one daughter, eight grandsons, three granddaughters, and one great-grandson.
Carter
has participated in many ceremonial events such as the opening of his
own presidential library and those of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George
H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He has also participated in many forums,
lectures, panels, funerals and other events. Carter delivered a eulogy
at the funeral of Coretta Scott King and, most recently, at the funeral of his former political rival, but later his close, personal friend and diplomatic collaborator, Gerald Ford. Whether Carter will be included in the Presidential $1 Coin Program depends on whether he is still alive in 2014.
Carter
ignited debate in September 2009 when he stated, "I think an
overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward
President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,
that he is African-American." Obama
disagreed with Carter's assessment. On CNN Obama stated, "Are there
people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there
are...that's not the overriding issue here."
Carter intends to be buried in front of his home in Plains, Georgia. In contrast, most Presidents since Herbert Hoover have been buried at their presidential library or presidential museum, with the exception of John F. Kennedy, who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who is buried at his own ranch. Both President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in Plains. Carter also noted that a funeral in Washington, D.C. with visitation at the Carter Center is being planned as well.
“ What
Carter had that his opponents did not was the acceptance and support of
elite sectors of the mass communications media. It was their favorable
coverage of Carter and his campaign that gave him an edge, propelling
him rocket-like to the top of the opinion polls. This helped Carter win
key primary election victories, enabling him to rise from an obscure
public figure to President-elect in the short space of 9 months. ”
