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ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue in the White House after the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, then recovered from a landslide defeat to become a global champion of human rights and democracy, has died. He was 100 years venerable.
The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives . The center said he died peacefully surrounded by his family.
Carter, a moderate Democrat, ran for president in 1976 as the little-known governor of Georgia with a broad grin, exuberant Baptist faith and technocratic plans for productive government. His promise to never deceive the American people was well received after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and the U.S. defeat in Southeast Asia.
“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. “I don’t deserve to be your president,” Carter said.
Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes plummeted after Nixon’s pardon, came amid the pressures of the Cold War, turbulent oil markets and social unrest over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering peace in the Middle East by detaining Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978.
But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations eventually brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran did not release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had defeated him in the 1980 election.
Humbled and at home in Georgia, Carter said his faith required him to do everything he could for as long as possible to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded the Carter Center in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights activists, and advocates for democracy and public health.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped reduce nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiate ceasefires in Bosnia and Sudan. As of 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections worldwide. Carter was determined to eradicate Guinea worm infections as one of many public health initiatives. In their 90s, the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity.
The general observation that he was better as a former president angered Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians revisit his presidency and declare it more impactful than many believed at the time.
Fueled by voters in Iowa and then throughout the South in 1976, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election year Playboy interview drew laughter when he said he had “looked at a lot of women with lust.” I have often committed adultery in my heart,” voters who were tired of political cynicism found this appealing.
The first family set an informal tone at the White House by carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s conventional “Hail to the Chief” and enrolling daughter Amy in public schools. Carter was mocked for wearing a cardigan and urged Americans to turn down their thermostats.
But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and significantly reduced America’s dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry as well as airlines, trains and trucking. He created the Departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and non-whites to federal office, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness, and pardoned most of the draft dodgers in Vietnam.
He emphasized human rights, largely ended support for military dictators and addressed bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He convinced the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal Treaties and normalize relations with China, a result of Nixon’s efforts to woo Beijing.
But paralyzing shifts in foreign policy took their toll.
As OPEC raised crude oil prices and drivers had to wait in line to fill up with gas as inflation hit 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters instead lost faith in Carter after the infamous speech, which the media called his “malaise speech,” even though he never used that word.
After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the United States for medical treatment, the American embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly release the hostages failed, and then eight Americans died in a top-secret military rescue attempt gone wrong.
After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Carter also had to make a U-turn on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty. Although historians later credited Carter’s diplomatic efforts with hastening the end of the Cold War, Republicans characterized his pliable power as tender. Reagan’s appeals to “Make America Great Again” were well received, and he defeated Carter in all but six states.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 and married his compatriot Rosalynn Smith in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his adolescent family back to Plains after his father’s death and gave up his Navy career. They soon turned their ambitions to politics. Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and black voters elected him governor in 1970, he gained national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.”
Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center focused its democracy advocacy on U.S. politics and oversaw an audit of the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
After a cancer diagnosis in 2015, Carter said he was “completely comfortable with whatever comes.”
“I had a wonderful life,” he said. “I had thousands of friends, I had an exciting, adventurous and fulfilling life.”
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Contributors include former AP staffer Alex Sanz in Atlanta.
