United States

Foreign affairs

More than any other president, Carter used diplomacy to promote human rights, especially with regard to the governments of South Korea, Iran, Argentina, South Africa, and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Efforts to continue the détente with the U.S.S.R. foundered as the Soviets supported revolutions in Africa, deployed medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe, and occupied Afghanistan. Relations with the People’s Republic of China, on the other hand, improved, and full diplomatic recognition of the communist government took effect on January 1, 1979. In September 1977 the United States and Panama signed two treaties giving control of the Panama Canal to Panama in the year 2000 and providing for the neutrality of the waterway.

Carter’s most noted achievement was to sponsor a great step toward peace in the Middle East. In September 1978 he met with Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at a two-week negotiating session at Camp David, Maryland, and on September 17 Carter announced that two accords had been signed establishing the terms for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Further torturous negotiations followed before the peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 1979.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter (centre), Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (left), and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sādāt (right) clasping hands on the White House lawn after the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, March 26, 1979.© Bettmann/Corbis

Carter’s greatest defeat was administered by Iran. In that country, following the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had been supported by the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed on February 1, 1979, under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In November militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and held its occupants hostage. An attempt to rescue the hostages in April 1980 failed, and the hostages were not released until Carter left office in January 1981. Carter’s inability to either resolve the hostage crisis or to manage American perceptions of it disabled him as a leader.

Blindfolded American hostage with his Iranian captors outside the U.S. embassy in Tehrān, November 9, 1979.AP