House of Cards Wiki
Register
Advertisement
House of Cards Wiki
Jimmy Carter 2

James Earl Carter Jr. was an American retired politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter as a slightly below-average president, although his post-presidential activities are considered exceptional.

At 98 years, 4 months and 22 days old and with a 42 years, 1 month and 3 days-long retirement, Carter is both the longest-lived president and the one with the longest post-presidency, and his 76 year long marriage to his late wife Rosalynn Carter made him the longest-married president. Carter has been the oldest living president since the death of George H. W. Bush in 2018, and he is also the third oldest living person to have served as a nation's leader.

After leaving office, he remained engaged in political and social projects, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work. On February 18, 2023, it was announced that Carter was in home hospice care. The statement, published by the Carter Center, read:

After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention. He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.

History[]

Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the United States Navy, serving on numerous submarines. Afterward, he returned home to Plains, where he regrew his family's peanut-growing business. During this period, he opposed racial segregation, supported the growing civil rights movement and became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to 1967, he served in the Georgia State Senate and, in 1970, was elected governor of Georgia, remaining in that capacity until 1975. As a dark horse candidate who was not well known outside of Georgia, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination and then narrowly defeated incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford in the 1976 United States presidential election.

On his second day as president, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders. During his presidency, the United States Department of Energy and the Department of Education were established. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He also confronted stagflation. The end of his presidency was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island accident, the Nicaraguan Revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to the invasion, he escalated the Cold War when he ended détente, imposed a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciated the Carter Doctrine, and led the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. In the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries, Carter took the nomination over United States senator Ted Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, but then lost the presidential election in a landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan.

Carter left office in 1981 as the only American president to have served a full term in office and not have appointed a justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1982, he established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections and further the eradication of infectious diseases. He is a key figure in the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity and has written numerous books, ranging from political memoirs to poetry, while continuing to comment on global affairs, including two books on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in which he criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians as apartheid. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter as a slightly below-average president, although his post-presidential activities are considered exceptional. At 98 years, 4 months and 22 days old and with a 42 years, 1 month and 3 days-long retirement, Carter is both the longest-lived president and the one with the longest post-presidency, and his 76 year long marriage to his late wife Rosalynn Carter made him the longest-married president. Carter has been the oldest living president since the death of George H. W. Bush in 2018, and he is also the third oldest living person to have served as a nation's leader.

Advertisement