Jimmy Carter

My third presidential biography brought me to an oft-forgotten patriot, Jimmy Carter. I was interested in Carter for a number of reasons. First, he went to the Naval Academy, but wasn’t an admiral or war hero like previous presidents, and I was curious how his military service related to his political career. Second, he is widely regarded as a failed president, and I wanted to learn why and to what extent. Third, I’m currently living in Georgia only a few hours from his presidential library and wanted to visit as an informed citizen. Finally, he is one of the few Americans to become president, and that makes him worthy of my attention.

In keeping with this series of poorly organized reflections on the lives of extraordinary men, I’ve grouped my thoughts into a few general themes.

The Strangest President

Jimmy Carter has led such a strange and interesting life. By definition, anyone who becomes president has led an interesting life, but Carter stands above the rest in terms of his rapid ascendancy from a peanut farm and prolific career after his presidency. Carter’s life also spanned perhaps the greatest transformation of American life. Suffice it to say, he is still alive today and was born and raised on a homestead with “no running water, no electricity, no insulation and no mechanized farm equipment.”

Carter started schooling at Georgia Southwestern and Georgia Tech before moving to the Naval Academy. There was no discussion in the biography of why he did not enlist to fight in WWII as many other patriotic young men did, which is an unanswered question I have. The Naval Academy was clearly a formative experience for Jimmy. He viewed his hazing as developmental and considered it good preparation for politics, just as it was good preparation for classmate James Stockdale’s eight years of captivity in North Vietnam. (54) With the sadism behind him, Jimmy became a submarine officer.

Going Nuc-you-ler

Carter’s naval career was unremarkable. He missed out on WWII and the Korean War. He planned to be a career officer, as was the goal of most service academy graduates back in the day. He became a “nuclear engineer,” a claim that earned him some flack as a politician considering he was not one by formal education. He served under Hyman Rickover, the admiral famous for fielding a nuclear submarine before any nuclear power plants. Rickover was a tough boss, and subjected Jimmy to a grueling interview. He was grilled on literature and asked to name his favorite movement from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, which Jimmy could answer based on his time listening to opera at the Naval Academy. (81) He got the job and became part of a nuclear task force.

Despite a promising position, he would leave the Navy shortly after his father died of pancreatic cancer. This was not before serving on a quick reaction force for the Chalk River Laboratory nuclear meltdown. It’s interesting to think Of Carter entering a nuclear disaster in a hazmat suit, especially at a time when people didn’t fully understand the impacts of radiation, as the horrific long-term health consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not yet materialized. Jimmy seems not to have suffered too much from his exposure given his incredible longevity.

Peanuts

Jimmy’s return to Plains reveals an important insight into his character: he felt like he had to save the day. His father had left a debt and an overall unpromising situation at the family business, which Jimmy did not feel his younger siblings were up to the task of rectifying. His crop failed the first year but he eventually became a successful farmer.

The author focuses on Carter’s inactivity during the Civil Rights movement while living in Plains. Despite being the chairman of the school board, he did nothing after Brown V. Board of Ed. His housekeeper, who was black, complained about people trying to move her kids’ bus stop out of sight. Carter responded with “there’s nothing I can do.” (108) Alter points all this out not to lambast him for not doing anything, but to show how this inaction riddled him with guilt for the rest of his life and drove his behavior while in office and after.

Politics

He got involved with politics in a Mr. Smith Goes To Washington fashion, starting with the state senate. In his first election, he lost to Homer Moore, who had committed election fraud. After taking Moore to court, he eventually won. After the state senate, he ran for governor. He lost the 1966 campaign to Lester Maddox, a renowned segregationist, but licked his wounds, became a born-again Christian, and won the 1976 election for Governor.

He ran a racist campaign. It’s a shame that he did so, but if he hadn’t he would not have become the governor of Georgia. While in office, he did a lot to advance the Civil Rights cause. Such is politics, where ends have always justified means for better or for worse. The campaign was notable for using hints at racism or “dog-whistles”. He would use phrases like “Georgia’s heritage,” “law and order,” and “respect for Governor Wallace,” which were subtle ways to appeal to racist voters without explicitly saying racist things.

Upon election, he wasted little time. In his acceptance speech, he said “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.” (167) This was a shock to everyone, including the lieutenant governor Lester Maddox. He integrated the state government and hired many black people. He reorganized the Georgia government and protected the Chatahoochee by preventing gratuitous dams. Turning his eye towards the Presidency near the end of his term (there was a consensus that he wouldn’t be re-elected after his efforts to combat racism), he started to build his foreign diplomacy credentials by joining the Trilateral Commission.

Carter seemed to enjoy campaigning. During all his campaigns, he stayed “in the homes of supporters, with no dietary or other requirements except an allergy to swiss cheese.” Was swiss cheese such a household fixture that he had to warn people not to serve it to him? Anyways, he continued this grassroots approach during his presidential campaign. People gravitated towards his working class populism. Hunter S. Thompson liked him and wrote in support of him. Fun fact: Senator Joe Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter for president!

In the end, he was elected. Henry Hertzberg, a Carter speechwriter wrote “it was as close as the American people have ever come to picking someone out of the phonebook to be president.” (279) More on his accomplishments as president later.

Tensions between Politics and Personality

Carter was an exceptional campaigner. This success reflects a natural political skill. But winning an election is a different skill from governing! I believe his campaigning skills came from his personality and grit, which later undermined his ability to function as an executive. Recent memory reminds us that alienating everyone you work with is no way to operate in a system with separation of powers.

While the nature of any political campaign is essentially to say what you need to say to gain power, his Georgia governor stint seemed like an affront to representative democracy. He was clearly morally right to pursue integration and speak out against the rampant racism in Georgia. But he ran a campaign where he courted the racists. It reveals a certain contempt for the electorate to so brazenly mislead them. They elected him because of how he conducted his (racist) campaign. While it was a positive move in this case, I don’t know if the precedent of gaining office under false pretenses is a positive.

While his presidency was not won based on duping the electorate, it was doomed by the same mentality he showed while governor: once he had power, he was going to do things his way. From the very beginning, he steamrolled many important players, as he had gotten away with as governor. He started by cancelling dam projects, which pissed off a lot of egotistical politicians who wanted to memorialize themselves. (304) While his actions were justified, it was short-sighted. With an ambitious legislative agenda, he would need all these people, and he repeatedly spoiled relationships over small potatoes. The damage this did to his Presidency is obvious and perhaps best exemplified by the annoying primary challenge of Ted Kennedy. Carter acted like he didn’t have to run for re-election… in fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he acted like he would only be president for a year.

His integrity and authenticity also plagued his political career. As I saw with Truman’s loyalty to his crook friend Jim Pendergast, Carter made the same mistake by staying loyal to Bert Lance. He didn’t have to betray him, but being so defiantly supportive of someone creating controversy in his administration is not required of an executive; there are plenty of qualified people that don’t make a stink, so just find someone else. His authenticity which played so well on the campaign trail further hindered his presidency in situations like the famous Dan Rather interview, where he gave his performance grades like “B-“ and “C+.” That may have been true! But you shouldn’t admit it… The characteristics that make someone a good man can be incompatible with a successful political career.

Many years ago, I asked former Chief of Staff of the Army Raymond Odierno how he managed standing up for what is right when it conflicted with his career advancement, he gave some golden advice: “you can’t be Don Quixote fighting every battle. You have to pick and choose where to make a stand.” The distaste for political games is understandable, but to opt out of the game is moral vanity. Everyone else plays the game it, even such greats as Lincoln and FDR. It is beyond arrogant to think that you can do it differently. As president, you have a hard job. It requires sacrifices and tough decisions that may compromise your integrity but if you want to feel completely pure, take thee to a nunnery, not the White House.

Presidency by the Numbers

Jimmy Carter accomplished a lot in his four years that shouldn’t be overlooked. He had the advantage of controlling both the senate and the house for all four years, which Alter suggests makes his legislative accomplishments somewhat underwhelming. Still, here’s the good as I saw it.

• Peacefully relinquishing control of the Panama Canal with no bloodshed. While the optics were poor and his opponents ridiculed him for it, even Barry Goldwater acknowledged it was the right move. (377)
• Camp David Accords. This chapter really shines in the book and I was left with the impression that there was no prayer of a deal when Carter called the meeting, and yet he somehow managed to push something through. That something has lasted to this day. It is both a miracle and a tremendous accomplishment.
• Normalization with China. It’s unclear to me what all he did, but he got Deng Xiaoping to wear a ten gallon cowboy hat at a Houston rodeo, which fires me up.
• Transformed the Vice Presidency to a real role and added Mondale in the military chain of command. The Vice President role, save for instances where the President dies in office, was known for being “not worth a bucket of warm piss.”¹

Now for the bad:

• He bungled the whole Shah and Iran hostage crisis. To this day, he dwells on the pipe dream that the rescue military operation would have been successful, and his re-election would have been guaranteed, if he had had another helicopter. But it seems obvious that admitting the Shah to the U.S. was a mistake, along with the massive intelligence failure in lacking awareness of the brewing Iranian Revolution.
• The “malaise speech” (that never used the word malaise). I personally enjoyed the speech, but it was paternalistic and negative. The people want to hear how many jobs you added, not that they are overly materialistic and lazy.
• Squandering Democratic control of congress. He could have done much more, and had such ambitions, including energy policy and universal health care.

The author takes pains to note how difficult it was to be president in the 1970s. Carter had to preside over a post-Vietnam America with stagflation. OPEC unilaterally doubled gas prices. The Iranian hostage crisis was bad press to say the least. It was tough to be in charge during this time, and executives across the world struggled.

Sanctimony and its Discontents

Alter seems convinced Carter was motivated by redeeming his failed presidency and his passivity during the Civil Rights movement, and I’m inclined to agree. His focus on human rights is admirable, but I think it was politically costly as the domestic situation is most salient to the American voter. He continued to carry out his human rights work after he left the office, functioning as a sort of rogue, unelected secretary of state.

I don’t want to take away from the great things he accomplished after his presidency, but I maintain the position that presidents ought to ride off into the sunset once they’re done. He prided himself on not profiting off his Presidency with exorbitant speaking fees, as every president (except Truman) would do out-of-office. He seems to lack the awareness to realize that he did profit, just not in a monetary sense. It’s noble to seek influence and positive change rather than personal gain, but it’s still wrong to trade off the office you no longer hold. Moreover, it made him a huge pain in the ass to every president thereafter. There’s an obvious responsibility necessary in wielding executive power, but there’s a more subtle obligation to relinquish the power. In fact, I think I would prefer if ex-president’s all collected $250,000 speaking fees and bought mansions in Martha’s Vineyard rather than function as their own state department.

Conclusion

Carter lived a full life. His presidential legacy will be forever clouded by high inflation and the Iran hostage crisis, he is currently my frontrunner for most interesting president.

Miscellaneous Interesting Bits

During WWII, his uncle was declared dead, but he was actually surviving in a Japanese slave labor camp. His wife remarried, and he wanted to get back together with her when he returned from the war, but his family thought she had committed adultery so they didn’t.

Carter was the only 20th century president other than FDR and Harry Truman who didn’t golf in office. He was a good golfer, just didn’t think it was a good use of time for the POTUS. 103

“The outgoing mayor, William B. Hartsfield, coined the famous slogan “The City Too Busy to Hate,” a line that unintentionally implied Atlantans wanted to hate more if they only had the time.” 121

Lost a House election in 1966 and didn’t concede for two days. Hmm…

“When Jimmy told his mother that he was preparing to run for president, Lillian replied, ‘President of what?” 199

Carter reported a UFO sighting… Reagan did it too the following year. It turns out that Carter’s vision was explained by a barium cloud created as part of a scientific experiment. American interest in UFOs transcends generations. 202

Carter was somewhat bad at kissing babies. “’Do you want to stop talking so I can give you my answer?’ he snapped at a reporter. The big public smile was rarely sincere.” 234

A crazy story about Hunter S. Thompson: “Hamilton Jordan promised him an interview without telling Carter and Carter refused to give it. Thompson then went to Thompson’s motel room “spread lighter fluid around the door, lit it, and smoked Jordan and his girlfriend out,” eventually getting an interview. 238

Carter didn’t cheat on his wife on the campaign trail, which was apparently unique for presidential campaigns. The Carters did tolerate extramarital affairs on their staff, which was described as “as hard-drinking, fornicating, pot smoking, freethinking a group as has ever been seen in higher politics.” 265

Carter had four years of congressional majority… no Republican since the 1920s has controlled both houses for four years. 286

Carter acted like a cheap dad, turning down the thermostat, not using the elevator, living frugally, creating a sign-up sheet for the volleyball court, etc… He didn’t serve alcohol when entertaining guests because he would have had to pay for it. 324

He had some political skill. Senator Hayakawa, an annoying Republican, wanted to meet every two weeks. In exchange for his support on a bill, he flattered him and said “I couldn’t possibly limit our visits to every two weeks. I might want to hear your advice more often!” After he voted yes, he never spoke to Carter again. 383

The Shah gained admission to the US because of the lie of one man, Joseph Reed, who claimed that his health was in such a horrible state he had to be admitted. Great man theory of history strikes again. There’s also a lot of discussion of conspiracies about how Reagan intervened to prevent the release of the hostages until after the inauguration.

Muhammad Ali offered to go to Tehran and fight again in exchange for the hostages. A fun precedent for Dennis Rodman’s diplomacy in North Korea. 522

Aside on Presentism

While I enjoyed this biography, I was struck by the number of footnotes related to Trump. I’m not particularly sensitive to what has become known as Trump Derangement Syndrome, but this book was an unfortunate reminder of the pollution of most things created over the last eight years. Alter can’t help but throw in Trump jabs throughout the book. I think there were five references, so it wasn’t that excessive but it was enough for me to notice. They add nothing to the depiction of Jimmy Carter’s life and seem only to contribute to therapy for the author and select readers. Political tribalism has no place in art, history, or any creative endeavor. It is a shame that this great work is tainted by something so temporary and trivial.

This presentism also appeared in the exploration of Carter’s potential racism. Specifically, I’m referring to speculation about whether Carter used the n word as a child in the Jim Crow south. It seemed so out of place whether he used a certain racist word, considering the more potent forms of racism present (segregation, lynching, etc.) I understand this question of using racial slurs is important to certain modern readers, but future readers will scratch their heads at this particular exploration.