James Earl Carter, Jr.

Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination in July 1976 and defeated the incumbent Republican president, Gerald R. Ford, in November 1976, winning 51 percent of the popular vote and garnering 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240.

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 USSR 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 Jan. 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 president Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin at negotiations 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.

Carter's greatest defeat was administered by Iran. In November 1979 militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran 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.

Carter's effectiveness in domestic affairs was generally hampered by his failure to establish good relations with Congress, his frequent changes of course, the distractions caused by foreign problems, and his inability to inspire public confidence. His major domestic effort was directed against the energy crisis, though with indifferent results. Inflation continued to rise, and in the summer of 1979 Carter appointed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Volcker raised interest rates to unprecedented levels, which resulted in a severe recession but brought inflation under control.