Jimmy Carter turned 100 years old on Tuesday. Widely viewed as a good man but a mediocre leader, he was the longest-serving president in US history. His one-term reign is mostly remembered for its crises and failures, although he had great achievements in diplomacy and contributed to the fall of communism in Poland.
On Tuesday (October 1), Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, population 500, will celebrate its 100th birthday with great pomp – a concert with a fighter jet flyover and a naturalization ceremony for new US citizens. In September, another concert in honor of the birthday boy was recorded in Atlanta, with star performances and recordings prepared by all living presidents except Donald Trump.
This celebration is a testament to how Carter’s status in American history changed and how much he accomplished after retiring from politics. Carter is a popular figure today, although his presidency is widely criticized and is considered one of the worst in history.
Carter – the son of a peanut farmer, former sailor and farmer – took the highest office in the US in 1977 as governor of Georgia, still relatively unknown to the general public, and opposed racial segregation. According to Donald Pienkos, a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carter’s victory over President Gerald Ford was due, in part, to the vote of the Polish community.
As former US ambassador to Warsaw Daniel Fried, who began his diplomatic career in the Carter administration, recalled in an interview with PAP, the 39th US president made a major contribution to supporting the democratic opposition in Poland and led to a fundamental change in Washington’s policy towards the. Eastern Bloc: a departure from the pure realpolitik put forward by Henry Kissinger and a greater focus on human rights, later continued by Ronald Reagan. Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzeziński, played a major role in this. Fried added that if Kissinger had remained the main architect of American policy, he probably would not have been interested in supporting Solidarity, which he saw as a destabilizing factor.
But in other areas, Carter’s presidency was less successful and was marked by many crises, internal and external: stagflation (economic stagnation coupled with inflation), the oil crisis, the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the Islamic revolution in Iran, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
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Although as President Carter also had achievements, such as the Camp David accords, which led to the recognition of the state of Israel by Egypt, his image was ultimately overshadowed by the crisis in Iran regarding the student attack on the US embassy. in Tehran and the arrest of 55 employees of the facility hostage, which lasted until the end of his presidency. The Iranian regime, seeking Carter’s electoral defeat, released them on the first day of the presidency of Reagan, who defeated the incumbent president by a landslide of electoral votes.
After his election defeat, Carter returned to his native plains and withdrew from active politics. He devoted himself to social and humanitarian activities, was personally involved in the activities of the Habitat for Humanity organization, which builds houses for the poor. He also founded the Carter Center, an organization dedicated to promoting peace, human rights, and fighting infectious diseases. For his activities he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Despite his advancing age, Carter remained involved in both organizations well into his 90s. He published his autobiography in 2014, still teaches at Emory University in Atlanta and teaches religion to children at Sunday school at Plains Baptist Church.
His health rapidly deteriorated in February 2023, after Carter was hospitalized, and several months later he was shocked by the death of his 77-year-old wife, Rosalynn. However, as the New York Times writes, according to the former president’s grandson, his condition has improved in recent months and, although his health is still fragile, he is very interested in, among other things, the upcoming elections and also frequently receives messages from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Although a big birthday celebration was planned for Tuesday, Carter’s family told the Times that he recently looked forward to November more than his 100th birthday, so he could still vote for Democratic candidates.
From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
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