Jimmy Carter - Biography

Last Editor: helpimtrapt2236				Jimmy Carter Biography -   Name : Jimmy Carter Profession : Politician Birth Details : born October 1, 1924

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Jimmy Carter Detailed Biography -

Born October 1, 1924 Plains, Georgia Died not deceased Political party Democratic Spouse Rosalynn Smith Carter Signature ] For the submarine, see USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23). James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) an American politician, was the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and the Nobel Peace laureate in 2002. Previously, he had been a member of local boards for seven years, a state senator from Georgia (1963-1967), the chairman of the DNC Congressional and Gubernatorial Campaigns (1974), the Governor of Georgia (1971-1975), a naval officer, and peanut farmer. Some of his major accomplishments included the creation of a national energy policy and the consolidation of governmental agencies. He enacted strong environmental legislation; deregulated the trucking, airline, rail, finance, communications, and oil industries, bolstered the social security system; and appointed record numbers of women and minorities to significant government and judicial posts. In foreign affairs, Carter's accomplishments included the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the creation of full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and the negotiation of the SALT II Treaty. In addition, he championed human rights throughout the world and used human rights as the center of his administration's foreign policy. The Iranian hostage crisis was one of the contributors to his failure to win a second term. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further weakened American prestige. Carter faced interest rates reaching their highest levels since World War II, and the administration froze domestic oil prices in response to rising prices from OPEC. The "Misery Index," his favored measure of economic well-being, rose 50% in four years. Despite his own party's control of Congress, his administration was unable to reform the tax system or to implement a national health plan, as he had promised during the 1976 campaign. In the decades since he left office, Carter has been seen by some people as an elder statesman and international mediator, and has used his prestige as a former president to further many charitable causes. He founded the Carter Center as a forum for issues related to democracy and human rights. He has also traveled extensively to monitor elections, conduct peace negotiations, and establish relief efforts. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his "efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter has continued his decades-long active involvement with the charity Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy. He can actually be found participating in the construction of these houses. Carter was the oldest of four children of James Earl and Lillian Carter. He was the first president born in a hospital. He was born in the Southwest Georgia town of Plains and grew up in nearby Archery, Georgia. Carter was a gifted student from an early age, who always had a fondness for reading. By the time he attended Plains High School, he was also a star in basketball and football. He was greatly influenced by one of his high school teachers, Julia Coleman. Ms. Coleman was handicapped by polio. She had encouraged young Jimmy to read War and Peace; he was disappointed to find that there were no cowboys or Indians in the book. Carter mentioned his beloved teacher in his inaugural address as an example of someone who beat overwhelming odds. Carter had three younger siblings. His brother, Billy (1937-1988), caused some political problems for him during his administration. His sister, Gloria (1926-1990), was low-key and was famous for collecting and riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles. His other sister, Ruth (1929-1983), became a well-known Christian evangelist. He attended Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Institute of Technology, and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946, the same year he married Rosalynn Smith. Carter was a gifted student, and finished 59th out of his Academy class of 820. Vietnam POW and war hero, Jeremiah Denton, was one of Carter's classmates. They are considered members of the class of 1947, as their class would have graduated in 1947, except that the program had been temporarily compressed. Carter did post-graduate work, studying nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College. Midshipman Jimmy Carter 1945 Carter served on submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. He was later selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover for the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine program, where he became a qualified nuclear engineer. Rickover was a demanding officer, and Carter was greatly influenced by him. Carter later said that next to his parents, Admiral Rickover had had the greatest influence on him. There was a story he often told of being interviewed by the Admiral. He was asked about his rank in his class at the Naval Academy. Carter said "Sir, I graduated 59th out of a class of 820". Rickover only asked "Did you always do your best?" Carter was forced to admit he had not, and the Admiral asked why. Carter later used this as the theme of his presidential campaign, and as the title of his first book, "Why Not The Best?" He even mentioned Admiral Rickover in his inaugural address. Carter loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations. Upon the death of his father in 1953, however, Carter resigned from the Navy, and took over and expanded his family's peanut farming business in Plains. There he was involved in a farming accident which left him with a permanently bent finger. From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity, serving as a Sunday School teacher throughout his political career. Even as President, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man, called, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" After World War II, he and Rosalynn started a family. They had three sons, (John William, born in 1947; James Earl III, born in 1950; and Donnel Jeffrey, born in 1952), and a daughter (Amy Lynn, late in life, in 1967). In Leary, Georgia on January 6, 1969 (erroneously reported as October 1969), Carter witnessed a UFO, which was most likely the planet Venus. Robert Sheaffer did a through investigation and concluded that Carter had seen the planet Venus (Sheaffer 1986:4-12; Sheaffer 1998:18-28). Later, during his presidential campaign, Carter promised to release the truth about any alleged UFO cover-up. Carter started his career by serving on various local boards, governing such entities as the schools, hospital, and library, among others. In the 1960s, he served two terms in the Georgia Senate from the fourteenth district of Georgia. Campaign for State Senator His 1962 election, which followed the end of Georgia's County Unit System (per the Supreme Court case of Gray v. Sanders), was chronicled in his book Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. The election involved corruption led by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County. This included people voting in alphabetical order and dead people voting. It took a challenge of the fraudulent results for Carter to win the election. Carter was reelected in 1964, to serve a second two-year term. In 1966, at the end of his career as a state senator, he flirted with the idea of running for the United States House of Representatives. His Republican opponent dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican as the governor of his state, and in turn dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race to become Governor. Carter lost the election and for the next four years, returned to his peanut farming business and carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state. During his 1970 campaign, he ran an uphill populist campaign in the Democratic primary against former Gov. Carl Sanders, labeling his opponent "Cufflinks Carl." Although Carter had never been a segregationist—he had refused to join the segregationist White Citizens' Council, prompting a boycott of his peanut warehouse; and he had been one of only two families which voted to admit blacks to the Plains Baptist Church—he "said things the segregationists wanted to hear," according to historian E. Stanly Godbold. Carter did not condemn Alabama firebrand George Wallace, and Carter's campaign aides handed out photographs of his opponent, showing Sanders associating with black basketball players. Following his close victory over Sanders in the primary, he was elected Governor over Republican Hal Suit. In his inaugural speech, Carter surprised the state and gained national attention by declaring that the time of racial segregation was over, and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of the state. He was the first statewide office holder in the Deep South to say this in public (such sentiments would have signaled the end of the political career of politicians in the region less than 15 years earlier, as had been the fate of Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr., who'd testified before Congress in favor of the Voting Rights Act). Following this speech, Carter appointed many blacks to statewide boards and offices; he hung a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the State House, a significant departure from the norm in the South. Carter bucked the tradition of the "New Deal Democrat," attempting a retrenchment in favor of shrinking government. An environmentalist, he opposed many public works projects. He particularly opposed the construction of large dams for construction's sake, opting to take a pragmatic approach based on a cost-benefits analysis. "While Governor, Carter made government efficient by merging about 300 state agencies into 30 agencies. One of his aides recalled that Governor Carter "was right there with us, working just as hard, digging just as deep into every little problem. It was his program and he worked on it as hard as anybody, and the final product was distinctly his." He also pushed reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for retarded children, and increased educational programs for convicts. At Carter's urging, the legislature passed laws to protect the environment, preserve historic sites, and decrease secrecy in government. Carter took pride in a program he introduced for the appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence" (World Book Encyclopedia). In 1972, as Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota was marching toward the Democratic nomination for president, Carter called a news conference in Atlanta to warn that McGovern was unelectable. Carter criticized McGovern as too liberal on both foreign and domestic policy. The remarks attracted little national attention, and after McGovern's huge loss in the general election, Carter's attitude was not held against him within the Democratic Party. In 1974, Carter was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.