Jimmy Carter was the compassionate, honourable, peacemaker America needed

Published

11 months ago

December 30, 2024

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In the late 1970s, America was not in a good place; reeling from a war and from Watergate.

Then came a man called Jimmy.

“Jimmy who?” the nation asked.

And so it was that the nation was somewhat dismissive when a peanut farmer called Jimmy Carter announced a run for the White House.

Beyond his home state of Georgia, where he had served as governor, James Earl Carter Jr was not well known.

But it would turn out, Jimmy Carter was just what 1970s America needed.

After the political turmoil of Nixon and Watergate and the quagmire of the Vietnam War, America craved stability, calm and integrity.

The 39th president of the United States did not provide the drama of those who came before him or those who would follow him.

Yet over a remarkably long life, punctuated by a short presidency, Jimmy Carter built a considerable legacy deserving of considerable reflection.

Carter the healer

“Compassionate”, “honourable”, a “peacemaker”, a “healer”.

They are words so often used to describe the American leader who lived a life longer than any other.

Late 1970s America was a nation reeling from the Watergate scandal and the disgraced presidency of Richard Nixon followed by the accidental presidency of Gerald Ford.

The wider backdrop was a long war in Vietnam, ending in a humiliating defeat and a fresh blot in a proud nation’s history.

Enter Jimmy Carter, 52-years-old; five feet seven inches – unassuming and unimposing both physically and in character.

Peanut farmer, turned submariner, turned politician; he was a man of the people whose core instinct was that a government is only as good as its people.

His healing qualities, clearly threaded through his life, were displayed on day one of his presidency.

In a bold move he granted unconditional pardons to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the Vietnam War draft.

He had said the pardon was needed “to heal our country after the Vietnam War”.

Of the bitter divisions sparked by the war, he said: “We can now agree to respect those differences and to forget them.”

He pioneered a bold vision for compassionate centre-left politics which would, many years later, be emulated by presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden.

Yet Jimmy Carter would survive only one term as president.

In those four years he faced huge challenges – an energy crisis, Soviet aggression and Iran – themes which, it turns out, endure.

A childhood which shaped a presidency

Jimmy Carter was born where he died, in the town of Plains, Georgia on 1 October 1924.

His childhood unquestionably moulded the person and politician he would become.

1930s Georgia was a place of segregation. Two Americas existed side by side, separated by racism.

But Carter’s mother, a nurse, boldly ignored the state’s segregation laws, and so young Jimmy’s upbringing was one of coexistence in a place where there was none.

Decades later Carter would tell American talk show host Oprah Winfrey how every one of his childhood friends was black.

It was an experience which moulded his mind and would allow him to help change history decades later.

Young Jimmy Carter joined the Navy, serving as a submariner – a role that surely takes a particular type of character.

His father’s death in 1953 brought him back to Georgia where he ran the family peanut farm.

But politics beckoned. It was race and racism which lured Carter to activism with the Democratic Party.

By the 1960s it would propel him to the state senate and, by 1970, to the top job in Georgia – governor.

The long-shot president

He was the dark horse for president; a long-shot candidate who made it all the way.

His childhood experiences of coexistence over division were threaded through his term in office and led to significant yet oft-forgotten achievements.

President Carter recognised and valued the power of American leadership in the protection of human rights.

Global achievements

It was his blunt message to the white rulers in South Africa which helped to precipitate the end of Apartheid and a peaceful coexistence many years later.

His influence in the Middle East was profound, but controversial too.

The Camp David accords represented Carter’s greatest foreign policy achievement. He brought together Israel and its greatest enemy of the time, Egypt.

The image of Carter cupping the clasped hands of Egyptian president Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin on the north lawn of the White House in September 1978 is iconic. It represented the framework on which coexistence in the Middle East continues to be built.

With the deal he did more for Israeli security than any American president since, and yet he maintained a compassion for the Palestinian cause that no other American president has come close to.

Years later, out of office, he was among the first to accuse Israel of its own apartheid regime against the Palestinians.

A presidency dominated by “events”

Under his presidency, the Cold War got hotter. A wary Carter ditched a key arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union. It would raise tensions but eventually help precipitate the collapse of the USSR.

With Britain, he fostered the so-called “special relationship”; he and British prime minister James Callaghan were close.

But “events” overtook his vision and his presidency unravelled.

In Iran, revolution came and US hostages were taken. American diplomats were held hostage for more than a year. A risky rescue ordered by president Carter went wrong, eight US servicemen were killed and Carter was blamed.

After just one term, Carter was out. The American people, struggling economically, chose the Republican showman Ronald Reagan and an optimism they could no longer find in Carter.

Misjudged by history?

History is so often cruel and distorted. It would hand many achievements built by Carter to Reagan instead.

It was Carter who laid the foundations for Middle East coexistence, and though he would be let down by partners later, and coexistence seems at times to be very far off, his vision remains at the core of the solution. He has arguably done more to fix the Middle East conundrum than any other American president since.

On the Cold War, it was Carter’s decision to ditch the detente with the Soviet Union which would eventually seal its demise. Reagan would not have been able to demand Gorbachev “tear down this wall” without Carter’s leadership in the years before.

The Democrat presidents since have often borrowed Carter’s core principles and yet the party orphaned him.

In November, as the nation chose between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, his spokespeople confirmed that he had cast his vote.

It was not revealed who he had voted for but was widely assumed that his final democratic act was to vote for Kamala Harris.

His son Chip said his father had not voted Republican in his life.

A legacy beyond politics

This “involuntary retirement”, as Carter would later put it, left much undone and it was really only after leaving office that he began to build the legacy he’d want to be remembered for.

With his wife, Rosalynn, he founded The Carter Center, a charity with his principle of healing at its heart.

The charity’s work – conflict resolution, disease prevention and the promotion of democracy – continues to this day. It represents president Carter’s legacy in 80 nations around the world.

In 2002, it was this work which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since then, under his leadership, its work has helped to nearly eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. As of 2021 there were just 15 cases reported globally. An extraordinary achievement.

At home in America, the charity Habitat for Humanity was a central part of the Carters’ fundraising efforts. Over many years, Jimmy and his wife were seen building and renovating homes for some of the nation’s poorest.

And away from this spotlight at his lifelong home in Plains, Georgia, president Carter was a painter, a furniture maker, a winemaker, and an author of a remarkable 32 books.

The death of his wife Rosalynn last year must have been an enormous blow for Carter.

She had been at his side always, and so often hand in hand. His best friend, his counsel, his “chief advisor”, his wife since 1946.

So often over the years, he’s been asked to reveal the magic of their bond. His answer: “Never go to bed angry.”

“Always make peace,” he said.

In much more than just marriage, that was president Carter’s defining principle.

He’s survived by his four children Jack, James (Chip), Donnel (Jeff) and Amy, 11 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

US

Most advanced US aircraft carrier arrives close to Venezuela as Donald Trump administration builds-up forces

Published

2 hours ago

November 17, 2025

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The most advanced US aircraft carrier has travelled to the Caribbean Sea in what has been interpreted as a show of military power and a possible threat to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.

The USS Gerald R Ford and other warships arrived in the area with a new influx of troops and weaponry on Sunday.

It is the latest step in a military build-up that the Donald Trump administration claims is aimed at preventing criminal cartels from smuggling drugs to America.

Since early September, US strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting narcotics in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Mr Trump has indicated that military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the US would “stop the drugs coming in by land”.

The US government has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists”, however.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford now rounds off the largest increase in US firepower in the region in generations.

With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and marines.

Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere”.

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the US commander who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that the American forces “stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilise our region”.

Government officials in Trinidad and Tobago have announced that they have already begun “training exercises” with the US military that are due to run over the next week.

The island is just seven miles from Venezuela at its closest point.

The country’s minister of foreign affairs, Sean Sobers, said the exercises were aimed at tackling violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago, which is frequently used by drug traffickers as a stopover on their journey to Europe or North America.

Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression.

They had no immediate comment on Sunday regarding the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford.

The US has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because its warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country.

Some experts say the Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation to push Mr Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US, to step down.

Mr Maduro has said the US government is “fabricating” a war against him.

The US president has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the country is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organisations.

US politicians have pressed Mr Trump for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.

Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region, said: “This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America.

“And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”

US

Donald Trump urges Republicans to vote for release of Epstein files

Published

2 hours ago

November 17, 2025

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Donald Trump urges Republicans to vote for release of Epstein files

Donald Trump has urged Republicans to vote for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein – a reversal of his previous opposition to the move.

The president said on Truth Social that politicians from his own party should back the move.

“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party…” Mr Trump wrote.

Thousands of Epstein’s documents were released by a committee last week – and a few mentioned Mr Trump.

One email described Mr Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked” and that “Virginia spent hours at my house with him”.

The White House said the emails were selectively leaked to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.

The president has always denied any wrongdoing and said he fell out with the disgraced financier way before his crimes against underage girls came to light.

However, pressure to release all government documents about Epstein – who killed himself in 2019 – has increased amid persistent rumours of a cover-up.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers and loyal Trump supporters also want the documents made public.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch MAGA loyalist, backed the petition that proposed holding the vote and provoked a vicious backlash from the president – who labelled her a “traitor” and a “ranting lunatic”.

The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications on Epstein, as well as any information about his death in prison – another persistent topic among conspiracy theorists.

Information about victims or ongoing federal investigations would be redacted.

Democratic representative Ro Khanna – an original sponsor of the petition – said on Sunday he expected 40 Republicans to support the move.

However, Republican Thomas Massie told US media “100 or more” of his colleagues could vote for the bill.

The Republicans currently have 219 seats in the House of Representatives against 214 for the Democrats, suggesting it will pass. However, its fate in the Senate is unclear.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, struck a similar tone to the president as he sought to play down the vote.

He told Fox News on Sunday: “We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide.”

US

Donald Trump confirms he will sue the BBC over Panorama edit – despite broadcaster’s apology

Published

8 hours ago

November 17, 2025

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Donald Trump confirms he will sue the BBC over Panorama edit - despite broadcaster's apology

Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn over the editing of his speech on Panorama.

The US president confirmed he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster while on Air Force One overnight on Saturday.

“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he told reporters.

“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”

Mr Trump then told reporters he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend, and claimed “the people of the UK are very angry about what happened… because it shows the BBC is fake news”.

Separately, Mr Trump told GB News: “I’m not looking to get into lawsuits, but I think I have an obligation to do it.

“This was so egregious. If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that an internal memo raised concerns about the BBC’s editing of a speech made by Mr Trump on 6 January 2021, just before a mob rioted at the US Capitol building, on the news programme.

The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the president’s speech to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.

Following a backlash, both BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned from their roles.

‘No basis for defamation claim’

On Thursday, the broadcaster officially apologised to the president and added that it was an “error of judgement” and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

A spokesperson said that “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” but they also added that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim”.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn unless it apologised, retracted the clip, and compensated him.

Legal challenges

But legal experts have said that Mr Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the UK or the US.

The deadline to bring the case to UK courts, where defamation damages rarely exceed £100,000 ($132,000), has already expired because the documentary aired in October 2024, which is more than one year.

Also because the documentary was not shown in the US, it would be hard to show that Americans thought less of the president because of a programme they could not watch.

Newsnight allegations

The BBC has said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph, that its Newsnight show also selectively edited footage of the same speech in a report broadcast in June 2022.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.”