Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100, swept to power promising never to lie to the American people.
In the turbulent aftermath of Watergate, the former peanut farmer from Georgia pardoned Vietnam draft evaders and became the first US leader to take climate change seriously.
On the international stage, he helped to broker an historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, but he struggled to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
After a single term in office, he was swept aside by Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, winning just six states.
Having left the White House, Carter did much to restore his reputation: becoming a tireless worker for peace, the environment and human rights, for which he was recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize.
The longest-lived president in US history, he celebrated his 100th birthday in October 2024. He had been treated for cancer and had spent the last 19 months in hospice care.
James Earl Carter Jr was born on 1 October 1924 in the small town of Plains, Georgia, the eldest of four children.
His segregationist father had started the family peanut business, and his mother, Lillian, was a registered nurse.
Carter’s experience of the Great Depression and staunch Baptist faith underpinned his political philosophy.
A star basketball player in high school, he went on to spend seven years in the US Navy – during which time he married Rosalynn, a friend of his sister – and became a submarine officer. But on the death of his father in 1953, he returned to run the ailing family farm.
The first year’s crop failed through drought, but Carter turned the business around and made himself wealthy in the process.
He entered politics on the ground floor, elected to a series of local school and library boards, before running for the Georgia Senate.
Civil rights campaigner
American politics was ablaze following the Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate schools.
With his background as a farmer from a southern state, Carter might have been expected to oppose reform – but he had different views to his father.
While serving two terms in the state Senate, he avoided clashes with segregationists – including many in the Democratic party.
But on becoming Georgia governor in 1970, he became more overt in his support of civil rights.
“I say to you quite frankly,” he declared in his inaugural speech, “that the time for racial discrimination is over.”
He placed pictures of Martin Luther King on the walls of the capitol building, as the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated outside.
He made sure that African Americans were appointed to public offices.
However, he found it difficult balancing his strong Christian faith with his liberal instincts when it came to abortion law.
Although he supported the rights of women to terminate pregnancy, he refused to increase funding to make this possible.
As Carter launched his campaign for the presidency in 1974, the nation was still reeling from the Watergate scandal.
He put himself forward as a simple peanut farmer, untainted by the questionable ethics of professional politicians on Capitol Hill.
‘Adultery in my heart’
His timing was excellent. Americans wanted an outsider and Carter fitted the bill.
There was surprise when he admitted (in an interview with Playboy magazine) that he had “committed adultery in my heart many times”. But there proved to be no skeletons in his closet.
In the beginning, polls suggested he was only supported by around 4% of Democrats.
Yet, just nine months later, he toppled the incumbent president Gerald Ford, a Republican.
On his first full day in office, he pardoned hundreds of thousands of men who had evaded service in Vietnam – either by fleeing abroad or failing to register with their local draft board.
One Republican critic, Senator Barry Goldwater, described the decision as “the most disgraceful thing that a president has ever done”.
Carter confessed that it was the hardest decision he had made in office.
He appointed women to key positions in his administration and encouraged Rosalynn to maintain a national profile as First Lady.
He championed (unsuccessfully) an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution which would have promised legal protection against discrimination on the grounds of sex.
One of the first international leaders to take climate change seriously, Carter wore jeans and sweaters in the White House, and turned down the heating to conserve energy.
He installed solar panels on the roof – which were later taken down by President Ronald Reagan – and passed laws to protect millions of acres of unspoiled land in Alaska from development.
A disastrous rescue mission
His televised “fireside chats'” were consciously relaxed, but this approach seemed too informal as problems mounted.
As the American economy slipped into recession, Carter’s popularity began to fall.
He tried to persuade the country to accept stringent measures to deal with the energy crisis – including gasoline rationing – but faced bitter opposition in Congress.
Plans to introduce a universal healthcare system also foundered in the legislature, while unemployment and interest rates both soared.
His Middle East policy began in triumph, with President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Begin of Israel signing the Camp David accords in 1978.
But success abroad was short-lived.
The revolution in Iran, which led to the taking of American hostages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan were severe tests.
Carter broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran and implemented trade sanctions in a desperate effort to free the Americans.
