Yeah old Jimmy Carter, Peanut Farmer from Georgia, had some problems. Not least of which was his brother Billy (above) who along with selling his name for a model of his pick-up also put his now famous name behind a brand of beer, “Billy beer”.
As far as Jimmy’s presidency and his goals in foreign policy, ambrose says he was the least experienced, in fp, of the post-wwii presidents, and that his goals were wildly impractical, and none were achieved. Interestingly he was also the first postwar president who had not been a congressman, but rather had been a governor. Why does that matter?
Its a rather long list of problems Carter had. From arms reduction treaties, to iran, and don’t forget, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Where he succeeded and where and why he failed, might be an interesting start to some comments.
I thought it was funny that I had just watched the movie Argo last night and while reading this chapter I noticed it was the same years, under president carter and they mentioned the downfall of their ally the shah of Iran because of carters focus on human rights which i didnt really understand while watching the movie but after reading the chapter i do now as America supported the shah and had close relations. The main point of this chapter was to explain Carter’s presidency and how he focused on human rights and less on Communism as it was the “soul of our foreign policy.” Ambrose talks about how how he was the least experienced and how he wanted to limit nuclear weapons which was a bad idea making us look weak and vulnerable. I don’t understand why he didn’t consult anyone before taking nuclear weapons out of south Korea, maybe he thought it would make him look good or he would get an immediate positive response. Ambrose mentions all the good things he did such as improving US and Chinese relations and Egypt and Israel but the events that occurred in Iran severely hurt him.
I found funny that Ambrose would call Carter a waffle. It was noticeable that Ambrose did not like carter at all because he had promising ideas, but never executed them correctly, for instance he sent in troops to get back the hostages, however; before he could have gotten to the troops, there was some technical difficulties that did not allow the troops to execute their mission. Something I just goin interesting about Carter was the fact that he was all for humanitarian rights and was capable of getting support, yet he did not do his job well per say. A funny scenario that Ambrose goes over quickly was the fact that as soon as Carter became president he took away the nuclear weapons from South Vietnam randomly and did not consult anybody.
I found this reading extremely interesting especially since there are still problems in the Middle East and with Iran today. What I found really ridiculous is that Carter didn’t really do anything. He went “from blunder to blunder” (300). The situation in Iran should not have happened. Carter should have picked one side to back and not be so reluctant to do something. He didn’t want to help the shah but then he also didn’t want to help the new government and compromise. I think Carter should have listened to Iranian demands. He was such a big promoter of human rights but he didn’t even see how there were human rights problems and riots in Iran! Personally, I thought it was childish that they did not apologize. Apologies are so simple and don’t cause any harm. A simple apology from Carter to the Iranian people instead of punishment could have saved a whole lot of trouble.