The president who couldn’t quit: Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy legacy goes beyond the White House

Jimmy Carter, the 100-year-old former president who outlived Donald Trump's reelection before passing away just before the start of the new year, left behind a legacy of foreign policy that was not defined solely by his four years in the White House.

During his presidential term, the former Georgia governor could boast of having helped establish peace between Israel and Egypt and restore relations with China. But by the time he suffered the nation's most decisive defeat to President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter still had ambitions and could not stop pursuing them.

Carter was widely known for his altruistic nature after taking office, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity well into his 90s. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in peace negotiations, but some accused the former president of meddling in international affairs without a formal title.

Let's take a look at Carter's forays into the world as president and beyond.

Unauthorized North Korean peace treaty

In 1994, Bill Clinton became president in the midst of a conflict with North Korea over the communist country's nuclear program. The United States has floated the idea of ​​sanctions and even considered a pre-emptive strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities to destroy its capabilities.

Mr. Carter had received an invitation from North Korea to visit the country, and was eager to defuse the situation and expedite an agreement to unify the North and South. As Mr. Clinton weighed his options, he received a phone call from Mr. Carter. He negotiated the framework of a peace agreement without authorization.

Mr. Carter flew to North Korea with a CNN crew to quickly seal the deal. According to Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley's book “The Unfinished Presidency'', Carter called Clinton to warn him that he intended to announce the deal on CNN, but this was due to Clinton's white background. This made House furious.

Mr. Carter also accepted a dinner invitation from President Kim Il Sung, where he said the United States had stopped pursuing sanctions at the United Nations, which was not true. Cornered, Clinton had to accept a peace deal and stop pursuing sanctions.

Carter's talks with Kim Il Sung may have averted a conflict with North Korea in the 1990s. Of course, this country continued to pursue nuclear weapons and acquired them in 2006.

President Carter tells Arab countries to abandon US in President Bush's Gulf War

In the Middle East, President Carter declared during his second term that he had been able to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine, a prospect that no president has yet achieved.

“If I had been elected to a second term with the prestige and authority and influence and prestige that I had in this region, we would have been able to move forward to a final solution,” he said in 2003. told the New York Times.

Throughout the 1990s, Carter became friends with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, and even though Arafat continued to lead attacks on Israel and led the Second Intifada in 2000, the Western powers He instructed them to appear more moderate.

Jimmy Carter, pioneer of the religious right

When President George H.W. Bush decided to start the Gulf War after Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Carter vehemently opposed the idea. Five days before President Bush's deadline to withdraw Hussein, President Carter sent a letter to the leaders of the United Nations Security Council and major Arab states (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria) imploring them to abandon the United States and its war effort. did.

“We urge Arab leaders to publicly call for a postponement of the use of force while they seek a peaceful solution to the crisis.We may have to withhold White House approval, but we are fully committed to ensuring that France, the Soviet Union and others And most Americans would welcome such a move. ”

The move prompted former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft to accuse Carter of violating the Logan Act, which states that civilians cannot negotiate with foreign governments.

President Carter meets with Hamas, infuriates Bush administration

In 2008, President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, publicly criticized Mr. Carter, despite the president's explicit instructions not to meet with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. .

Rice told reporters that the meeting with Carter could confuse the message that the United States will not work with Hamas.

“We want to avoid confusion,” Rice said. “The United States has no intention of dealing with Hamas, and we certainly told President Carter that we did not believe that talks with Hamas would facilitate a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, dies at age 100

After taking office, Carter became a strong advocate for the Palestinian people, arguing that Israel's policies amounted to apartheid worse than South Africa's.

Carter speaks to the media at the ruins of the American International School, which was destroyed in an Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip on June 16, 2009.

Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty

In 1978, the revolutionary possibility that Egypt and Israel would normalize diplomatic relations came to a screeching halt. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has indicated that he will end contact with Israel.

In September of that year, Mr. Carter brought Mr. Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, where Mr. Carter spent more than a week brokering an agreement between the two sides. A treaty framework known as the Camp David Accords emerged from that meeting, and six months later, Egypt became the first Arab state to establish relations with Israel.

The agreement included the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and a “pathway” to Palestinian autonomy in Gaza. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 following Arab outrage over the peace agreement.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Mr. Carter, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem begin holding hands at the White House after the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty was signed, March 26, 1979.

Normalization of US-China relations

In 1978, after months of secret negotiations, President Carter established formal relations between the United States and China, ending decades of hostility between the two countries. That meant Carter scrapping the still-controversial defense agreement with Taiwan.

He also urged Congress to continue providing arms to Taiwan and pass the Taiwan Relations Act to “maintain the ability to resist” any attempts to take over the island.

1979 Iran Hostage Crisis

In 1979, Carter had a strategic relationship with the Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, and Carter remained silent about his human rights record even as the Shah's grip on power was declining. was.

Despite protests in Iran over the shah's repressive policies, Carter continued to support him out of fear of his alternative, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Mr. Pahlavi defected in January 1979, but Mr. Carter initially resisted demands to be granted asylum in the United States until October of that year, when he was allowed to undergo cancer treatment in New York City. Then, on November 4, angry Iranian students attacked the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 people hostage.

The hostage crisis continued for the remainder of Carter's term and, for many, defined his accomplishments on the world stage. With no solution in sight, Carter went to military aid in April 1980.

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This mission ended in a tragic failure. Eight special forces members were killed when several helicopters crashed on the outskirts of Tehran in a sandstorm. Iran subsequently seized U.S. equipment and information.

The hostages were not released until January 20, 1981, minutes after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

Signing the Panama Canal back to Panama

President-elect Trump on Tuesday once again focused attention on Carter's Panama Canal Treaty, reflecting on how Carter lost the 1980 election by offering Panama control of the canal.

Despite fierce opposition on the right, Carter believed that returning the canal would improve U.S. relations in Latin America and ensure peace between U.S. shipping lanes, and that opposition to U.S. control led to violence on the waterway. I was concerned about the possibility of a connection.

“It is clear that we tricked the Panamanians out of the canal,” Carter wrote in his diary. However, he had also received information that 100,000 troops might be needed to protect the canal in the event of an uprising.

In recent days, President Trump has hinted at taking back the canal, arguing that the United States pays dearly for its use and that it is controlled by China.

President Trump said, “Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a big reason, even more than the hostages, why Jimmy Carter lost the election.''