MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Former President Jimmy Carter died yesterday at the age of 100. His one-term presidency saw several foreign policy achievements, but it was marked by economic struggles at home and the yearlong Iranian hostage crisis. NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving has this look back.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Carter rose from relative obscurity in Plains, Georgia, to win the White House in 1976, defeating then-incumbent Republican Gerald R. Ford. Candidate Carter emphasized his Baptist faith and cast himself as a moral antidote to the national mood in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
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JIMMY CARTER: It's time for us to reaffirm our ethical and our spiritual and our political commitments.
ELVING: But Carter's one term in the White House was burdened from its beginning by a bad economy, high inflation and rising interest rates. Carter's relations with Congress were rocky, despite big Democratic majorities in both chambers. Frustrated, he appealed to the nation for help in 1979 in what came to be called his malaise speech.
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CARTER: It's clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper - deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession.
ELVING: While unable to cure the economic ills of the time, Carter did make his mark on international relations.
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CARTER: Peace has come to Israel and to Egypt.
ELVING: Carter had convened the leaders of those two Middle Eastern nations in a historic agreement known as the Camp David Accords. He also secured Senate approval of a treaty turning over the U.S.-built Panama Canal to Panama. And when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Carter responded by canceling U.S. participation in the Olympics and ordering increases in the Pentagon budget. But all other foreign policy questions faded when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the shah of Iran late in 1979. Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took and held 52 hostages.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Iran crisis, America held hostage - Day 26.
ELVING: The hostage crisis would dominate the last 14 months of Carter's presidency. He was able to beat back a challenge to his renomination in 1980 by defeating Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts in the primaries. But his attempt to free the hostages with a military raid fell apart without reaching Tehran. Carter lost in November to his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, in an Electoral College landslide. In a bittersweet postscript, Iran released the hostages the day Carter left office. The departing president took to TV to announce their release.
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CARTER: I had received word officially for the first time that the aircraft carrying the 52 American hostages had cleared Iranian airspace on the first leg of their journey home.
ELVING: On his way to becoming the president who lived the longest, Carter first broke the record for living longest after leaving office. Over the course of nearly four decades as former president, he wrote more than 20 books and was active as a philanthropist. He was also an outspoken advocate for human rights, democratic reform and a host of peace initiatives, some of them controversial. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and in his acceptance speech, he called economic inequality the greatest threat to humanity.
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CARTER: The results of this disparity are the root causes of most of the world's unresolved problems, including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict and unnecessary illnesses.
ELVING: In 2003, Carter opposed the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. He later angered many supporters of Israel by comparing that country's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid in South Africa. And he riled many Americans with his remarks about persistent racism in the U.S. Despite being so outspoken, Carter saw his standing with the public improve during his long post-presidential career. His approval rating in the Gallup poll had fallen into the low 30s by the end of his term in office. But in recent years, it had climbed back up to reach the mid-60s. In 2001, historian Douglas Brinkley wrote that Carter had become an exemplar of behavior for all national leaders in retirement. The man from Plains will return there for burial after memorial observances in Washington and Atlanta. Ron Elving, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUINCY JONES SONG, "SUMMER IN THE CITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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