Jimmy Carter ‘a president and humanitarian who dedicated himself to others’
Following his death at 100, former US president Jimmy Carter is being remembered as a driven leader and a man of ‘simple decency’.
US president Jimmy Carter has been remembered for a “century of noble service” to America and the world, as Joe Biden and Donald Trump led tributes to the former commander-in chief’s legacy in office and his tireless humanitarian work in post-political life for which he won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Anthony Albanese on Monday said Mr Carter rose from “humble beginnings to leave a remarkable legacy” best measured in “lives changed, saved and uplifted”.
Peter Dutton also acknowledged the former president’s “service to his nation and his efforts to forge a deeper relationship with Australia”.
James Earl Carter Jr, a navy veteran, submariner and peanut farmer who became America’s 39th president and a pioneering philanthropist, died on Sunday (local time) at the age of 100 in his home town of Plains, Georgia, where he was born a little over a century ago on October 1, 1924.
A devoted Christian and southern liberal who won the Georgia governorship before going on to win the presidency in 1976, despite being considered a longshot candidate in a crowded Democratic field, Mr Carter was an outsider elected at a time of deep distrust towards government.
He was being remembered in the US as a man ahead of his time who elevated personal integrity, renewed optimism and national healing in the wake of the Watergate-era, but whose time in office was battered by a slumping economy and an Iranian hostage crisis that played into the 1980 election campaign and Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Carter gave a “century of noble service to the country he loved, to the cause of peace and to the lives of people in need all around the world … Our world is a better place for Jimmy Carter’s life and work. May he rest in eternal peace.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Carter was motivated by a “deep morality” and “championed the cause of human rights, expanded social services and advocated for nuclear arms reduction”.
Former prime minister John Howard – who was treasurer under Malcolm Fraser when Mr Carter was in office – said while he thought the Democrat’s presidency “ended poorly”, he would be remembered for securing peace between Israel and Egypt and his life of service.
“The late president Carter dedicated his long life to public service,” he said. “This and his community activities continued long after he ceased to be president. He had a difficult presidency, which ended poorly.”
Mr Carter was America’s oldest-lived former president – the first to make triple figures – and he died just 13 months after his wife, Rosalynn, with whom he enjoyed a 77-year marriage.
Together they had four children, Jack, James III (Chip), Donnel Jeffery, and Amy, and 14 great-grandchildren.
Joe and Jill Biden said the love “shared between Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is the definition of partnership and their humble leadership is the definition of patriotism”.
“We will miss them both dearly, but take solace knowing they are reunited once again and will remain forever in our hearts,” the Bidens said.
His death was revealed in a statement issued by the Carter Centre in Atlanta, a non-profit founded by Mr Carter in 1982 to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people.
Chip Carter praised his father as “a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love”.
“My brothers, sister and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs,” he said. “The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honouring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
With the American-flag at the White House flying at half-mast on Sunday night, Mr Biden said there would be a state funeral in Washington and declared January 9 as a national day of mourning, calling on Americans to visit their places of worship to “pay homage” to Mr Carter.
“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us,” the Bidens said in a joint statement.
In St Croix in the US Virgin Islands where he is on holiday, Mr Biden said he was the first Democratic senator to endorse Mr Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976 and reflected on their more than 50-year friendship.
He extolled him as a shining example of “simple decency”.
President-elect Mr Trump also posted on his Truth Social platform: “The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. We owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Mr Carter’s presidency from 1977 to 1981 punctuated a long period of Republicans in the White House that stretched from 1969 when Richard Nixon took power to 1993 when Bill Clinton succeeded George HW Bush.
The most active former president in modern US history, Mr Carter was praised for changing the nature of post-presidential life, given his relentless work monitoring elections across the globe, combating dangerous diseases, working to raise living standards for the poor and pioneering human rights.
In his speech presenting Mr Carter with the 2002 peace price, Gunnar Berge of the Norwegian Nobel committee said the recipient would “probably not go down in American history as the most effective president but he is certainly the best ex-president the country ever had”.
Mr Biden encouraged young people in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning to study Mr Carter, declaring that he “showed that we are great nation because we are a good people – decent and honourable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong”.
Mr Clinton said Mr Carter was a man guided by faith who “worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world”, while George W. Bush hailed him as a man of “deeply held convictions” whose efforts to leave behind a better world “didn’t end with the presidency”.
Barack Obama said Mr Carter was an example of “what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice and service”.
After he defeated Republican president Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, Mr Carter quickly went about setting a different tone as president by becoming the first US leader to leave his motorcade and walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House after his inauguration.
His message to other countries following his election win was that the US would “not seek to dominate or dictate to others” and he pardoned Americans who had fled the country to escape the draft during the Vietnam War.
His presidency was marred by several economic challenges including heightened inflation, elevated energy and fuel costs, periods of high unemployment and several international crises as well as ongoing conflict with fellow Democrats in congress.
In 1979, he gave a speech to the nation aimed at boosting morale in which he warned that America was suffering from a “a crisis of confidence” – a phrase his rivals turned against him.
His enduring foreign policy achievement was brokering the Camp David Accords to secure peace between Israel and Egypt in an agreement signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978.
The deal, negotiated from September 5 to 17, helped reshape the Middle East while bringing about a lasting peace between two previously warring states.
It would eventually contribute to Sadat’s assassination in October 1981 by Islamic extremists.
By contrast, Mr Carter’s decision to accept the ousted shah of Iran into the US for medical treatment in 1979 invited political catastrophe when a group of Iranian students invaded the US embassy in Tehran and took 66 people hostage – 52 of whom were held over the remainder of Mr Carter’s presidency.
A botched rescue attempt in April 1980 ended when a US helicopter crashed into a refuelling plane in the Iranian desert, killing eight US servicemen. In 2015, Mr Carter said: “I wish I’d sent one more helicopter to get the hostages, and we would have rescued them, and I would have been re-elected.”
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