Jimmy Carter Former U.S. President, Who Visited India Post Emergency Dies in Georgia! The World Admires Him!

Jimmy Carter, the longest-living president in the United States history, died aged 100 in Plains, Georgia, the town where he was born in a hospital on October 1, 1924. Carter served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Jimmy Carter was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. Carter spent nearly two years in hospice care before his death.

Shailesh Kumar, National Defence
New Delhi, 30 December 2024

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter shared a unique connection with India-one that extended beyond diplomacy. A village Daulatpur- Nasirabad in Gurugram district of Haryana was renamed in his honor following his historic visit to India in 1978. Carter was the first American leader to visit India after the Emergency era and the victory of the Janata Party in 1977. His address to the Indian Parliament on January 2, 1978, championed democracy and freedom, rejecting authoritarianism.

Jimmy Carter, son of Lieutenant who served in World War-I, graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1946. The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is named in his honor. After his graduation, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. The Carters have three sons, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and a daughter, Amy Lynn.

Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford and was sworn in on January 20, 1977. He served one year before being swept aside by Ronald Reagan. Carter battled stagflation in his time. However, in that short time, he did rack up triumphs like the historic Camp David peace accords, in which Israel and Egypt recognised each other’s governments officially. Carter once said “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood,”.

He succeeded in obtaining ratification of the Panama Canal treaties. Building upon the work of predecessors, he established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and completed negotiation of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.

Carter later ran for the Georgia Senate in 1962, and won, going on to streamline the state’s bureaucracy. He was widely considered a centrist reformer. He was also known for his humanitarian and charitable endeavors after leaving the White House, including his commitment to the Habitat for Humanity program, and the Carter Presidential Center.

There were serious setbacks, however. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the suspension of plans for ratification of the SALT II pact. The seizure as hostages of the U. S. embassy staff in Iran dominated the news during the last 14 months of the administration. The consequences of Iran’s holding Americans captive, together with continuing inflation at home, contributed to Carter’s defeat in 1980. Even then, he continued the difficult negotiations over the hostages. Iran finally released the 52 Americans the same day Carter left office.

Carter survived his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, by a little more than a year. She passed away aged 96 in November 2023. He is survived by four children, Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy, and 11 grandchildren and 14 grandchildren.

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