President Carter
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Trump, Donald J.
Tudeh Party
Tuhami, Hassan al
Turner, Stansfield
Turner, Ted
TWA
Twain, Mark
Twitter
Udall, Morris
Ullman, Al
UN General Assembly
UNICEF
Union College
United Airlines
United Auto Workers (UAW)
United Jewish Appeal
United Nations
United Parcel Service (UPS)
United States
called “the Great Satan” by Khomeini
embassy in Tehran
embassy in Tel Aviv
trade negotiations
United Steelworkers
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN Resolution 242
UN Resolution 338
UN Resolution 465
UN resolutions, on Israel, Carter administration missteps
Unruh, Jesse
UN Security Council
UN Special Refugee Conference
Urban Development Action Grant Program
Urban League
Uruguay
U.S. Steel
Valenti, Jack
Vance, Cyrus
Van Deerlin, Lionel
Vandiver, Ernest
Van Dyk, Ted
Vanik, Charles
Venezuela
vice presidency
Videla, Jorge
Vietnam Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bill
Vietnam War
Viguerie, Richard
Villalon, Hector
Vladivostok agreement
Voice, Christian
Volcker, Paul
voodoo economics
Waggoner, Joe
Wagner, Carl
Waldheim, Kurt
Walęsa, Lech
Walinsky, Adam
Wallace, George
Wallach, Henry
Wallach, John
Walters, Barbara
Warner, Marvin
Warnke, Paul
Warren, Charles
Washington, George
Washington establishment, Carter not part of
Washington Post
Washington Wise Men
“Watergate babies”
Watergate scandal
Water Resources Development Act (1986)
Water Wars
Watson, Jack
Watson, Tom
Wattenberg, Ben
Watts, Glenn
Wayne, John
Weddington, Sarah
Weil, Frank
Weiss, Ariel
Weizman, Ezer
Weizmann, Chaim
Wellford, Harrison
West, the
West Bank
settlements in
Wexler, Anne
Weyrich, Paul
Whip Inflation Now (WIN)
White, E. B.
White Citizens Council, Carter’s refusal to join
White House
anti-Washington attitude of Carter’s staff
Situation Room
staff
tennis court
West Wing
White House correspondents
White House Council on Environmental Quality
White House Domestic Policy Staff
White House National Economic Council
whites, voting by
Why Not the Best? 20
Wiesel, Eli
Wiesner, Jerome
Williams, Harrison
Williams, Roy
Wilson, Charles
Wilson, James Q.
Wilson, Woodrow
Wisconsin
Wise, Phil
Women’s equal rights
Woodruff, Judy
Work Projects Administration (WPA)
World Bank
World War II
Wright, Jim
Wright, Skelly
Wriston, Walter
Wyman, David
Wynn, Wilton
Yadin, Yigal
Yates, Sid
Yazdi, Ibrahim
Yom Kippur War
Young, Andrew
Yugoslavia
Zahedi, Ardeshir
Zahir Shah, King
Zionist movement
Zukerman, Pinchas
ALSO BY STUART EIZENSTAT
The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces Are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States
Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II
Andrew Young: The Path to History (with William Barutio)
Praise for PRESIDENT CARTER
“President Carter anticipated many of the programs that his successor Ronald Reagan embraced. He fostered major deregulation of transportation, communication, and banking, and, most importantly, appointed Paul Volcker, one of the most committed inflation fighters, to the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. Stuart Eizenstat succeeds in offering a more balanced view of the Carter presidency than is conventional. Splendid read.”
—Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 1987–2006, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Gerald Ford
“‘People never did understand me and still don’t,’ Jimmy Carter has said. Stuart Eizenstat disproves the claim in this ultimate insider’s account of our 39th President, which does for Carter what Robert Sherwood did for FDR, and Ted Sorensen for JFK. His access equaled by his objectivity, Eizenstat places the first New Democrat in historical perspective as a self-confident moralist impatient with incrementalism, uncomfortable with Washington’s status quo and the politicians who defer to it. Clearly more consequential, and legislatively successful, than it appears in popular memory, Carter’s presidency put a lasting stamp on energy and environmental policy, human rights and the tortuous pursuit of peace in the Middle East. Eizenstat makes it all matter in this highly readable narrative forty years in the making, and well worth the wait.”
—Richard Norton Smith, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Thomas E. Dewey and His Times
“President Carter is an extraordinary reassessment of the first ‘New Democrat’s’ presidency, combining Stu’s recognized domestic and international policy range and depth with wonderful political, personal, institutional, and societal insights. This book is much more than a well-written and researched history: Stu reminds that Jimmy Carter was the first modern president who ran as an anti-Establishment populist, navigating currents of alienation that have continued to swirl around American politics.”
—Robert B. Zoellick, former President of the World Bank, US Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State
“At a time when Americans are yearning for moral leadership, this is exactly the right book written by exactly the right person. Jimmy Carter was not a perfect president but he came close to being a saintly president. Stu Eizenstat, his right-hand assistant on domestic and other affairs, draws from more than five thousand pages of notes he took at the time to draw a balanced, insightful, and uplifting portrait of a president whose moral courage we miss today.”
—David Gergen, presidential adviser, political analyst, and codirector of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School
“Jimmy Carter may well be due for a revisionist wave. If so, Stu Eizenstat’s important book will be seen as its cutting edge. As anyone who knows him would expect, Eizenstat’s book is tough minded, thorough, and thoughtful in making the case for a new view of the Carter Presidency. It deserves the close attention of anyone concerned with American history or politics.”
—Lawrence Summers, Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and former chairman of President Obama’s National Economic Council
“History may judge Jimmy Carter guilty of too much humanity, but he lacked neither courage, nor conviction, nor, in the final
analysis, real and lasting achievements. This is an important and long overdue assessment.”
—Ted Koppel, broadcast journalist, former anchor of ABC’s Nightline
“What better time than now for a reevaluation of Jimmy Carter’s presidency? And who better to initiate it than Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director and one of his top advisors on the Mideast? No apologist, Eizenstat acknowledges Carter’s political weaknesses and studiously avoids excessive claims of greatness. President Carter is thus a first-rate work of analysis and history and a much-needed retrospective on a president who reflected great personal credit on the office he held and the country he served.”
—Stanley Cloud, former White House correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine
“Stu makes it impossible not to see Carter’s genuine accomplishments at home and abroad and his daring to tackle problems others wouldn’t touch. It is a rare pleasure to read such a fair-minded and truthful book.”
—Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations
“An admiring but also very frank account of Jimmy Carter’s presidency by the ultimate insider, Stuart Eizenstat. He’s honest about Carter’s weaknesses, as well as his strengths, and he reveals some details that have never been reported before. His summation of ‘what ifs’ at the end of the book makes haunting reading. This memoir reminds us that during the Carter years, we had a smart, decent but unlucky man in the Oval Office.”
—David Ignatius, columnist, The Washington Post
“An unflinchingly honest, comprehensive description and analysis of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Eizenstat’s reconstruction of Carter’s term offers detailed treatment of foreign and domestic policy issues, along with intriguing analysis of the politics of it all. He was a participant observer and activist who knew the players well. History benefits, as will scholars and other readers of this crisply written, carefully researched volume.”
—Charles O. Jones, Hawkins Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison
“The Kennedy administration had, as its inside historian, Arthur Schlesinger. Reagan had James Baker, and now Jimmy Carter has Stuart Eizenstat. And readers have the best history of Carter’s consequential, one-term presidency, and it’s about time. Writ- ten by an insider, capable of seeing—and appreciating—Carter’s accomplishments as well as his flaws, President Carter is rich in detail and insight, absolutely fair-minded and informative, a welcome reassessment of a president who deserved a fresh look.”
—Marvin Kalb, former network correspondent, Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, author of The Year I Was Peter the Great
“This book provides an important corrective to the history of the Carter administration. Written by one of the president’s closest and most influential advisers, it portrays the intricacies of presidential politics in compelling, balanced, and extremely readable prose. The discussion of events leading up to and through the Camp David peace accords is fascinating.”
—Stephen J. Wayne, Professor of Government, Georgetown University
“If you believe you know the full truth about the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, you’ll think twice after you read Stu Eizenstat’s fascinating, richly researched, insider accounts. Eizenstat has filled in a lot of blanks about the administration he loyally served. While he fully acknowledges major mistakes by Carter and his aides (including himself ), the author makes a strong case that Carter’s four years in the Oval Office are due a serious reevaluation, and that Carter achieved far more than he is often credited with in the shorthand style of current history and commentary.”
—Larry J. Sabato, professor, founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics
“Stuart Eizenstat has written an important book, a richly detailed account of the events and people of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, which may very well lead to history’s reevaluation of the 39th President.”
—Stephen H. Hess, Senior Fellow Emeritus, The Brookings Institution
“Eizenstat has given us a seminal reminder of the kind of president that we need in this dangerous world—and of the contribution a candid insider’s account can give to history’s understanding of a widely misunderstood president. As Eizenstat writes, Jimmy Carter was ‘not a great president,’ but he was a darned good one and, at the head of a functioning U.S. government, accomplished much more than many others who have filled that post.”
—Douglas Besharov, Norman and Florence Brody Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy
“No matter one’s assessment of Carter’s presidency, one admires his convictions that the human condition must be improved and that America must contribute to this quest. This is a thoughtful book about a principled president and an honorable man.”
—Dr. Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford
“A masterpiece—presidential biography as it should be written. Eizenstat delivers the fly-on-the-wall authenticity of an insider, while providing the arm’s-length perspective and historical context of a skilled biographer.”
—Fred Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council
“Helps us better understand the true historical significance of Carter’s presidency, and show how, even with its flaws, it stands as a beacon of hope and achievement in politically and economically troubled times. A highly insightful and timely read!”
—Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum
“This is a massive book, not just in scale, but in both ambition and achievement. Carter emerges as a highly consequential, albeit flawed president.”
—Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commenator at the Financial Times
“This book is highly instructive today, both for its lessons about governing at a time of political division—within and between parties—and for its account of the complexities of economic policy decisions.”
—Robert E. Rubin, Former U.S. Treasury Secretary
“Carter was a much better and more consequential president than the first cut of history has given him. This book corrects the record. It’s an exhaustive examination of the successes and failures of those four years by an insider who spares neither himself nor Carter from criticism, but whose work will surely elevate respect for the important accomplishments of the president he serves.”
—Sam Donaldson, broadcast journalist and former news anchor
“Comprehensive, compelling, and readable. Eizenstat is no sycophant or apologist for Carter; his book chronicles the mistakes and stumbles just as he outlines the accomplishments. This book should, and will, alter the historical record and place the Carter presidency in a significantly better light.”
—Norman Ornstein, author of One Nation After Trump
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STUART E. EIZENSTAT was President Carter’s Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser. He served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce, Under Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, and Special Representative of the President on Holocaust-Era Issues. In the Obama Administration he was Special Representative of the Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School, he is now a leading international lawyer with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Foreword
Preface
>
Introduction
PART I. INTO THE WHITE HOUSE
1. The 1976 Campaign
2. A Perilous Transition
3. The Making of the Modern Vice President
4. A New Kind of First Lady
5. The Indispensable Man
PART II. ENERGY
6. The Moral Equivalent of War
7. Energizing Congress
8. The Senate Graveyard
9. Energy and the Dollar at the Bonn Summit
10. Into the Pork Barrel, Reluctantly
PART III. THE ENVIRONMENT
11. An Early Interest
12. The Water Wars
13. Alaska Forever Wild, Despite Its Senators
PART IV. THE ECONOMY
14. The Great Stagflation
15. The Consumer Populist
16. Saving New York and Chrysler
PART V. PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
17. The Clash of Peace and Politics
18. Sadat Changes History
19. Carter’s Triumph at Camp David
20. A Cold Peace
PART VI. PEACE IN THE REST OF THE WORLD
21. The Panama Canal and Latin America
22. The Soviet Union
23. Afghanistan
PART VII. THE UNRAVELING: RESIGNATIONS AND RESHUFFLING
24. The “Malaise” Speech
25. Resignations and Reshuffling
PART VIII. IRAN
26. The Rise of the Ayatollah
27. The Fall of the President
PART IX. A CATASTROPHIC CONCLUSION
28. “Where’s the Carter Bill, When We Need It?”
29. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
30. “Are You Better Off…?”
31. Final Days
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Also by Stuart Eizenstat
Praise for PRESIDENT CARTER
About the Author
Copyright
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
PRESIDENT CARTER. Copyright © 2018 by Stuart E. Eizenstat. Foreword copyright © 2018 by Madeleine Albright. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.