Benson



Jimmy Carter

Vice president: Walter Mondale

Date of term(s): 1977-1981

Political party: Democrat

Past political experience: Former Governor of Georgia (ran as Washington outsider)

| |-Advocated energy conservation and passed the National Energy Act to combat the energy crisis |

|DOMESTIC |created by OPEC |

|POLICIES/ISSUES |-Pushed for nuclear energy, but the Three Mile Island Incident scared Americans |

| | |

| |-Human rights issues were the foundation of his foreign policy |

|FOREIGN POLICIES/ISSUES |-Signed two treaties promising to turn over control of the Panama Canal in 1999 |

| |-Cut off aid to Argentina and Chile because of human rights violations |

| |-Officially recognized China (1979) |

| |-Initiated the SALT II Treaty (1979), but after the USSR attacked Afghanistan later that year, the |

| |treaty died in Congress |

| |-Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led Carter to cut off grain exports to the USSR, boycott the 1980 |

| |Olympics in Moscow, fund Afghan rebels (Taliban), and end detente |

| |*Negotiated the Camp David Accords (1978) peace between Egypt and Israel |

| |*Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)—Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the U.S. supported Shah and the U.S. |

| |allowed the Shah to come to the U.S.; therefore 52 Americans were taken hostage at our embassy in |

| |Tehran for 444 days; failed to negotiate release or rescue hostages |

| |-U.S. standard of living declined for the first time since WWII |

|ECONOMIC TRENDS |-Proposed voluntary price freezes and cut spending in an attempt to deal with the worsening economy|

| |-Dramatically increased interest rates |

| |-Pushed for oil conservation to combat economic recession |

|MAJOR SUPREME COURT CASES | Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) rolled back affirmative action by deciding|

| |that college admissions could not be based on race alone. |

| |-By the end of the 1970s, Carter talked about a “moral and spiritual crisis” in America; which |

|SOCIAL CHANGES |Reagan and the Conservative Coalition would capitalize on in the 1980s |

|(INC. WOMEN & AFRICAN-AMERICAN |-Ethnic diversity within the U.S. grew dramatically, aided by refugees from SE Asia and Cuba |

|RIGHTS) |(illegal immigration also rose) |

| |-Mexican-American civil rights movement continued |

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