Pod Insights American History Tellers The Carter Years | "Jimmy Who?" | 1 About this episode In 1976, as America struggled to recover from the twin traumas of the Watergate scandal and the war in Vietnam, an unlikely figure emerged from the Georgia countryside promising to bring integrity back to the White House. Jimmy Carter was a drawling peanut farmer and former Navy man, whose plain-spoken message resonated with American voters. His election win marked a seismic shift in American politics.
Carter became the first Deep South president since the Civil War, and he quickly pursued controversial actions: granting amnesty to conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War and pushing to give the Panama Canal back to Panama. He then set his sights on bringing peace to the Middle East with a series of risky talks at Camp David. But a lingering energy crisis would shadow his first year in office.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Lindsay Graham? Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
0:24 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's 4:45 a.m. on Sunday, November 4th, 1979, in Washington, D.C. You're President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. You're sitting in your study at home, nervously drinking a cup of coffee. It's your third. You're about to call the President at Camp David to update him on a troubling report from Iran, and you need to be alert. You've just learned that hundreds of Iranian students and protesters have marched from Tehran University to the U.S. Embassy. There, they've seized more than 60 American staffers and taken them hostage. The situation in Iran has been deteriorating for months, following the fall of the Shah, the ruling monarch of the country. Anti-American
1:06 Lindsay Graham? protests filled the streets of Tehran in recent weeks, and the President ordered hundreds of Embassy staffers to return home, but a small staff of about 70 remained. And now your worst fears have been realized, and American lives are at risk. You pick up the phone, and your call gets patched through to Camp David, where the President is staying with his family for the weekend. The camp has become Carter's refuge from the pressures of the job in his upcoming reelection campaign. You don't relish disturbing him, but this is an emergency. Yes? Sorry to wake you so early, sir. Our Embassy in Iran has been overrun. They're holding about 60 of our people. Oh, dear God. Has anyone been hurt? No, sir. They appear to be safe. State Department has spoken to the Embassy Chief
1:50 Lindsay Graham? there, and he's hopeful that we'll get this resolved quickly. Well, what do the Iranians want? Have they issued any demands? No, nothing official, except the same demand protesters have been making for weeks: send the Shah back to Iran. Well, we've agreed we can't do that. It was a humanitarian gesture to allow him into New York for treatment. We can't send him back if he's going to be killed. Yes, sir, but if you recall, the response to our decision was that a million protesters took to the streets of Tehran. The revolutionaries there see it as undermining their struggle. They want the Shah back to face justice. Well, it's not happening. What else can we do? We're trying to reach Iran's foreign minister and prime minister right now, sir, but we both know that Ayatollah is calling the shots. Yeah, and it's impossible to negotiate with that man.
2:36 Lindsay Graham? Our initial thinking is to impose diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions. And if they don't respond? Well, there is military intervention. And if that fails for any reason, we've got dead hostages. I can't have that on my conscience. We have to proceed with caution. I agree, sir, but there is another thing to consider. And what's that? It's a delicate moment for your reelection campaign. My reelection is not important at the moment. I want to bring these hostages home safely. I also want to protect the nation's honor and dignity. If I do that, then I'm sure the American people will see it.
3:12 Lindsay Graham? You admire the president and his willingness to put country over self, but he is treading on uncertain ground. It may not be possible to both save the hostages and the nation's dignity. Privately, you're worried that if this crisis doesn't get resolved quickly, it could drag the US into war with Iran and define Jimmy Carter's presidency.
3:35 Lindsay Graham? Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal. In our latest series, Benedict Arnold turns his back on the Continental Army and secretly defects. He plots to hand over the most important fortress in the colonies to the British and doom the revolution he once served. Listen to American Scandal on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.
3:55 Speaker 01 In New Orleans, truckers kept getting sideswiped the exact same way. When a man is found murdered under questionable circumstances related to these accidents, the rubber hits the road. Listen to "Over My Dead Body: Operation Sideswipe" wherever you get your podcasts.
4:22 Lindsay Graham? From Wondery, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.
4:43 Lindsay Graham? On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In 1976, as America struggled to recover from the twin traumas of the Watergate scandal and the war in Vietnam, an unlikely figure emerged from the Georgia countryside, Jimmy Carter, a drawling Navy veteran, Sunday school teacher and peanut farmer turned governor of Georgia. In his run for the presidency, he promised to bring honesty and integrity back to the White House.
5:24 Lindsay Graham? Carter's unexpected presidential victory marked a seismic shift in American politics. He was the first president from the Deep South since the Civil War, a born-again Christian who spoke of human rights and environmental protection, and an outsider who vowed to clean up Washington. He also brought to the White House his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who proved to be a popular and politically savvy First Lady. She became a trusted partner to her husband and the most politically active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. Carter's presidency saw remarkable diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East and legislative accomplishments on energy, education and the environment. But during his time in the White House, he also faced crushing challenges, from energy shortages to the Iran hostage
6:07 Lindsay Graham? crisis. Through it all, Carter's commitment to human rights and public service defined a presidency that remained both controversial and deeply consequential. This is the first episode in our three-part series on the Carter Years, Jimmy Who.
6:26 Lindsay Graham? James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1st, 1924 in Plains, Georgia, the first child of Bessie Lillian Gordy, a nurse, and James Earl Carter Sr., a farmer and businessman. Jimmy and his three younger siblings were raised on the family farm in the village of Archery, Georgia, with a population just under 500. The Carter's three-bedroom home, built from a Sears and Roebuck kit, had no electricity or running water until Jimmy was a teenager. Carter's father, known as Mr. Earl, grew peanuts, corn, sugarcane, and cotton on his farm. As one of the few white families in their rural community, the Carters were surrounded by the descendants of enslaved laborers, and Earl Carter rented out parcels of his land to tenant farmers, most of them black.
7:10 Lindsay Graham? He was a strict disciplinarian and deeply conservative southerner who believed in segregation. Jimmy's mother, known as Miss Lillian, worked long hours at the hospital in nearby Plains, Georgia. Despite her husband's conservative views on race, as a nurse, she often made house calls to help deliver babies in the homes of her black neighbors and encouraged her children to play with theirs. Other important figures in Jimmy's early life included the family cook, a young black woman named Annie Mae Hollis, who helped raise Jimmy and his siblings, and Jack and Rachel Clark, tenant farmers on the family's property. Jack was Earl Carter's foreman, and he taught Jimmy about farming. Jack's wife Rachel taught Jimmy to fish, and at night they often played cards and
7:54 Lindsay Graham? checkers in their one-room cabin. Carter later said that he knew Rachel Clark better than my mother. Young Jimmy worked hard on the family farm. He'd rise at dawn and order to milk cows, slaughter hogs, and plow the dusty peanut fields behind Emma, the family mule. Like many of their neighbors, the Carter family struggled during the Depression, but by the late 1930s, Earl Carter had turned their fortunes around. He ran a general store, a fire insurance agency, and a peanut warehouse. In time, he expanded his farm to 5,000 acres. Jimmy called his father "sir" and worshipped him, constantly striving to meet his expectations. And like his father, Jimmy was entrepreneurial. Recognizing his teenage son's ambition, Jimmy's father gave him an acre of land where he
8:39 Lindsay Graham? grew and packaged his own peanuts. Jimmy and a cousin were soon making their own money selling boiled peanuts, hamburgers, and homemade ice cream in downtown Plains. Jimmy's mother valued education and even encouraged her children to read at the dinner table. Jimmy became a straight A student at Plains High School, where his English teacher pushed him to read widely, write, and participate in debate. She also encouraged him to dream of a life beyond rural Georgia. But Jimmy needed little encouragement there. From an early age, he knew he wanted to explore the world, and he set his sights on the military, inspired in part by an uncle who served in the Navy. So in 1943, at age 18, Jimmy received a coveted appointment to the US Naval Academy.
9:23 Lindsay Graham? There, he was a quiet and reserved student, mocked by fellow midshipmen for his southern drawl and skinny 130-pound frame. Two years later, in 1945, he fell for a friend of his sister's, Rosalynn Smith, the daughter of a local auto shop repairman in Plains. The two had known each other for most of their lives, but they were married in July of 1946, two weeks after Jimmy graduated from the Naval Academy. For the next several years, Jimmy's burgeoning naval career took the couple to bases in Virginia, California, and Hawaii. Along the way, Rosalynn gave birth to three sons, lovingly known as Jack, Chip, and Jeff. In 1948, Jimmy began training on submarines and spent the next four years serving in the silent service, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant.
10:08 Lindsay Graham? In 1952, he began training in the Navy's elite nuclear submarine program. But then, in April of 1953, he received a call from home. His father, who had smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for decades, had terminal cancer. When Earl Carter died in July of that year, Jimmy made the difficult decision to leave the Navy and return to Georgia to take over the family peanut business. Rosalynn furiously objected, calling it a monumental step backward. But although the family business was struggling and deeply in debt, by the late 1950s, Jimmy had turned it around. And once he was back home, Jimmy became a prominent figure in the local Plains community. He joined a Lions Club, became a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts, and chaired
10:52 Lindsay Graham? the local school board. But Jimmy and Rosalynn held tolerant racial views, which were not always appreciated by their white southern neighbors. In 1960, while serving as chair of his county school board, Carter supported plans to consolidate smaller schools. Just six years after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling outlawed school segregation, many white locals viewed Carter's consolidation plans as a secret attempt to integrate schools. Some local pro-segregationists boycotted the Carter's peanut business, and one service station owner even refused to sell Jimmy gas. So by the early 1960s, Jimmy felt compelled to play a more active part in changing the politics of the Old South.
11:35 Lindsay Graham? Inspired by the election of a fellow Navy man, John F. Kennedy, in 1962, Jimmy made the decision to run for office, and he was soon elected to the Georgia State Senate. In 1966, after just two terms as a state senator, he boldly ran for governor, but lost to Lester Maddox, a populist Democrat and outspoken segregationist who refused to serve black customers at his Atlanta restaurant. Undeterred, Carter ran for governor again four years later. This time, knowing he had to find a way to appeal to conservative white voters, Carter publicly shifted to the right. He met with conservative leaders, including the notoriously racist White Citizens Council, which angered some early supporters and black voters. But Carter's political calculation paid off.
12:24 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's January 12, 1971. You're a civil rights lawyer and activist in Georgia, and you're sitting in an Atlanta bar, watching the new governor give his inaugural address. You've known Jimmy Carter for years, but you're not happy with the campaign he ran. He rarely met with black voters and seemed to go out of his way to appeal to white supporters of segregation. And so far, you're unimpressed by his speech, too. You turn to a state legislator seated next to you. Does any of this sound good to you so far? He shakes his head in dismay. “No, and I don’t agree with the message he was sending on the campaign trail either. I guess he did what he thought he had to do to get elected. Yeah, and he totally lost his black support doing it. He blatantly pandered to segregationists.
13:08 Lindsay Graham? You think maybe that was the plan? I mean, a few months back, he said, “You won’t like my campaign, but you will like my administration.” You think this is some sort of Trojan horse? I don’t believe that for a second. During the campaign, he courted segregationists. He sounded just like that racist Maddox. Yeah, well, thank God Maddox was limited to just one term. You put down your beer and turn your attention back to the TV. And just then, something Jimmy Carter says in his speech shocks you to the core.
13:36 Speaker 02 At the end of a long campaign, I believe I know our people of this state as well as anyone could. Based on this knowledge of Georgians, north and south, rural and urban, liberal and conservative, I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.
14:04 Lindsay Graham? Well, you hear that? Maybe he is a Trojan horse. Oh, please, he sought out the endorsement of the White Citizens Council. They’re practically the KKK. He’s not a reformer in my book. Well, one thing’s for certain. If Carter means what he just said, and the segregationists who supported him are gonna feel betrayed, they might turn on him. He’ll be looking for political allies. Yeah, well, let’s just hope the man who pretended to be a conservative isn’t now pretending to be our ally too. You nod your head, because you do wonder if Carter really will work to fight racial discrimination. Georgia needs someone who’s gonna do right by the people by appointing black judges and state officials and reforming the judicial system.
14:44 Lindsay Graham? But you can’t be sure yet whether Carter’s really on your side. Jimmy Carter began his term as Georgia’s governor with a surprise call for racial tolerance. He had run his campaign as a moderate conservative, but in his inaugural address, he unveiled his true intentions, saying, “No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.” His bold address in January of 1971 made national news, but Carter's progressive stance on segregation also cost him the support of the state's Democratic Party. Former Governor Lester Maddox called him a bald-faced liar for posing as a conservative.
15:29 Lindsay Graham? But ultimately, Carter stood behind his words. As governor, he doubled the number of black employees on the state payroll and appointed dozens of minorities and women to state positions, more than all previous Georgia governors combined. He also boldly hung a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in the State House, drawing protests from members of the Ku Klux Klan. And his liberal agenda didn't stop there. He also championed prison and judicial reform, equal education in poor and urban schools, and environmental protection initiatives. Some efforts were more symbolic than tangible, but they raised his profile and in May 1971 propelled him to the cover of Time Magazine, who heralded him as "the face of the New South."
16:11 Lindsay Graham? But Carter's time as governor coincided with a dramatic period of national political turmoil, including Richard Nixon's divisive presidency, the Watergate scandal, and the escalating war in Vietnam. So by 1974, after just one term as governor, Carter began to wonder if he was ready for the national stage. He believed he could appeal to voters looking for an honest politician, a new kind of open-minded Southern Democrat with humble, working-class roots. On May 4, 1974, Governor Jimmy Carter gave a blistering speech at the University of Georgia Law School. He was not known as a dynamic public speaker, and his aides often begged him to show voters "more preacher, less engineer."
16:56 Lindsay Graham? But Carter's law school speech, as it would later be called, ranked as one of his best. In it, he quoted "a friend of mine, a poet named Bob Dylan." He then went on to denounce the criminal justice system as "rigged and racist." As governor, Carter had befriended folk musicians like Dylan and Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers, relationships that lent him a youthful cachet. And after his impassioned law school speech, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote a glowing profile for Rolling Stone magazine, saying Carter sounded like "the voice of an angry agrarian populist", and calling him "one of the most intelligent politicians I've ever met, and also one of the strangest". This early support from young musicians and counterculture journalists
17:39 Lindsay Graham? like Thompson gave Carter some buzz as a fresh, new political voice, young, handsome, liberal. And riding this wave of popularity, on December 12, 1974, as his term as governor wound down, Carter announced he would be running for president. But he was still a relative unknown on the national stage, leading the press to joke "Jimmy who"? Even his mother Lillian was skeptical, responding to his announcement he was running for president by scoffing "President of what"? So at the start of 1975, when Carter entered the race for the Democratic nomination, he faced stiff headwinds. He would be running against popular Democratic candidates like California Governor Jerry Brown and the controversial governor of Alabama, George Wallace.
18:23 Lindsay Graham? And in the beginning of the race, he wasn't faring well. At one point, Carter trailed at a distant 13th place in the polls. But the rural farmer from Georgia wasn't going to give up the fight, betting that American voters were ready for change.
18:43 Lindsay Graham? By 1779, Benedict Arnold had sacrificed more for the revolution than almost any other man in America. One of George Washington's most effective commanders, he had nearly lost a leg in the Second Battle of Saratoga. But in return, Arnold believed he had been humiliated by Congress and cheated of his glory by lesser men, so he decided to make them pay. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history: presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, Benedict Arnold Turns is back on his comrades in the Continental Army and secretly defects to the British. With the help of his wife, he plots to hand over the most important colonial fortress
19:27 Lindsay Graham? to the enemy and doom the revolution he once served. Follow American Scandal wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of American Scandal early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
19:43 Speaker 01 A trucker merges onto the I-10 in New Orleans. He checks his mirrors. The lane is clear. And then, boom, impact. A pickup truck, seemingly out of nowhere, scrapes down the side of his 18-wheeler. Multiple passengers inside. One man flees the scene, and the driver of the pickup, he doesn't seem all that upset. It didn't feel like a regular accident, because it wasn't. Across the city, truckers are getting sideswiped, all on the same stretch of the same freeway. And behind many of the cases is one person, a Hollywood stunt woman turned personal injury lawyer named Vanessa Moda. This podcast is a story about fake accidents that lead to real consequences and a scheme that ends in betrayal and murder.
20:28 Speaker 01 Listen to Over My Dead Body: Operation Sideswipe wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
20:51 Lindsay Graham? By early 1975, Jimmy Carter had launched his campaign for the presidency in earnest. Often traveling solo and lugging his own garment back, he kept up a relentless pace, visiting 250 cities in 46 states, wooing voters with a pledge to bring honesty, trust, and openness to the White House. He closed his speeches with a promise to never tell a lie, a direct reference to the scandals and drama that had engulfed him. The Nixon White House. By this time, Rosalynn Carter had become indispensable to her husband's ambitions. She was a natural campaigner. One aide said she wanted to be first lady as much as he wanted to be president, and they were a good team on the road.
21:33 Lindsay Graham? Both he and Rosalynn made it a point to remember supporters' names and wrote personal thank you notes. Rosalynn even gave voters her phone number and kept detailed notes on potential supporters on index cards. And through mid-1975, the couple focused on the Iowa caucuses, part of a strategy to win the early primaries. At times, Carter faced small crowds who didn't even know he was running, but Jimmy often made the best of it. He once spoke to a crowd of just three people in a hotel conference room, then walked through downtown Des Moines shaking hands. But in addition to his wife Rosalynn, Carter also relied on famous musician friends. Willie Nelson, John Denver, Jimmy Buffett, and the Allman Brothers all helped him fundraise.
22:15 Lindsay Graham? And generating crucial support from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Martin Luther King Jr.'s father, known as Daddy King, came out early in favor of Carter. So by 1976, the Jimmy Who jokes receded as Carter started to make a name for himself against better-known candidates like George Wallace and Jerry Brown. To the surprise of many, he moved steadily to the front of the pack, and soon other young Democrats came to his side, including 33-year-old Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who campaigned for Carter. This momentum came as some voters viewed Carter as the ideal antidote to Richard Nixon. He was humble and thrifty. He wore the same two cheap suits, one gray, one blue, day after day.
22:58 Lindsay Graham? He slept in supporters' homes while on the road, he ate burgers and fast food. He cultivated the image of a drawling, handsome, down-to-earth churchgoer and Navy veteran. Carter described himself as a farmer, an engineer, a father and a husband, a Christian, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, and among other things, a lover of Bob Dylan's songs. The New York Times helpfully referred him as Southern Kennedy. But behind the scenes, reporters found that Carter could be prickly and self-righteous. TV host Bill Moyers said, "I respect him, and I'm afraid of him. He never seems to relax." But most voters didn't get to see this side of Carter, who won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries.
23:41 Lindsay Graham? And then when Carter took Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the primaries, it was a turning point. His rivals started dropping out, including Wallace and Brown. By the summer of 1976, the underdog had become the unlikely frontrunner. And at the Democratic National Convention in July, Carter easily won his party's nomination. He chose liberal Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale as his vice presidential candidate, and together they planned to run a strong race against the Republican nominee, Nixon's former vice president and current president Gerald Ford. But as the Democratic frontrunner, Carter faced new scrutiny. And that summer, the media pressed him to talk publicly about his faith. His team had advised him to navigate a narrow path as a progressive Democrat who also held
24:26 Lindsay Graham? Christian beliefs. But when reporters started asking more about his faith, Carter held a press conference and described a deeply profound religious experience he'd had back in 1967. After losing his first race for governor, he was despondent and spent time with his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, who had become an evangelical healer. Carter had always been a dedicated Christian, but his time with his sister inspired him to make what he called "a complete commitment to Christ." He told one reporter, "I feel like I have one life to live. I feel God wants me to do the best I can with it." This candid discussion of being born again and his relationship to Christ appealed to evangelical voters and conservatives. Carter's colorful family also helped generate more support in conservative states like
25:11 Lindsay Graham? Texas, where his brother Billy Carter campaigned for him. Billy joked with the press, "My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was 68. I one sister is a motorcycle freak. My other sister is a holy roller evangelist, and my brother is running for president. I'm the only sane one in the family." But despite Carter's promising start, during the final months of the campaign, Gerald Ford, with Kansas Senator Bob Dole as his running mate, managed to cut into Carter's lead. And then Carter almost upended his campaign with comments he made during a disastrous interview with Playboy magazine. In the article which appeared in September 1976, Carter admitted he had looked on a lot of women with lust and had committed adultery in my heart.
25:54 Lindsay Graham? Soon thereafter, Carter's lead in the polls dropped ten points. But then Gerald Ford made some costly mistakes of his own, including misstatements during the second presidential debate. Ford stated that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, which was considered a naive view of Soviet brutality at the time. And then, at the eleventh hour, Carter received a crucial endorsement from his former Democratic rival, George Wallace. Wallace told southern voters, "It's all right to be a conservative Democrat and vote for Jimmy Carter." This support helped Carter shore up conservative and rural white votes, so that when all was said and done on election day, Carter captured 50% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240.
26:38 Lindsay Graham? It was one of the closest presidential margins of victory in six decades. In a short victory speech, Carter promised to make America great once again. But in addition to wooing reluctant conservative and rural white voters, it became clear Carter also managed to win support from many black voters in southern states and working-class voters in the Rust Belt. The former peanut farmer had risen from relative obscurity to the White House in nine short months, and optimism in the Carter camp was high. Imagine it's November 22nd, 1976, and you're an aide to outgoing President Gerald Ford at your office in the White House. It's been more than two weeks since your boss lost to Jimmy Carter, and today Ford
27:22 Lindsay Graham? is meeting with Carter while you and your colleagues welcome Carter's incoming staff, a group of southern yokels known as the Georgia Mafia. They look nothing like the Washington insiders you've worked with for years. They seem young and cocky, and they wear blue jeans, not suits. They speak in thick southern drawls, and they're also known to drink beer, curse, and listen to rock music. So you feel a little dread as you look up to see one of Carter's staff approaching your desk. He reaches out to shake your hand. Howdy, I'm Ham Jordan. Good to meet you, you got a nice place here. He laughs and slaps you on the back. You're not surprised by his lack of decorum. Carter has never served in Congress, or in a cabinet post, or led in the federal government in any way.
28:04 Lindsay Graham? He's a bumpkin, and clearly so are his band of juvenile southern boys. But you have no choice but to help the transition. So you force a smile. Yes, it is a nice place. Would you like me to show you around? Oh, sure thing.
28:22 Lindsay Graham? Is this your first time in the White House? That's just about my first time in Washington. Well, if I may, a little advice. Washington is a very social town. You might want to get yourself a suit and tie. There's always a cocktail party or some event that you're going to be expected to attend. I'm not really a cocktail party kind of guy, not my thing. Yes, I take it you're a pretty informal group. I noticed Mr. Carter, you mean President Carter? Yeah, sorry. President-elect Carter. I notice he carries his own luggage. Yeah, he likes to show he's an average guy, but don't be fooled. He's no rube, and he'll bite your damn head off if you cross him. You reach the West Wing, and then show Jordan into one of the offices. He looks around, impressed. Yeah, nice.
29:07 Lindsay Graham? I think this one's going to be mine. This is the Chief of Staff's office. Yep, that's right. You're Carter's Chief of Staff? Yeah, so you might be right about buying that suit. Look, you may think we're a bunch of suckers, but the American people want an honest leader, someone they can trust. Washington's been run all business as usual for too long now, so we're about to shake things up around here.
29:30 Lindsay Graham? Jordan takes another sweeping look at his new office. You just shake your head. Sure, Watergate was a scandal, and the country is facing some tough times, but you still can't believe your boss Gerald Ford lost to a peanut?
29:48 Lindsay Graham? On inauguration day, January 20, 1977, in 28-degree weather, Jimmy Carter's limousine approached the White House. The 39th President of the United States leaned forward and told the Secret Service driver to stop. Jimmy, Rosalynn, and their nine-year-old daughter Amy got out and started walking to the White House. His team had suggested Carter show the public a fit and humble new president. Carter initially thought it was a silly stunt, but later called it "one of those few perfect moments in life where everything seems absolutely right." So Carter walked into office with sky-high approval ratings and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. He had ambitious plans to use this mandate.
30:30 Lindsay Graham? He started by pledging to eliminate nuclear weapons and pursue world peace and human rights. And in an effort toward transparency, he became the first president to release his tax returns and transferred his family's business interests to a blind trust. Then, one of Carter's first official acts was to give amnesty and an unconditional pardon for all conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. This wiped clean the criminal records of tens of thousands of American men who had fled to Canada and other countries to avoid the draft. But the backlash from veterans and conservatives was immediate and harsh. Still, Carter didn't stop there. As he had as Georgia's governor, he next began to staff his administration with more
31:12 Lindsay Graham? women and minorities than any previous president. Rosalynn was among those who pushed him to integrate his staff. She also influenced her husband's policies and became the first First Lady to have her own policy staff. She became a passionate spokesperson for mental health legislation, and Carter called her "my best friend and chief advisor." But Carter also took office during a difficult time for the economy. In 1973, the Arab members of oil-producing states had launched an oil embargo against the US. That embargo had ended in 1974, but the so-called "energy crisis" had lingered, and three years later, Americans were still facing rising energy prices.
31:54 Lindsay Graham? Carter tried to confront the crisis and on February 2nd, 1977, wearing a cardigan sweater for his first televised fireside chat, he urged Americans to turn down their thermostats and conserve fuel while ordering government buildings to cut back on heating. Carter knew he risked losing popularity by encouraging austerity, but the public initially supported his call for sacrifice. A month later, he conducted an unprecedented live two-hour radio call-in show with Walter Cronkite, during which Carter answered callers' questions directly and showed off his intellect and poise. Then, on Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd impersonated Carter, portraying him as the most knowledgeable and competent president in history.
32:37 Lindsay Graham? Encouraged by the public's support, Carter signed the Emergency Natural Gas Act and imposed the first-ever fuel economy standards for cars. In televised address, he scolded those who drove gas guzzlers and called the energy crisis "the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime." Carter's approval ratings soon skyrocketed to 75%. He was off to a successful start. But soon, he would place two big bets on foreign affairs initiatives, each so risky that failure on either one might spell disaster.
33:17 Speaker 03 Hey, I'm Cassie DePecce, the host of Against the Odds from Audible Originals. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who lived to tell the tale. In our latest series, we track the story of Hugh Glass, the real-life revenant that inspired the 2015 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1823, Glass was brutally mauled by a grizzly bear in present-day South Dakota and left for dead. His survival depended on trekking through 350 miles of wilderness alone with grave injuries. But he was driven by his thirst for revenge. Follow Against the Odds wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
34:01 Speaker 04 I'm Gemma Whelan, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, the spy who was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent, accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari, early and ad-free on Audible.
34:39 Lindsay Graham? In early 1977, during the first months of his administration, Jimmy Carter opened negotiations to return the US-built Panama Canal to its host country. Carter's interest in the canal had been inspired by reading historian David McCullough's book, The Path Between the Seas, which explored the complicated cultural and political history of the canal's construction. Carter came to feel that keeping the canal under US control was immoral. So by May of 1977, he had worked out a preliminary agreement with Panama's leader, General Omar Torrios. In August, Carter asked members of Congress to carefully study his proposed agreement, but to reserve making any public statements. Ignoring that request, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond objected,
35:24 Lindsay Graham? and in a speech said, "The canal is ours. We bought and we paid for it, and we should keep it." But despite this resistance, on September 7, 1977, Carter welcomed Torrios and other Latin American leaders to the White House to sign the preliminary treaties. But he still needed the US Senate to approve the deal, and winning congressional support would take time and strategy. Ever since his presidential campaign, Carter's relationship with fellow Democratic leaders had been strained. While running his election, he had distanced himself from the Democratic Party, preferring to be seen as an outsider and not part of the establishment. But as president, he was the nation's top Democrat, a role he was reluctant to embrace.
36:06 Lindsay Graham? It didn't help that one of his first moves as president was threatening to veto any legislation that included public works and water projects. These projects were heavily favored by Democratic lawmakers, but Carter considered them wasteful. This veto threat hung over his first year in office and strained his relationship with Democrats in Congress from the start. One veteran Democratic senator warned Carter that he had gone to war with his own best soldiers. But for Carter, eliminating what he saw as waste was a top priority. Coming into office, he became obsessed with austerity. He insisted on turning off lights in the White House to conserve energy, and over Rosalind's
36:45 Lindsay Graham? objections, set the thermostats to a chilly 65 degrees during the day and 55 at night. He also drove his staff crazy with obsessive frugality. But in 1978, it was Carter's strained relationship with Congress and Democratic leaders that brought a chill to Washington. For months, Republicans and even some Democrats had resisted Carter's idea of returning the Panama Canal to Panama. And as Congress neared a vote, the outcome grew uncertain and then defeat loomed. But then in April 1978, the Senate narrowly approved the deal. One White House staffer said the resulting celebration was the first display of emotion in Carter's camp, and Carter said getting the final votes had been even harder than
37:29 Lindsay Graham? getting elected president. The deal, made up of two treaties, set a schedule to transfer the canal back to Panama by 1999. But these Panama Canal treaties were some of his last legislative victories. Carter failed to get congressional support for tax and welfare reform, and as 1978 progressed, Carter faced declining approval ratings and more fights with Congress over economic and energy initiatives. So confronting the limits of what he could achieve at home, in the summer of 1978, Carter turned abroad. He wanted to help bring peace to the Middle East. Carter had almost no foreign policy experience before coming to Washington, but his Christian faith had instilled in him an interest in the Holy Land and the Middle East.
38:13 Lindsay Graham? The region had seen war break out four times between Israel and Arab states since the end of World War II, most recently the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Carter studied the ongoing conflict through the summer of 1978 and began thinking about a bold plan to bring Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the negotiating table. When Vice President Walter Mondale first heard about Carter's idea, he warned, "If this blows up in your face, it could destroy your presidency." But Carter was determined to prove that the United States could be a force for peace in the world, and he believed he could succeed where others had failed.
38:55 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's a warm Saturday afternoon in mid-July 1978. You're the First Lady, and you're at the presidential retreat at Camp David with your husband, walking along one of your favorite trails. Jimmy had threatened to sell this property at the start of his administration, one of his attempts at frugality, but you're glad he changed his mind. These 140 wooded acres, an hour north of the Capitol, have become one of your favorite places, a refuge for the chaos of Washington. Jimmy stops and turns to you. You remember the trip we took to Israel when I was governor? Of course I do, uh, May of '73. Gold of My Year invited you. We had that, um, tour guide who drove us around in an old Mercedes wagon. I, I thought it was wonderful. Why, why do you ask?
39:39 Lindsay Graham? Well, I keep thinking about the streets of old Jerusalem, the holy places we visited. All the ancient history in that tiny country. Seems it made an impression on you. Well, it did. But I've been thinking about how complicated that history is, what it means for today, all those Palestinian refugees. I want to help bring Israel and Egypt to the negotiating table, but everyone keeps telling me it's risky, that it's a losing proposition. Well, if everyone could be. Peace in the Middle East won't be achieved without great sacrifice on one side or the other. Maybe. But I can't stop thinking about it. I know if I could just get the two sides talking, we could find some common ground. Just then, you have an idea. You take your husband's hand in yours. Well, why don't you propose a meeting here?
40:23 Lindsay Graham? Wouldn't this place, this peaceful camp, be an ideal place for talks? Well, it is so beautiful here. A bucolic setting like this could keep things informal, keep the dialogue flowing. Maybe we could work out some of the lingering problems. I mean, it's hard to hold a grudge in a place like this. Well, I would think so, but Camp David isn't magic. What if the talks fail? Are you willing to be the scapegoat? Your husband shrugs. They could fail, but we won't know if we don't try.
40:54 Lindsay Graham? You look at your husband with admiration and concern. Peace talks between Egypt and Israel could either be his greatest foreign policy triumph or a devastating failure. But your husband is a stubborn man, one who hates to lose. On August 8, 1978, the White House announced plans for peace talks between Egyptian President Ammar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to take place at Camp David in September. Carter was inundated with warnings from Congress, friends, and advisers that the meetings were too risky, that the likelihood of success was remote, and it was a distraction for more important issues on the home front. But a month later, on September 5, Jimmy and Rosalynn welcomed the foreign leaders
41:39 Lindsay Graham? to Camp David. The Carters, Sadats, and Begin stayed in rustic cabins just 100 yards from each other. Negotiations began the next day, and the three leaders issued a joint statement asking people of all faiths to pray for us that peace and justice may result from these deliberations. But the talks got off to a bumpy start. Sadat and Begin often broke into shouting matches, and negotiations teetered on the brink of collapse, with one of the two sides angrily threatening to walk out. But when that happened, Carter would jump in to mediate. Then, after a few days of stalled negotiations, Carter suggested they take a break and visit the nearby Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg.
42:20 Lindsay Graham? He hoped a visit to the site of the bloody three-day battle between Union and Confederate troops might inspire the two sides to work toward resolving their own historic conflict. Sadat was excited to make the trip, but Begin seemed reserved, until when he reached the hallowed grounds where thousands of Americans died, suddenly Begin began to recite Abraham Lincoln's entire Gettysburg Address from memory. Before reaching the battlefield, Begin had packed his bags and was planning to leave Camp David immediately after returning from Gettysburg. But this emotional moment convinced Begin to stay, and that decision convinced Carter that there was still hope for peace. Still, relations remained strained.
43:02 Lindsay Graham? Talks between the two delegations that had been planned for three days dragged on for nearly two weeks. Finally, on September 17, 1978, Begin and Sadat announced that they were unwilling to come to a definitive agreement, but each side yielded on key issues. The result was two separate agreements or frameworks. Together, they became known as the Camp David Accords. These accords affirmed Israel's promise to withdraw troops and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, to end military rule over the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza, and to acknowledge the rights of the Palestinian people. Egypt agreed to demilitarize the Sinai Peninsula and let Israeli ships pass through the Suez Canal.
43:45 Lindsay Graham? Egypt also became the first Arab state to formally recognize Israel's right to exist. Jimmy Carter's dream of brokering a wider regional peace agreement in the Middle East and protecting a self-governed homeland for Palestinians fell short. Still, he counted the Camp David Accords as his most important accomplishment thus far. But Carter had little time to bask in this triumph, because Americans at home were suffering. Inflation, caused by the lingering effects of Vietnam War spending and the oil embargo, had reached nearly 10%. Carter admitted it was our most serious domestic problem. Unemployment and gas prices were rising too. And at the same time, worldwide oil production had reached capacity, and by late April 1979,
44:30 Lindsay Graham? many anxious Americans found themselves stuck in long lines at gas stations, waiting hours to fill up their tanks. It became clear that if President Carter did not find a solution to the country's economic turmoil soon, any hopes for a second term would be doomed. From Wondery, this is episode one of The Carter Years from American History Tellers. On the next episode, as Jimmy Carter faces a deepening energy crisis and soaring inflation on the home front, an international crisis erupts when Iranian protesters storm the US Embassy and take more than 60 Americans hostage.
45:10 Lindsay Graham? American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com.
45:45 Lindsay Graham? If you'd like to learn more about Jimmy Carter's presidency, we recommend The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird, his very best, Jimmy Carter A Life by Jonathan Alter, and Carter's 1995 memoir, Keeping Faith. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsay Graham, for Airship. Audio editing by Christian Faraga. Sound design by Molly Byn. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Thrum. This episode is written by Neil Thompson, edited by Dorian Marina, produced by Alita Rosansky, managing producer Desi Blalock, senior managing producer Callum Cluse, senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louis, and Aaron O'Flaherty for Wondery.
46:36 Speaker 05 Imagine you're reading Pride and Prejudice, except you're not reading it. Harris Dickinson and Marissa Abella are reading it to you on Audible. Her barbs sting you. His coldness sends a shiver up your spine. Your heart aches. Your ears burn. You yearn for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to profess their undying love for one another. You can't bear it any longer. Well, maybe a chapter longer. Performance is so good, you'll give love a second chance. Audible. Stories that speak to you.
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