[26] Ambassador Nichols powerfully noted: “As an African American, for as long as I can remember I have known that my rights and my body are not my own. Carter is most lauded today for his post-presidency activism, public service and defending human rights. Carter came to the White House determined to make human rights considerations integral to U.S. foreign policy. Carter never resolved his own internal tensions between the campaign promise of “a foreign policy rooted in moral values” and what Mitchell calls his “Cold Warrior” instincts. [12] See “Richard Nixon and Ronald W. Reagan on 26 October 1971,” Conversation 013-008, Presidential Recordings Digital Edition [Nixon Telephone Tapes 1971, ed. [1] Salih Booker, “America’s Disdain for Black Lives Extends to Africa,” Foreign Policy, June 12, 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/12/america-disdain-black-lives-extends-africa-militarization-africom-somalia-trump-police-brutality/. We can meet the ideals of our founding, we will change this world for the better.”[27]. Economist Elizabeth Clayton concluded in 1985 that Carter’s embargo was effective in exacerbating this weakness. [10] Mitchell highlights how policy debates around southern Africa “gave conservative politicians,” such as North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, “an opportunity to signal” racialized sentiments to their supporters.
Since then, scholars have debated – and often maligned – Carter’s legacy, especially his foreign policy efforts that revolved around human rights.

In December 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in response to the assassination of the Soviet-backed Afghan leader, Nur Mohammad Taraki. Robert C. Donnelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. [14] Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 (Yale University Press, 1992), 36. [28] One hopes that this struggle against structural racism, like the first Civil Rights Movement, will strengthen and inform the future of American statecraft. And in America, public opinion supported Carter’s bold move – 73% of Americans favored the boycott. He was educated during the Great Depression, later attending Georgia Tech and enrolling in the US Naval Academy at … It was updated on September 28th 2020. Copyright © 2010–2020, The Conversation US, Inc. Human rights were a cornerstone of President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy. Mitchell skillfully highlights how “race and the Cold War were inseparable.”[7] Inspired by their personal experiences with the American Civil Rights Movement, Carter’s team excelled in southern Africa, doggedly pursuing the end of minority rule in the former Rhodesia. Ken Hughes] (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014), “Richard Nixon and William P. Rogers on 26 October 1971,” Conversation 013-012, Presidential Recordings Digital Edition [Nixon Telephone Tapes 1971, ed. As Carter told the author in one interview, “I spent more effort and worry on Rhodesia than I did on the Middle East.”[17] This time and attention paid off and ushered in the independence of a majority-ruled Zimbabwe that was friendly to the United States. Carter also supported the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which evolved as a protest against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The shah of Iran, the chief U.S. ally in the region, was soon in exile. [6] Mitchell, a Professor of History at North Carolina State University, delivers a brilliant and nuanced assessment of the much-belittled Carter administration through the lens of his Africa policy.

As a historian researching Carter’s foreign policy initiatives, denying Russian Jews their basic civil rights, U.S. was providing advice and nonlethal supplies, heavy industrial development left the agricultural sector underfunded, Soviet leaders promised better diets and health, refrain from competing in the upcoming Moscow Olympics. Here, a billboard with his picture on it in Liberia. Such is the subject of Nancy Mitchell’s remarkable Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War. Mitchell also pierces the dominant historical narrative of the Carter foreign policy—the acerbic rivalry between hawkish National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance—with nuance and skill. He returned to Georgia, penned his memoirs and has since been active as a roving diplomat, an active philanthropist and a spokesman for various causes. The embargo also forced the Soviets to pay premium prices for grain from other countries, nearly 25 percent above market prices. His foreign policy, emphasizing human rights, was a key instrument in dismantling the power of the Soviet Union. After the tragic and horrifying murder of George Floyd, questions of race in American foreign policy in general, and towards the African continent in … His presidency spanned the final years of Détente and preceded the revival of Cold War rhetoric and tensions under Ronald Reagan. The CIA flooded the USSR with books and articles to incite human rights activism. This lumping approach, to borrow historian John Lewis Gaddis’ phrase, facilitates the kind of nuanced critiques of Carter’s policy approach and leadership that would not have been possible in a work narrowly focused on one sub-region or crisis alone. Jimmy Carter (1924- ) was the 39th president of the United States.His presidency spanned the final years of Détente and preceded the revival of Cold War rhetoric and tensions under Ronald Reagan.. Carter was born in Georgia, the son of a peanut farmer and state politician.
28, No.1 (January 2004), 113-143. Ambassador Nichols’ statement demonstrates how America can still be a voice against oppression overseas even as it struggles to become a more perfect union at home. Date published: October 12, 2018 [11] The Nixon administration’s Africa policy, which it justified with Cold War logic, likely reflected Nixon’s own well-known racial prejudices, fully on display in secret audio recordings of White House conversations. Carter Doctrine, foreign policy initiative of the United States, introduced by U.S. President Jimmy Carter in his 1980 State of the Union address, that returned the country to its traditional strategy of containment of the Soviet Union.. In part, this desire stemmed from practical politics: Carter's promises during the 1976 campaign that his administration would highlight human rights proved popular with the voting public. [6] Nancy Mitchell, Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2016). Carter gave weight to this promise by increasing America’s naval presence in the region. Reagan admitted that he felt “very bad” for misstating Carter’s policies and record on defense. Carter declared himself a candidate for the presidency in 1974.