At the age of 100, 39th U.S. president Jimmy Carter died. He held office from 1977 to 1981. He is judged as 1 of the weakest presidents of the United States.
He graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1946 and served as an officer on submarines until 1953, including servicing atomic reactors of ships. He came from a wealthy household of peanut growers. powerfully associated with the Baptist church.
He has been in the Georgia legislature since 1962. In 1971, he became politician of the state, announcing in an inaugural speech that “the time of racial discrimination had ended.” It was rather unusual for those who knew his views at the time. In 1974 he announced his willingness to run for president of the United States. In the primary, he defeated Gerald Ford. He besides owed the nomination to a large part of the Polonia, which extensively supported him. This happened after the debate, where Ford stated that "I don't think Poles felt dominated by the USSR".
Carter's policy towards Poland and another Central European countries is simply a consequence of Zbigniew Brzeziński's actions. Daniel Fried, erstwhile ambassador to Warsaw, said that “the 39th president of the United States had much credit for supporting the democratic opposition in Poland and led to major changes in Washington's policy towards the east bloc. His national safety advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński played a major function in this.” Carter valued Brzeziński more than Kissinger. The second remained a conservative for him, believing in stableness thanks to the balance of strength. Carter believed in the world's democratisation mission. In this he was akin to the many politicians of the opposing camp. Ronald Reagan, who defeated Jimmy Carter in the next election, was mostly a follower of this approach.
On another episodes, Carter suffered terrible disasters: stagnation in the economy and advanced inflation, oil crisis, accident at the 3 Mile Island atomic power plant, revolution in Iran, or russian invasion in Afghanistan. Carter was 1 of only 11 US presidents who served for only 1 word and did not have much support in society.
In his presidential retirement he devoted himself to social and humanitarian activities, supported the activities of Habitat for Humanity building houses for the poor. He founded the Carter Center, an organization dedicated to peace promotion, the regulation of law, human rights understood in American. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his activity in 2002.
A 100-year-old and hospitalized Carter was utilized in Donald Trump's rival campaign. He was expected to fulfill his dream and vote for Kamala Harris.
Łukasz Jastrzębski
