A Man of Peace and Bridges

Jimmy Carter was what virtually none of his predecessors or successors could have been. And for that, the world owes him a debt of gratitude. He was an inspiration in these troubled times.

The passing of former President Jimmy Carter at 100 years old brings with it the predictable and inevitable list of the most remarkable events of his public career: his election to the presidency in 1976 after the Watergate scandal; his difficult term in office, undermined by a dire economic situation and the hostage crisis in Iran that led to his defeat in 1980; then his long and extraordinary post-presidency as a humanitarian, for which he notably won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Any eulogy, first of all for him having been the oldest living president in American history, is unavoidably incomplete. If limited to excerpts, here are two moments in the political life of the 39th president of the United States that pay special tribute to the man and the heritage he leaves behind as a maker of peace and bridges.

In the US: the Bridge between North and South

When Carter ran for the White House in 1976, racial segregation was still the order of the day in the U.S. Even if the Supreme Court had abolished it two decades earlier in Brown v. Board of Education, racism continued to sow discord between whites and Blacks in the South — and among Democrats.

Historically, the Democratic Party had been the party of slavery and then of segregation. For generations, it also relied on its rural and populist base in the South, which was also profoundly segregationist. It was with party support for civil rights in the middle of the 20th century that a good number of its supporters decided to leave. Internal bickering on the issue threatened to shatter the party because its “Yankee” wing had formally positioned itself to assure greater respect for the rights of the African American minority.

Consequently, in 1968, the presence on the ballot of a third party led by the most well-known segregationist candidate at the time, George Wallace, contributed to the election of a Republican president, Richard Nixon, by dividing the Democratic vote in the South. In fact, by winning five states in the deep South that year, including Georgia, Wallace remained the independent candidate with the most Electoral College votes.

Four years later, in 1972, Wallace ran again for the presidency as a Democrat, looking to return the party to its Southern base and segregationist badge; he won nearly a quarter of the vote.

When he entered the 1976 presidential race, Carter himself had to face Wallace in the Democratic primaries.

But Carter triedsomething that seemed at the time unthinkable: presenting himself as a candidate from the South and in favor of civil rights. He had been governor of Georgia and sparked imagination by appearing on the cover of Time Magazine after declaring, “The time for racial discrimination is over.” On top of that, he had hung a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inside the state capitol building.

And by defeating Wallace in the states he had won four years before, like North Carolina and Florida, Carter ended his opponent’s political career, eliminating segregation for good as a political force within one of the two major U.S. parties.

Internationally: the Bridge between Egypt and Israel

The 1978 Camp David Accords, signed in the middle of Carter’s term, count among his greatest accomplishments. It is especially important to highlight that, at the time, such an outcome was practically inconceivable.

In the 20 years before Carter’s presidency, Israel had been implicated in the Suez Crisis, the Six Day War, the War of Attrition, and the Yom Kippur War. In each of these cases, without exception, Egypt was equally implicated, in eternal opposition to Israel — and, without a doubt, it was also the biggest military power in the Arab world at the time.

In the midst of this powder keg, Carter extended an impromptu invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to visit Camp David in Maryland. For 13 days — the exact duration of the Cuban Missile Crisis — Carter remained isolated at Camp David, setting aside all other matters and refusing to speak to anyone from the media or the public.

During this retreat, the Israeli and Egyptian adversaries hardly ever met or discussed things together directly. Carter personally relayed messages between them, attempting to bring each one, little by little, to accept enough compromise to make peace.

After 13 days, a deal had well and truly been reached and, 45 years later, peace between Egypt and Israel still remains.

Carter’s passing is a sad one at a time when global tensions have rarely been so high, and war and threats of war seem so present.

If there is one thing to remember about the 39th president of the United States that could not be said of all his predecessors it is this: He was, at heart, a man of peace.