12:40 PM
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Cairo – Masrawy
Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday last Tuesday, making him the first living American president to reach this age. By reaching this age, he will have lived about 40% of the history of the United States since its declaration of independence in 1776, and more than a third of the lifespan of all American administrations, since George Washington took office in 1789.
Carter expressed his hope that he would remain alive to vote for Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential elections, who, if she won, would become the first woman, the first black woman, and the first person of Asian descent to hold this position.
His grandson, Jason Carter, said the former president is excited to see Harris make history.
The last time Carter appeared at a public event – a rare recent appearance – was in November 2023 when he participated in a memorial service for his wife, Rosalynn, who died at the age of 96 earlier that month.
Who is he?
Jimmy Carter is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States of America from 1977 to 1981. His life included 9 administrations before and during his presidency, and 7 administrations after the end of his presidency in 1981.
Carter was born on October 1, 1924, at Wise Hospital in Plains, Georgia, to a peanut farmer and businessman, and his mother, a nurse, Lillian Gordy, who went to India to volunteer in the Peace Corps at the age of 68.
Raised on a farm in the southern United States, Carter attended Southwestern Georgia College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, before graduating from the US Naval Academy in Maryland in 1946.
After his marriage to Rosalynn Smith “Rosalynn Carter”, he served in the US Navy for 7 years, while he entered the world of politics in the state of Georgia in 1962, and won the elections for the state Senate for the Democratic Party in the same year, and was re-elected in 1964, and 6 years later he was elected governor of the state. .
In 1974, Carter announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. He launched a campaign that gained great electoral momentum and continued for two years. At a Democratic Party conference, he ran a fierce campaign against President Ford, and debated with him 3 times. Carter won with 297 votes in the electoral college, compared to 241 votes for Ford.
His only term in the White House included drafting a historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, which continues to this day. At that time, Carter played a major role in bringing the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and the Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, together in 1978, to conclude the Camp David Accords, which A peace treaty followed the following year.
Carter announced a national energy policy, deregulated domestic oil prices to stimulate production, liberalized the transportation sectors, participated in reforming civil service laws, helped increase the appointment of women, blacks, and Hispanics in government, established the Department of Education, and strengthened the Social Security system.
Carter also established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, and completed negotiations for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SALT II) in 1979.
But on the other hand, his term witnessed internal and external setbacks, as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the suspension of ratification of the treaty, in addition to the crisis of the detention of American hostages in Iran, which dominated the work of his administration for 14 months, which ultimately led to his defeat in his attempt to be re-elected before the Republican, Ronald Reagan.
In 2002, Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “decades of tireless efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts.”