Jimmy Carter and the Cold War

[Cuauhtla]

In another group, we were discussing history and historical narratives. The Reagan library is just up the road here and the crudely simple and
effective Reagan narrative is powerful still. People forget the reality
of his Presidency, forget Beirut, forget the death squads, forget the
bowing down to Iranian demands, forget the corruption, but as
importantly they forget the reality of Carter's, which in the Reagan
narrative serves as a strawman.

My own view is that it isn't coincidental that movements like Charter
77 and Solidarity arose when a principled, politically naive leader
emerged from the wreckage of Watergate and Vietnam, that of all US
Presidents, Carter had most to do with the end of the Cold War. The
ethical naif, even one as conflicted and contradictory as was Carter in
possession of power, is often a catalyst for change.

>From "The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the
White House"
By Douglas Brinkley

http://partners.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brinkley-unfinished.html

"In sharp contrast to the general public's perception, human rights
champion Jimmy Carter was no pacifist. It should not be forgotten that
the only twentieth-century American president who had a longer military
career than Carter's in the U.S. Navy--from 1943 to 1954--was four-star
general Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme Allied commander in World War II.
Carter abhorred only the unnecessary use of military force, and as
president he worked to modernize the armed forces, not weaken them.
"I'm a military man by training and background, and the statistics are
there," he pointed out years later to rebut Reagan's claim that his
predecessor had left America's armed forces in shambles. After all, it
was the hard-line Carter administration defense policies Reagan
inherited and built on that led to the end of the cold war. "I believe
historians and political observers alike have failed to appreciate the
importance of Jimmy Carter's contribution to the collapse of the Soviet
Union and the end of the Cold War," Bush administration CIA director
Robert M. Gates has maintained. "He was the first president during the
Cold War to challenge publicly and consistently the legitimacy of
Soviet rule at home. Carter's human rights policy ... by the testimony
of countless Soviet and East European dissidents and future democratic
leaders challenged the moral authority of the Soviet government and
gave American sanction and support to those resisting that government."
Martin Walker, U.S. bureau chief of Britain's Guardian, in his book The
Cold War (1994) laments the fact that a mythology has been created that
"Reagan arrived to find a West half-disarmed and thoroughly
demoralized, and wrought a great transformation." As Walker made clear,
this Tory view of America's later cold war history was nonsense, as the
facts bore out. Carter strengthened and modernized the U.S. military
during a very difficult post-Vietnam War period, when the Pentagon was
unpopular.

"Just months after he became president, Carter began badgering the NATO
allies to rearm; in fact he demanded solid commitment from every member
to increase their defense budgets by 3 percent a year. When the Soviets
started deploying SS-20 missiles, it was Carter who countered by
proposing that NATO cruise and Pershing missiles be based in Western
Europe. And far from slashing American armed forces in Europe, Carter
deployed an additional 35,000 troops to boost the American NATO
contingent above 300,000, which more than compensated for the cuts the
Nixon and Ford administrations had made under detente. Besides
modernizing NATO, Carter approved deployment of both nuclear cruise
missiles and the Pershing II IRBMs--intermediate range nuclear
forces--in Europe.

"Carter had no intention of appeasing the Soviets; in fact his very
concentration on human rights was in part intended to weaken the
Kremlin. Where Gerald Ford had refused to welcome exiled Russian author
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to the White House, Carter had embraced
political dissidents Vladimir Bukovsky and Andrei Sakharov with open
arms. Perhaps the most moving document on display at the Carter
Presidential Library in Atlanta is the February 5, 1977, note he sent
to Sakharov: "Human rights is the central concern of my
administration," Carter wrote. "You may rest assured that the American
people and our government will continue our firm commitment to promote
respect for human rights not only in our country, but also abroad."
This epistle, which the Nobel Prize--winning physicist proudly waved in
President Leonid Brezhnev's face, prompted the Soviet leader to
pronounce Sakharov an enemy of the state. As Robert Gates noted,
"Whether isolated and little-known Soviet dissident or world-famous
Soviet scientist, Carter's policy encouraged them to press on."

"More to the point, it was Carter--not Reagan--who first exploited the
human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords in order to allow
movements such as Czechoslovakia's Charter 77, Poland's Solidarity, and
the Helsinki Watch groups in East Germany and the Soviet Union to
flourish. Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel went so far as to claim
that Carter's human rights agenda so undermined the legitimacy and
self-confidence of the Warsaw Pacts chieftains that dissidents across
Eastern Europe regained the hope that carried them on to democracy.
Lech Walesa claimed that it was Carter's tough December 3, 1980,
statement--which warned the Soviets about the consequences of their
military building on the Polish border--that sent a signal that, unlike
Czechoslovakia in 1968, the United States would not abandon
"anti-Socialist" forces in Poland. And that wasn't all: Carter's human
rights policy also created an environment that allowed 118,591 Soviet
Jews to emigrate during his presidency, and encouraged Indonesia alone
to release some 30,000 political prisoners from jail. Under Carter's
direct order, the CIA began covertly smuggling into the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe literature about democracy and books like Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. Perhaps even more inspired,
Carter had the CIA infiltrate the Soviet Union with thousands of books
promoting the heritage of ethnic minorities, All in all, the Carter
administration's insistence on human rights, no matter how inconsistent
in practice, saved thousands of lives and put the Soviets on the
defensive to boot. And, before long, Soviet-style communism collapsed
more or less peacefully within and without, thanks in part to Carter's
promotion of human rights.

"Few would argue that Carter had not made a sincere effort to coexist
with the Soviets--and Reagan claimed that this pusillanimity made it
possible for the Soviets to invade Afghanistan. Yet that brutal
incursion proved a fatal miscalculation on Brezhnev's part and the
final turning point in the cold war. The Soviet Union's actions in
Afghanistan revealed what it had been all along: truly expansionistic
and utterly unconcerned with human rights. After that, whoever took the
harder line against the Soviets was bound to look better to the
American people, and during the 1980 presidential campaign Carter had
pledged to increase defense spending by a full 5 percent, compared with
Reagan's proposed 7 percent hike. This difference hardly qualified
Carter as a dove. Meanwhile, it was Carter who first imposed economic
sanctions on the Soviets, outraging U.S. farmers and businessmen;
Reagan would continue punishing Moscow with economic measures.

"Thus as Reagan prepared to take office, it was far easier for
him--thanks to Carter--to rally a consensus behind his strident
policies for winning the cold war. Carter tried peaceful coexistence
with the Kremlin and had been betrayed. The stupidity of the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan turned Carter into a hawk. As journalist Martin
Walker later wrote, "Americans should recall the steel beneath the
gentleness; the real historical legacy of Jimmy Carter is one of
the men who won the Cold War." Yet it was the compassion of the human
rights program that had freed political prisoners across Latin America
and the Soviet Union that Carter wanted to be his lasting legacy--and
that is what he set his mind to upon leaving the White House."

[DURHAM D]

1. It was a relay. Reagan was just the final guy

to hold the baton but the right wing wants us to forget the others who ran the early legs of the race.

Good post.

[havocmom]

2. Carter is one of our greatest Presidents.

He has spent his whole adult life WORKING to make America better and stronger and WORKING to put his religious convictions into action. He just didn't waste time and energy TALKING about his efforts.

Saddly, too many Americans just notice the talk and miss the walk. THAT is what is wrong with America: Too much belief in marketing hype and not enough real observation and critical thought about what they see.

[tomp]

3. the reverse straw man position

the assumption is that 1) the "collapse" of the soviet union was a good thing, 2)that extended military experience makes a good president.

the us and the west forced the soviet union to become what it was by opposing it tooth and nail from prior to its inception, attempting to undermine and sabotage it through any and all means, including sending troops to attempt overthrow. why? not because of the us' and the west's moral principles on human rights, but out of strictly imperialistic motivation. following wwii the us forced the expansion of the arms race,and the development of "spheres of influence" while supporting corrupt regimes as long as they were "anti-communist".

this is what we're praising carter for winning. the us military is an imperialistic tool. carter's military experience makes him suspect.

i agree with most that carter's post-presidential endeavors has shown him to have a more effective moral compass than others. this excerpt, while quoting many "facts", misses the overall historical perspective of the rise and fall of the soviet union, and the coincident rise and hoped-for fall of us and western imperialism. carter, for all his good points, left the "other" beast healthy and standing.

[wyldwolf]

4. Hmmm

the "collapse" of the soviet union was a good thing

I believe it was

extended military experience makes a good president.

Sometimes it does.

[Neil Lisst]

5. Rightwing Mythology exists independent of the facts

debunking some Pub myths ...

*the highest price of oil and gas ever occurred under Reagan, not Carter

*the downturn of 2001 did not start until two months into the Bush admin, not in the summer of 2000 under Clinton

*Carter and the Democrats controlling congress didn't balance the budget, as they did in two of their four years, something Reagan and both Bushes never accomplished

*Carter didn't stand up to the Iranians, but Reagan gets a pass on 250 dead Marines in Beirut

*it was the invasion of Iraq, not 9/11, which really hurt the Dow in Bush's first term

[ncteechur]

6. History has the habit of finally telling the truth. Carter will

ultimately be known as one of the greatest. Bush will be known as one of the worst.

[flaminbats]

7. Republicans always talked about winning the Cold War..

but Democrats did the fighting and paid the taxes to make that a success. Republicans never pointed out that Nixon lost Vietnam, Dewey's election would have led to defeat in Korea, and that our one-party government is no different than a Communist state. Yet during the Cold War Republicans always ran against the Democrats by calling us sellouts to the commies. McCarthy was never a demagogue in the eyes of Republicans, but just an under-appreciated patriot! :puke:

Now Democrats are nothing but flag burners, Islamic allies, and advocates for another 9/11. Borrowing money for the war in Iraq is good for the economy, raising taxes to pay for the war would only help bin Laden win. And nation building is now only another means of promoting democracy.

Didn't you know?? Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Franklin Roosevelt were only endangering our nation's security. The war in Iraq will give those Arabs a real taste of Jesus! Republicans have proven that Eisenhower's warnings of the "military industrial complex" were just the crazy whining of some bed-wetting unpatriotic liberals. :patriot:

[newyawker99]

8. Hi Cuauhtla!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: