The American Spectator : There He Blows Again

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There He Blows Again

By John R. Coyne, Jr. from the March 2010 issue

A whale of a book by a fine writer about a puny subject -- Jimmy Carter -- and what passed for his foreign policy.

An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisers, and the Making of American Foreign Policy
By Betty Glad
(Cornell University Press, 404 pages, $29.95)

This is a whale of a book by a fine writer with an eye for social and psychological detail and an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that was thought and said and written by everyone involved in foreign policy formulation during every hour of the administration of a strange and idiosyncratic president, who some might call a crank. But not Ms. Glad, a fair-minded and non-judgmental historian, a scholar of the first rank. Her previous book on Carter, In Search of the Great White House, published in 1980, remains the only thorough study of this Ahab-like man and what makes him tick. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Cornell University Press has seen fit to pack this one -- plus appendices, notes, and index -- into 400 pages set in the tiniest type known to man -- type so teensy you suspect Cornell forgot the special micro-reader that should be included, along with a Carter decoding ring, as a premium.

Perhaps this is intentional, symbolic, like that old-school Annapolis exercise, described by Glad, that Carter excelled in -- jumping into your locker box, changing clothes, and emerging fully dressed --
a small, cramped man operating in a small, cramped space. But no matter. Despite considerable eyestrain from reading a book that with decent type and white space would occupy twice as much space, and despite learning more about Zbigniew Brzezinski than is good for the sanity (at least we're spared the discussions here from the earlier book of Carter's preoccupation with "urine retention"), we come away from An Outsider in the White House with a better understanding of why our foreign policy became such a hash and why it was such a relief to hear Ronald Reagan declare that it was, once again, morning in America.

In her earlier book, Glad examined the legends and stories surrounding Carter -- his earliest days, his education and Naval career, his campaign for the Georgia senate in 1962, his races for the governorship, and his race for the presidency. Much of the substance of these legends, she concluded, came from accounts carefully shaped and edited by Carter himself and his team of loyalists, with little or no reference to discordant material -- relations with George Wallace (for whom at various expedient times Carter expressed admiration) or Lester Maddox, citizen's councils, black people (with whom the Carters, says Glad, maintained a "genteel" relationship, which apparently meant no visiting in the front parlor), and other factoids potentially embarrassing to a candidate in need of northern liberal votes.

Some of the legends, Glad concluded, were relatively harmless -- boosting his class standing at the Naval Academy, for instance, or idealizing a Plains boyhood, and, occasionally, referring to the family "plantation," in the early days a modest home without indoor plumbing. Others, involving his Georgia campaigns and financing, his unprofitable stint as a peanut farmer, his relatively undistinguished Naval career and his misrepresentation of himself as "a nuclear engineer" -- these and more could easily have been explored by the national media, once Carter became a bona fide presidential candidate. But after several surprise primary victories, the media decided to make Carter their candidate. And as we saw again in 2008, once you're anointed by the national media, there's no more exploring allowed.

Nor, to be fair, was it just the liberal media. Some of us on the other side -- this writer included -- were, initially, sympathetic to the hype, willing to believe Carter might just be more conservative than Nixon or Ford. That was never the case, as far as I know, at TAS. But at National Review, both Bill Rusher and Jim Burnham, who rarely agreed on anything, entertained this view for a time -- as did, briefly, Bill Buckley. As a devout Christian, the reasoning went, Carter should by definition have been constitutionally anti-Communist; as an Annapolis graduate, solid on national defense; and as a successful Southern businessman, conservative on fiscal matters.

As Glad points out, a little digging would have shown that he'd borrowed to the hilt on the family farm and some dubious assets to bankroll his campaign. As for the religious factor (one consequence: his demonstrated ability to mobilize the Christian vote led directly to the growth of the Religious Right), his sincerity couldn't be questioned. But as a born-again believer who claimed he spoke directly with God, it might have been good to know which of his frequently contradictory foreign policy thrusts were dictated by God, and which by man (or Brzezinski).

He was, as it turned out, generally anti-Communist, but ineffectually so, as when it came to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) (Glad takes us through these frequently senseless talks in excruciating detail), or selectively so, as in the case of the morally repulsive president of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, lauded by Carter during a White House visit in 1978 as "a great leader of a great country." And beyond Communist tyrants, Carter's selective morality allowed support for some of the world's most brutal leaders. In 1979, the Carter administration supported a UN resolution calling for the Pol Pot regime -- as Glad puts it, "one of the most genocidal regimes of human history" -- to continue to represent Cambodia. Initially, the U.S. was joined in its support by only China and North Korea.

BUT THAT WAS YET to come. In 1976, the legends still prevailed. Carter was elected, if not with conservative support, then with a lack of such support for Gerald Ford, a strong and solid man, but badly undercut politically by his pardon of Richard Nixon -- absolutely the right thing to do -- and by the total disarray of Watergate-dazed Republicans. Moreover, it was the 1970s, a decade during which the national lunacy meter had blown the top off the sanity charts. Richard Nixon had temporarily put down the revolution on the campuses, swept some of the goons and galoots of the streets, and won the Democrats' war in Vietnam, but by so doing had forfeited his presidency. Congress, giddy from inhaling the fumes of regicide, was in the process of losing the war Nixon had won, with televised pictures of helicopter evacuations from the roof of the embassy in Saigon capturing images of congressional triumph and national shame. The Soviet Union was on the move throughout the world. America was on the run.

That was the situation that Carter was elected to remedy -- that plus an economy that had jumped the tracks, propelled by spiraling inflation and an ongoing energy crisis. Glad gamely marches us through policy ins-and-outs of the Carter term -- stabs at an energy policy, Camp David, the Panama Canal, arms control, SALT -- set within the story of the rivalry between his key foreign policy advisers: the sharp and decisive Brzezinski and the amiable and aimless Cyrus Vance, later replaced by the amiable and clueless Ed Muskie. All this would become academic, however, when on October 20, 1979, Carter allowed the deposed shah of Iran to enter the U.S. for medical treatment. Two weeks later Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took more than 60 diplomats and aides as hostages.

"Thus," writes Glad, "began the hostage crisis with which Carter would struggle until he left office almost 14 months later on January 20, 1981." ABC launched a new program, "America Held Hostage," later to morph into Nightline, which provided daily updates on the hostage crisis. Walter Cronkite
ended each broadcast with a hostage reminder, and Ayatollah Khomeini gleefully called the shots, making the American president dance to his tune on the international stage.

This treatment cut Carter to the quick. Each move he made to appease Khomeini resulted in public humiliation. And if Carter had one defining weakness, it was his thin skin.

"When the Soviets opposed him," writes Glad, "he was inclined to see this opposition as a personal insult." We saw this in the debates, when Reagan's "There he goes again," brought down the house but visibly infuriated Carter. They were laughing at him, and that outraged Carter, a man totally without humor. "His humor came from poking fun, criticizing, and even demeaning those around him," wrote Glad. She quotes journalist Eleanor Randolph: "Carter likes to carve up an opponent, make his friends laugh at him and then call it a joke." Hence, perhaps, the relative youth and inexperience of his personal staff -- good foils. And hence the outrage, when, as in the hostage crisis, he found himself cast on the international stage as the perfect butt.

In the end, it was his response to this humiliation and the form it took -- a cinematic attempt to rescue the hostages -- that drove the final nail into his administration's coffin.

The rescue operation, involving representatives of all the armed services in unfamiliar functional roles, was both undermanned and under-equipped. (After the failure, Glad tells us, Yitzhak Rabin quipped: "America doesn't have enough helicopters?") In retrospect, it was agreed the plan was just too complicated -- too many moving parts, depending too much on favorable external circumstances, and ultimately too much on good luck. It was approved in every detail by Carter. And as Michael Corleone said of Moe Green, he was just unlucky. Not that it was wrong to attempt the mission. As Bill Buckley put it, "one can have no objections whatever to President Carter's mission, restricting our criticism to the maladroitness of its execution and the inefficiency of contingency planning."

When in 1980 economic malaise was added to the hostage-rescue fiasco and the debate flubs, the Carter reelection campaign foundered on the basic issue of competence. "The economy and how Carter responded to it played a key role in his electoral fate," writes Glad. Indeed it did, in the form of an Iran-exacerbated painful and growing energy crisis, galloping inflation and unemployment, and flat economic growth. As Ronald Reagan put it, in one of those formulations that drove Carter up the wall, "I'm told I can't use the word depression. Well, I'll tell you the definition. Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."

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About the Author

John R. Coyne, Jr. a former White House speech-writer, is co-author with Linda Bridges of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Wiley).

Letter to the Editor View all comments (33) | Leave a comment

dofus kamas| 3.20.10 @ 12:46PM

making the man feel full and real once more. ...

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 6:43PM

Jimmy Carter I rank at 43 among POTUSes.

LBJ is 44.

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 6:45PM

... the best?
Why, Coolidge of course-- why should you even ask?

Ask a president nothing and he will tell you no lies.

GW| 3.25.10 @ 12:10AM

"You lose." Best presidential line ever...

Howard| 3.20.10 @ 1:04PM

It seems looking back that the four Carter years seemed to last twenty years. He came into office fumbling with a sweater and a smile. He punted constantly and changed tunes daily. As his administration gained speed, there were more frequent policy changes marked by his frequent spirals into incoherent lecturing. When I see Carter, I see him morphing into Barack Hussein Obama; who sadly may do more damage to this country than Carter "accomplished". And of course leading the charge for the "lightweights" is the moronic Mainstream Media. Who said things change?

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 6:52PM

I was eating lunch while reading this blog, and it was fine until Carter's photo appeared at the bottom. Ruined a good meal.
And of course you know that Carter only got elected because of Watergate? the only reason to really hate Nixon was his effect on '76.

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 6:53PM

Ah, the Bicentennial COULD have been so much better.

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 7:51PM

It has to be reiterated, because some of you think that '70s depravity (call it by its proper name) was a factor in the "rise" of Carter. WRONG.
Watergate was THE cause of Carter's "Presidency".
Today is more awry-- doesn't matter what memories you have of 1970, or '74, or the late '70s-- today is wilder. Back in the day, even the '60s, kids used to go outside and play where they wanted to. Today they 'do'
"play dates".
And, boy, travelling by plane is real fun isn't it? Used to be, you just went to the airport and purchased a ticket. Now they practically shine a flashlight up your keister. And so on and so forth.

Aint progress grand?

Clinton| 3.20.10 @ 2:58PM

Sounds like a tedious book that is sure to sell somewhere in the neighborhood of enough copies to to to all the relatives of the writer and Mr. Carter.

I well remember the Carter Administration and suffered during his term like everyone else. I am acutely reminded of that pain by the same pain being caused by his modern incarnation. I won't buy the book or put it on my reading list.

After all, we're talking about Jimmy Carter. Outside of the employees who aren't drawing paychecks at his library, who cares?

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 6:57PM

careful, now. Jimmuh might donate some bucks to the Gore Vidal Foundation, and Hamas.

Tim| 3.24.10 @ 8:48AM

Dear Mr Coyne:
The title of this review made reading the review unnecessary. I am still convulsing. Later I will try to read the rest of it. Thank you.

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 8:18PM

"There He Blows Again"

Great title for Barney Frank's next book.

GW| 3.25.10 @ 12:11AM

Sh*t. You gotta stop this...lol....

Mark| 3.24.10 @ 9:22AM

It's soo weird. It's as though Jimmy is trying to make us forget how bad a president he was by being the worst ex-president in history - an oaf of stunning gracelessness.

LarryK| 3.24.10 @ 9:34AM

"Carter Blows"

Alan Brooks| 3.24.10 @ 8:20PM

Amy, too.
Her biography comes in a plain brown wrapper.

Tom in Michigan| 3.24.10 @ 10:04AM

I lived through the Carter years and, I too tried to initially console myself by rationalizing a Navy man, a Christian, an engineer and a businessman might work out after all. I of course, had no such illusions about a "community organizer" who made his bones in a criminal organization like ACORN and who has actually smashed Carter's once unassailable record as the "most destructive, worst President in American history." I was still a young man during the Carter years but, I still remember the abject shame I felt when the Carterites supported the UN resolution keeping the monstrous Pol Pot in power, even as we saw unimaginable images of death coming from the Killing Fields of Cambodia (how equally shameful and repulsive to later hear the despicable, self-serving John Kerry aver this holocaust never happened in that once-peaceful land). The Democrats shameful squandering of victory in Vietnam (I’ve NEVER bought the Leftist line, inhaled by most Americans that we lost that war. I remember a friend’s – a veteran of Tet –comments when Cronkite said the war was “unwinnable” after that great victory, “What the hell war was he watching!?”

Gas lines, toilet paper shortages, killer rabbits and the advance of Communism across the globe where the realities of the day as America slipped towards the abyss under Carter’s inept administration. However, the murderous Mullahs of Iran who now threaten the world are Carter’s real legacy. Obama has now as much as sealed the deal with his fecklessness. Will this nation ever learn we elect a Democrat as POTUS every few years at our peril?

Jon B| 3.24.10 @ 11:57AM

Carter should right fully get the blame for his incompetence that ushered in the greatest wealth redistribution President America had ever witnessed: Ronald Reagan. The man who almost singlehandedly gutted the low and middle classes, and started the deregulation/corporate control that dominates American Politics to this very day. He also deserves full blame for passing energy policy that saved Reagan's ass from the crisis he was dealt.

Dai Alanye| 3.24.10 @ 6:36PM

That moron Reagan also greatly damaged the Soviet Union, our loyal friend from WW II. He destructively rescued those undeserving med students from Grenada. He reduced inflation, making life difficult for speculators. He decreased unemployment, thereby probably discouraging desirable illegal immigration.

There's no end to the evil Reagan did. Why, he even made a jackass of Jon B!

Marc Jeric| 3.24.10 @ 1:16PM

If I remember right, Carter finished his Navy school as #74 out of 75 students. When he was asked by the Admiral whether he did his best, Carter answered "No". Then the Admiral (his name was Rickover, now I remember, the father of our nuclear navy) asked him "Why not?" - which must be one of the greatest put-downs ever. Then Carter wrote a book titled "Why not the best?" That showed me that this "nukelar engineer" (who was reduced to writing up the on-shore schedules of submarine personnel" was in reality a functional moron. Well, he at least was not a disbarred felon like Clinton who was later elected twice thanks to that cretin Perrot.

Jon B| 3.24.10 @ 1:35PM

Bill Clinton, the most investigated person in the history of the world, has never been charged with a crime in his life. Meanwhile, GW Bush has admitted to at least 4 convictions.

Always Question| 3.24.10 @ 2:01PM

Just can't let it go, eh, Jon - Bush Derangement Syndrome? Would you at least admit that Clinton lied under oath? However, if given the choice between Bill Clinton and our current president, I'd do it the Chicago way and vote for Bill four or five times.

Jon B| 3.24.10 @ 2:09PM

Excuse me. I apologize. My going back 2 years is so offensive. Yet it was a reply to someone who lied and hasn't let go of Clinton's cock yet. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't BC Prez before GWB?

Tim| 3.24.10 @ 4:12PM

Plus, Bill Clinton saved or created over a million (blow) jobs.

Nick| 3.24.10 @ 4:04PM

Pay no attention to Jon B, folks.

He peddles lies and marxist propaganda. Oops! Redundant.

Like the lie that President Reagan gave the Soviets $425 billion.

After 3 days of trying to belittle those of us who called him out on his lie, he finally admitted his fabrication.

Although, he then claimed it was a mistake That it was actually $425 million, but he offered no source. Just his deeply flawed memories.

He is not worthy of your time.

paskunia| 3.24.10 @ 7:58PM

Um, Jon B, President Bubba was fined about a million dollars and lost his license to practice lies -er, law- for a couple years, all for being convicted of lying to a grand jury about Monica. Where were you when that came down? That was the basis for the vote of impeachment by the House- did you forget that, too?
BTW, President W must have been a real good president, judging from the way you trash him. Like Reggie Jackson once said, "Opposing fans don't boo losers."

jordan| 3.24.10 @ 10:12PM

Carter was the one who ushered in deregulation, led by Alfred Kahn, first deregulating the airlines, then trucking (the motor carrier act of 1980 largely merely ratified the decisions of the ICC in the late 70s. Sorry to interject facts into your analysis Jon.

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Rick Z| 3.24.10 @ 10:54PM

Bill Clinton was disbarred from the US Supreme Court. Arkansas disbarred him and revoked his law license. IIRC, Arkansas suspended his license for 5 years. Of course, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, but not convicted in the Senate.

Mark| 3.24.10 @ 3:42PM

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N.O.T.S.| 1.14.11 @ 4:04PM

How does one summarize a legacy? How many years / decades should we wait before the overall picture becomes clear? Or will the controversy ever rest? One thing is sure, the quote by Glad is fitting: "To the very end Jimmy Carter remains an American original, playing in tune with the changing refrains of his own inner ear."

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