Jimmy Carter's challenges mirror those faced by Biden

From Afghanistan to climate change, Carter's presidency charted the course for future US presidents.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatch LiveHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC InDepthBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsArtsArts in MotionTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersJimmy Carter's challenges mirror those faced by BidenWatch: A look back at the life of former US President Jimmy CarterForty-four years elapsed between the time Jimmy Carter left the presidency and the day he died.

Four decades seems like a long time - a record for a former US president - yet many of the challenges facing America in 2024 are not that different from the ones Carter faced, and at times succumbed to, in the late 1970s.

The US during the Carter years faced a crisis of confidence. Americans were grappling with economic turmoil at home and a range of challenges to US power abroad. Fast forward four decades, and the players and issues are strikingly familiar - the economy and the environment, Russia, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Years have passed, the leaders have changed, but the challenges linger.

Carter celebrated the power of US diplomacy by brokering the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel in 1978, but the glow of success was fleeting. The limits of American power were painfully apparent during the Iranian hostage crisis a year later, after US embassy staff in Tehran were taken prisoner.

It took more than 12 months of intense efforts - diplomatic and military - to free them. The sense of American helplessness contributed to Carter's resounding election loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, with the prisoners' eventual release coming just hours after Carter left office.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvv2p96erxo

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