Transcript Policies of Jimmy Carter p6

Policies of Jimmy Carter
By Kelsey Hayes
Israel-Egypt Accords
• The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed 16 months after
Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel in 1977 after intense
negotiation.
• Upon assuming office on 20 January 1977, President Carter moved to
rejuvenate the Middle East peace process that had stalled throughout the
1976 presidential campaign in the United States.
• The main features of the treaty were mutual recognition,
– cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War,
– normalization of relations
– the complete withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the
Sinai Peninsula which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.
– the free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal,
– recognition of the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international
waterways.
• The Camp David Accords comprise two separate agreements: "A
Framework for Peace in the Middle East" and "A Framework for the
Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel",
Israel-Egypt Accords
• The first framework:
– establish an autonomous self-governing authority in the West Bank and the
Gaza strip
– dealt with Egyptian-Israeli relations, the real content worked out in the second
Egypt—Israel framework.
– declared principles that should apply to relations between Israel and all of its
Arab neighbors.
• The second framework:
– outlined a basis for the peace treaty six months later deciding the future of
the Sinai peninsula.
– Israel agreed to withdraw its armed forces from the Sinai, evacuate its 4,500
civilian inhabitants, and restore it to Egypt in return for normal diplomatic
relations with Egypt,
– guarantees of freedom of passage through the Suez Canal and other nearby
waterways (such as the Straits of Tiran), and a restriction on the forces Egypt
could place on the Sinai peninsula, especially within 20–40 km from Israel.
Iranian Revolution 1979
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American presidents, from Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s to Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, gave
the Shah, who was sympathetic to the West, their support.
the Shah could be a ruthless leader. After he regained power in 1953, he abolished Iran's tenuous
multiparty system and placed himself at the head of a one-party state controlled by his secret
police.
He created a modern economy almost from scratch, and with it a growing middle class, and
extended suffrage and other basic rights to women—the Shah was seen by many Iranians as a
puppet of the West.
In 1978, opposition to the Shah—not only from Khomeini's followers, but also from a middle class
that sought greater political freedom—brought millions of people onto the streets.
The Shah and his wife fled in January 1979, ushering in a brief period of confusion before Khomeini
assumed control as Supreme Leader over what became the first Islamic theocratic regime in the
modern Middle East.
Tehran, Iran's capital, was in a state of revolt on Jan. 19, 1979.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shiite Muslim cleric who had worked for years to overthrow the
Shah, was to return and form an Islamic government. A million people took to the streets to cheer
on Khomeini and denounce the Shah.
Khomeini had returned, replacing Iran's secular government with a theocracy ruled by Islamic
religious leaders called mullahs.
Young supporters of Khomeini—angered by America's long support of the Shah—stormed the U.S.
embassy in Tehran, taking dozens of hostages.
Hostage Crisis
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Anger against the U.S. reached a fever pitch when the Shah, suffering from cancer,
came to America for treatment in October 1979.
On November 4, thousands of young Iranians, many of them college students,
swarmed the U.S. embassy's 27-acre compound in Tehran, seizing the 66
Americans inside.
The 14-month standoff led to the deaths of eight American servicemen in a
botched rescue operation, and created a measure of distrust and anger that has
never dissipated.
Americans grew increasingly frustrated as the crisis dragged on—a sentiment that
helped Ronald Reagan in his successful 1980 presidential campaign against Carter.
The Shah died in July 1980, but the hostages, held for 444 days, were not released
until the moment Reagan took the oath of office, on Jan. 20, 1981.
Khomeini's death in 1989 did nothing to ease the enmity between Iran and the
U.S.. As Iranians grew more frustrated with the oppressiveness of the revolution,
they began to view America more favorably.
SALT II
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SALT II negotiations began in November 1972 at the Vladivostok meeting between President Ford
and General Secretary Brezhnev.
SALT II was a series of talks between United States and Soviet negotiators from 1972 to 1979 which
dealt with the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. was a continuation of the SALT I talks
SALT II was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250
of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides.
It was particularly important for the United States to limit Soviet efforts in the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces (INF) rearmament area.
The primary goal of SALT II was to replace the Interim Agreement with a long-term comprehensive
Treaty providing broad limits on strategic offensive weapons systems.
The principal U.S. objectives as the SALT II negotiations began were:
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to provide for equal numbers of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles for the sides,
to begin the process of reduction of these delivery vehicles,
to impose restraints on qualitative developments which could threaten future stability.
The completed SALT II agreement was signed by President Carter and General Secretary Brezhnev in
Vienna on June 18, 1979. President Carter transmitted it to the Senate on June 22 for its advice and
consent to ratification. On January 3, 1980, however, President Carter requested the Senate
majority leader to delay consideration of the Treaty on the Senate floor in view of the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan.
Policy of Appeasement
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emphasis on American military power marked a reorientation in Carter’s foreign
policy.
Since 1977, Carter had attempted to fight the Cold War with different weapons.
he determined that U.S.-Soviet relations would not be allowed to dominate foreign
policy formulation, as having led to the costly containment policy and the tragedy
of Vietnam.
Instead, other nations, especially those in the developing world, would be
considered in a regional rather than a global context.
the United States would assert its international predominance by emphasizing
moral rather than military superiority by focusing on human rights and related
humanitarian concerns.
Although Carter did not abandon his commitment to human rights, the issue was
accorded a much lower priority in policy formulation and was no longer used as a
major weapon with which to wage the Cold War.
Instead, the administration’s official posture reflected a more customary Cold War
policy that emphasized military power and communist containment. In addition, a
globalist perspective began to supplant the regionalist outlook, with increased
emphasis on East-West issues.
OPVL
Works cited
• http://worldatwar.abcclio.com/Search/Display/756771?terms=president+cart
er+appeasement+policy
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/
upfront/features/index.asp?article=f091806_TP_Iran
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/featur
es/general-article/carter-444-text/
• http://fas.org/nuke/control/salt2/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords