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Carter, Vice President and Mrs. Mondale, historians, journalists, campaign veterans, former administration officials, and “just plain folks”—gathered at the University of Georgia to recount the four years of the Carter presidency—its ups and its downs. We reflected on our times in office, we laughed at funny stories, and we got choked up at particularly poignant moments.
Most of all, we celebrated the fact that an important and long overdue reassessment of our administration seems to be under way. The second look at Jimmy Carter’s term in office seems to have been fueled by at least two factors: first, of course, has been the extraordinary accomplishments of his post-presidency and the deep respect that Carter enjoys among people the world over; second, the incompetence and hubris that have characterized the administration of George W. Bush have left many Americans disappointed and in search of “good old days,” wherever we can find them.
Sessions at the conference in Athens also served to remind attendees, and those who watched the proceedings on C-SPAN or who have read the transcripts since, of the many crucial and difficult issues the Carter administration confronted and the initiatives he undertook as a result: the Panama Canal Treaties, normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China, the energy crisis, hair-trigger tensions in the Middle East, the continuing struggle with the Soviet Union, the rise of Islamic extremism in Iran, the drive to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, totalitarianism and human rights abuses in our own hemisphere, huge inflationary pressures that had been building for at least a decade, the early signs of globalization and resulting economic dislocations in key parts of our nation, updating and streamlining the civil service system, governmental reorganization, budgetary discipline, and regulatory reform, among other vital and contentious matters.