When President Carter emerged from the shadows of Watergate as the nations 38th president, the American people believed that this peanut farmer from Georgia would restore the proper role of the presidency and solve the nations foreign and domestic problems. On the domestic front, Carter emphasized human rights in the third world and arms control with the Soviet Union. He also successfully negotiated treaties concerning future control of the Panama Canal and peace in the Middle East. The Carter presidency was marked by many failures as well. Carter did not get many of his domestic proposals through Congress and the economy remained sluggish. He also failed to solve the hostage crisis in Iran and did not act strongly enough to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Although Carter had some successes, his legacy as a president is mixed at best.
Carter had many successes in his domestic policies. At the time Carter took office the economy was in a recession marked by high unemployment and high inflation. To solve this problem, Carter cut income taxes, asked for wage and price controls, and also cut back social spending. Threw these measures Carter was able to bring down the unemployment rate dramatically.
Carter also faced an energy crisis. The OPEC nations raised prices on oil and lowered the amount of oil that the U.S. could buy because of the U.S. supporting Israel. Carter asked congress to lower the countries oil and gas use, tax cuts for people who used less oil, and higher taxes on gas guzzling cars. Also, he wanted to remove America's price controls on oil. Furthermore, Carter asked for greater use of nuclear, coal, and solar energy. Carter then set up the DOE (department of energy) in 1977, to supervise all of his energy plans. Although most of Carters plans were never passed, he did a great deal to solve the energy crisis.
Carter was also successful in foreign affairs.
