While Jimmy Carter is widely regarded as one of the least effective U.S. presidents, his post-office humanitarian work shaped his legacy. And if there's something Wyomingites who knew him remember about the 39th president of the United States it's his civility, kindness and compassion for others.
“He was a prince of a guy, he really was,” said former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Al Simpson. “He was someone who came across as not quite presidential.”
Carter died Sunday at the age of 100.
He may not have had the most successful presidential career, but Carter’s legacy extends farther than what he was or wasn’t able to accomplish in the Oval Office.
Simpson had a number of personal interactions with Carter throughout his life.
The first came early on in his U.S. Senate career in 1979, when Carter invited him over to the White House to discuss the SALT II nuclear arms treaty.
Simpson said the two talked for about an hour during this one-on-one meeting. It was a rare moment of collaboration for Carter, as he was known as struggling to maintain a solid relationship with members of Congress as a whole.
“He was quite impressive,” Simpson said.
An Outsider In D.C.
Former Wyoming Secretary of State Kathy Karpan met Carter at a Democratic National Committee event in Maryland in 1974, prior to his run for president. She worked with Carter on a group project for an entire morning, and was impressed with his intelligence, pragmatism and pleasant demeanor.
“Our eyeballs would get wider and wider because he was so smart,” Karpan said. “I thought his leadership abilities were extremely obvious.”
While attending law school at the University of Oregon a few years later, Karpan said some of her fellow classmates were skeptical that the folksy man had what it took to earn the Democratic nomination for president. After seeing him speak, they started to become persuaded.
Carter went on to win the nomination and later the 1976 presidential election.
A few years later, Karpan worked in Carter’s administration as a deputy director for congressional relations and acting deputy legal counsel for the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1978-1980.
It was there she became acquainted with some of his shortcomings as president. Although the Democrats held a large majority in the Senate and House at this time, Karpan was surprised by how little legislation Carter’s administration was able to get through.
“There was a lot of dismaying about that,” she said.
She and former Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal believe it was partly due to Carter running his administration on the identity of an outsider. He also filled his cabinet with a number of colleagues from his home state of Georgia.
“He ran it as an outsider and thought he could run it as an outsider, but at some point you have to play on the inside to get things done,” Freudenthal said.
Karpan made a comparison between Carter and former President Barack Obama, saying although both were highly intelligent, it didn’t relate to their ability to get deals done in Washington, D.C.
T.E. Ranch
The second meeting between Simpson and Carter came later during his presidency when the man from Georgia made a visit to the T.E. Ranch outside Cody. The ranch was owned in those years by Charles Duncan, secretary of energy under Carter. Simpson said it was on this trip where Carter learned to fish.
This was also the site of Simpson’s 70th birthday party in 2001, attended by then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
Simpson went fishing with Carter on one occasion in Pennsylvania. He still keeps a signed photo from this outing on display at his home in Cody.
Controversial President
Carter's one-term presidential tenure was marked by poor economic conditions, a time of growing inflation and recession and the 1979 energy crisis.
Freudenthal and former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan also said plans Carter tried to initiate to terminate funding for various water projects would have been harmful for Wyoming and the West, but those actions were never set into action. Karpan said this was emblematic of a larger disconnect Carter had with the nation as a whole.
“Being the governor of a state and serving in the Navy doesn’t necessarily equate to looking at issues from a national or global perspective,” she said.
But Karpan said where he made up for these shortcomings was through his kind heart and Christian faith, a former peanut farmer who played a real life “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.”
Sullivan said Carter made substantial efforts to campaign in the West and was taken aback by a story he heard of the then-candidate leaving a handwritten note for a Rapid City, South Dakota, attorney who he had missed while campaigning in their town.
“That was indicative of his style and career,” Sullivan said. “That wouldn’t look like politics these days. He was a bright guy and first class gentleman.”
Simpson offered a similar story, saying Carter wrote a handwritten letter to some of his supporters in Cody while in office.
Karpan and Sullivan said Carter may have been a little too kind for the role of president, but Simpson credited Carter’s identity as a Christian to be able to take a strong stance towards Israel.
In 1978, Carter invited Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to the presidential lodge Camp David to try and spur peace between the two powers. Karpan remembers seeing Sadat and Begin when they greeted the public from the front law of the White House during this trip.
While Israeli would still not agree to a withdrawal from the West Bank, the negotiations resulted in Egypt formally recognizing Israel, and the creation of an elected government in the West Bank and Gaza. Simpson, Sullivan, Freudenthal and Karpan all said this should be looked at as a significant achievement today.
In late 1979, a group of Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage. In the spring of 1980, Carter ordered a failed rescue mission to rescue the hostages, leading to eight American deaths.
“No president would have been able to overcome the hostage situation in the embassy,” Freudenthal said.
The hostages were immediately released when Ronald Reagan became president after Carter’s first term. Simpson said he had been communicating by letter with one of the hostages, who credited these communications for saving his life.
Legacy
Simpson and Carter’s paths crossed again when the senator and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter were given honorary law degrees from the University of Notre Dame in 1987, and then again at the funeral of former Notre Dame president Rev. Ted Hesburgh in 2015, when both Simpson and the former president spoke at the ceremony.
“Carter was there smiling from the audience as I spoke,” Simpson said.
At former President George H.W. Bush’s funeral in late 2018, Carter was in attendance, watching from the front row along with other former presidents and then-president Donald Trump. Simpson also gave a eulogy at this event.
Carter had one of the most favorable post-presidency careers of any president, renown for his volunteerism and public service.
He engaged in a number of foreign diplomatic trips on behalf of America and preceding presidents. Carter and his wife also spent substantial amounts of their free time volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, a philanthropy that helps low-income working people by building and buying homes for them.
For four years of his life, Carter was the most powerful man in the world. For the rest of his life, he focused on trying to make it a better place.
“Whatever things you could say about him negatively, he was a marvelous human being,” Simpson said. “There’s no reason to have anything but respect for him.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
