Jimmy Carter became the thirty-ninth President of the United States on January 20, 1977.
Budget Director Burt Lance Resigns
In August of 1977, a government investigation into the affairs of President Carter's budget director, Burt Lance, revealed some questionable financial dealings which had taken place during Lance's years as a private banker. Public pressure forced Lance to resign on September 21, 1977. Lance was later acquitted of the charges.
Three Mile Island
In March of 1979 the entire residential community living on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania had to be permanently evacuated when the cooling system on one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant malfunctioned. As a result of the Three Mile Island disaster the federal government ordered that all construction on future nuclear power plants be suspended until new safety regulations could be established.
President Carter Restructures his Cabinet
President Carter asked for the resignations of his entire cabinet in July of 1979. After reviewing the performance of all of his cabinet members, the President decided to replace six members. In the restructuring of his cabinet, President Carter created the position of White House Chief of Staff to which he appointed Hamilton Jordan. The following September President Carter created a cabinet level office of the Department of Education.
Hostage Crisis
On November 4, 1979 the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran was invaded by a Muslim extremist group, and 53 embassy employees were taken hostage. A revolution in Iran a year earlier had brought the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power, causing Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi to flee to the United States. The terrorists wanted to exchange the American hostages for the return of their deposed shah. Believing that meeting the group's demands would be a condoning of terrorist tactics and set a precedent for similar future attacks on the United States, President Carter refused to deliver the Iranian Shah. After numerous diplomatic efforts failed, President Carter ordered a helicopter rescue mission in April of 1980. The helicopter rescue mission was a miserable failure, and eight American soldiers were killed before the mission was finally aborted. The hostage crisis and the embarrassing rescue attempt ensured President Carter's defeat in the 1980 election. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981, a few minutes after President Carter had left office.
Soviet Union Invades Afghanistan
In an attempt to save Afghanistan's crumbling communist government the Soviet Union invade the small nation in December of 1979. The Carter Administration viewed the Soviet invasion as a brutal violation of international law. The President instituted a grain embargo against the Soviet Union and refused to permit United States athletes to attend the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
Camp David Accords
In 1979 President Carter acted as a third-party mediator in the war between Egypt and Israel. His meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Menachen Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sedat culminated in the Camp David Accords of 1979, which established peace between the two long-standing enemies.
Legislation
Presidential Pardon for Draft Dodgers
Jimmy Carter's first official action as President was to grant a Presidential pardon for all draft dodgers of the Vietnam War. Later that year he signed a bill to upgrade the dishonorable discharges received by deserters and other criminals of the war.
Department of Energy
The Department of Energy was established in August of 1977 to create and promote national energy conservation programs. In 1978, the Energy Department successfully passed a tax on cars that used an excessive amount of gas.
Food Stamps
In 1977 Congress passed a law making free food stamps available to the poor.
Strip Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Congress passed the Strip Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977 to repair the vast sections of land left barren by strip mining, and to regulate current strip mining operations in order to limit their impact on the environment.
Energy Bill
Congress passed a diluted version of President Carter's energy bill in November of 1978. Under the new bill natural gas prices were deregulated, tax credits were established to cover the price of installing insulation and other energy saving measures, businesses were required to convert from oil to natural gas or coal, and an 80 percent tax was levied on the wind-fall profits of oil companies.
Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act
Congress passed the Humphrey- Hawkins Full Employment Act in 1978. The law set a goal for the federal government to achieve four percent unemployment by 1983. The law also required the president to set five year goals for inflation and production.
Panama Canal
In 1978 President Carter signed a treaty with Panama that set the expiration date of the United States' Panama Canal lease at December 1, 1999. The treaty, which also contained measures which provided for a loosening of the United States' hold on Panama, re-established the United States' commitment to defending Panama against foreign aggressors other than itself.
Treaty with China
On January 1, 1979 President Carter continued the diplomatic efforts of President Nixon when he signed a treaty which formalized the United States' relations with the People's Republic of China.
SALT II
In June of 1979 President Carter traveled to Vienna were he met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev for the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II). Congress hesitated to pass the resulting treaty which limited strategic nuclear weapons, and President Carter withdrew the treaty in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
Alaska Land Act
Passed by Congress in 1980 the Alaska Land Act set aside 104 million acres of Alaskan wilderness for national parks and nature reserves.
