Former US President Jimmy Carter (February 14, 2019) (©Reuters)
Born James Earl Carter Jr, Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. The longest-lived American President, Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024. He lived and died at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia.
Carter won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. These watershed events also defined his foreign policy rethink.
Diplomacy became a large part of Carter's approach to international issues. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for "finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts," "advancing democracy and human rights," and promoting "economic and social development."
Carter's Failed Policy Limiting Arms Transfers
In foreign affairs, Carter set his own style. He believed that arms transfers could bring instability. However, his stated policy of "not selling weapons if it would exacerbate a potential conflict in a region of the world" proved a nearly total failure.
During his campaign for the presidency and in the weeks after being elected, Carter repeated that his administration would pursue the reduction of US conventional weapons transfers. Two years later, it was apparent that Carter's efforts in this regard had largely failed. Despite his policy pronouncements, there was little drop in arms sales. Industrialized countries had no intention of reducing their arms production cycle, while Third World countries actively sought those weapons.
East Asia, China, and Taiwan
Carter followed the Richard Nixon administration's policy of rapprochement with the People's Republic of China. Throughout, he continued to work toward establishing full diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Policymakers in the US had begun leaning towards China and against the Soviet Union at the time. Carter allowed this to continue to the extent that his administration tacitly consented to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam. He signaled this by sending his Treasury Secretary, W Michael Blumenthal, to China in February 1979, despite Beijing's Vietnam invasion.
In December 1978, Carter announced the United States' intention to formally recognize the PRC. He set January 1, 1979, as the date for establishing full diplomatic relations. He then revoked a mutual defense treaty with Taipei in that same month and severed ties with Taiwan.
The United States continued to maintain diplomatic contacts with Taiwan, however, through the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. Decades later, as a former US President, Carter visited Taiwan in March 1999 and met with President Lee Teng-hui.
Trade Relations with China
Carter's decision led to a boom in trade between the US and China. The PRC was intensely pursuing economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping at the time. Carter could easily have been labeled as the "supporting architect" of China's rise. He dispatched a memo to various US government departments, directing them to aid China by multiple means, including granting China the most-favored-nation status and concessional multilateral lending.
In a 2011 book titled From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776, George C Herring notes that Carter also went much further in aiding China. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he allowed the sale of military supplies to China and even began negotiations to share military intelligence.
On South Korea
During a press conference in March 1977, Carter reaffirmed his preference for a gradual withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. Carter stated: "My commitment to withdraw American ground troops from Korea has not changed." Referring to when this would happen, he said:
"[T]he time period as I described in the campaign months, 4-or 5-years, is appropriate. The schedule for withdrawal of American ground troops would have to be worked out very carefully with the South Korean Government. It would also have to be done with the full understanding and, perhaps, participation of Japan."
In April 1978, Carter announced a reduction in the number of American troops stationed in South Korea, citing the Congress's lack of action on a compensatory aid package for the South Korean government. However, he turned around and retracted his troop withdrawal decision after it met fierce opposition, even from liberal Democrats. His thoughts and stance nevertheless endeared him to North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung.
1994 Back-channel North Korean Talks for Clinton
A Washington Monthly article titled "Rolling Blunder" describes the high-risk spring of 1994. US President Bill Clinton, a president not known for hawkishness, nearly went to war against North Korea.
The North Koreans were preparing to remove the nuclear fuel rods from their storage site, expel the international weapons inspectors, and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which North Korea had signed in 1985). In response, Clinton pushed the UN Security Council to consider sanctions. North Korea proclaimed that sanctions would trigger war.
While the Clinton administration overtly signaled its readiness to go to war, he also set up a diplomatic back channel. In Clinton's bid to end the crisis peacefully, he chose former President Jimmy Carter to lead the channel.
Carter was sent to Pyongyang in June 1994 to talk with North Korea's leader, Kim Il Sung. Although the trip was widely portrayed at the time as a private venture, unapproved by President Clinton, that is not quite true. A 2005 book on the 1994 North Korean crisis titled, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, reveals that Clinton recruited Carter to go. The book is authored by three former officials who played key roles in the unfolding events, Joel S Wit, Daniel B Poneman, and Robert L Gallucci.
Carter's 'Freelancing'
Interestingly, Clinton's cabinet was divided over whether to let Carter go. One group considered Carter a loose cannon, who would ignore Clinton's orders and freelance a deal. Meanwhile, another wanted to take a chance with him leading the back-channel.
Ironically, both sides turned out to be right at the end. Kim agreed to back down. However, Carter went way beyond his mandate, negotiating the outlines of a treaty with Kim. If that was not all, he announced the terms live on CNN, notifying the White House only minutes in advance. Four months later, in October 1994, Washington and Pyongyang signed a formal accord called the Agreed Framework.
It is more than four decades following the Carter presidency. In that time, the security and strategic challenges that surrounded East Asia, significantly pertaining to China, Taiwan, and North Korea, have continued to only grow and become more complex. After all, China, today, is Washington's biggest short- and long-term challenger.
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Author: Dr Monika Chansoria
Follow Dr Chansoria's column "All Politics is Global" on JAPAN Forward, and X (formerly Twitter). The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organization with which she is affiliated.
