Abstract
In 1982, Madeleine Albright of the National Security Council staff recalled that Carter was always ‘totally committed to human rights’. Carter’s personal commitment did not diminish. He saw the policy shifts of 1979–80 as involving, at worst, a postponement rather than a negation of the early ‘global community’/human rights agenda. By 1979, however, there was a pervasive awareness of crisis within the Administration. Albright recollected Carter’s reaction:
As the real world began to fall in on him, we all, other than Zbig did, didn’t know how he would come down [sic].1
By the latter part of 1979, the Administration had essentially reverted to containment as its guiding principle. The triumph of containment was never total; individuals in the Administration like Patricia Derian (and, up to his 1980 resignation, Cyrus Vance) continued to fight the ‘global community’ corner. Nor was containment rediscovered overnight. Shortly after assuming office in 1977, Jimmy Carter was presented with worrying evidence about the vulnerability of the US Minuteman force to Soviet guided missiles.2 Later in the year, Carter signed Presidential Directive 18, a measure designed to establish special forces for flexible, low-intensity conflict in the Third World. In January 1978, Carter urged NATO countries to accept 3 per cent defence spending increases.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Note
See R.C. Thornton, The Carter Years: Toward a New Global Orde? (New York: Paragon House, 1991) p. 8.
See T.J. McCormick, America’s Half Centur? (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) p. 206.
Cited in J. Ranelagh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CI? (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986) p. 653.
K. Thompson (ed.), The Carter Presidenc? (Lanham: University Press of America, 1990) p. 125.
Cited in H. Jordan, Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidenc? (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1982) p. 60.
G. Sick, All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with Ira? (New York: Random House, 1985) p. 25.
Cited in G. Smith, Morality, Reason and Power: American Diplomacy in the Carter Year? (New York: Hill and Wang, 1986) p. 186.
See A. Taheri, The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolutio? (London: Hutchinson, 1985) pp. 211–14.
G.W. Ball, The Past Has Another Patter? (New York: Norton, 1982), p. 460.
W. Christopher et al?, American Hostages in Iran: Conduct of a Crisi? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985) p. 7.
See G. Sick, October Surpris? (London: I.B. Tauris, 1991); R. Parry, Trick or Treaso? (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1993).
C. Vance, Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Polic? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983) p. 347.
Ball, The Past Has Another Patter?, p. 456. See also J.A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relation? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988); W.H. Sullivan, Mission to Ira? (New York: Norton, 1981).
W.H. Sullivan, Mission to Ira? (New York: Norton, 1981).
See R.A. Pastor, Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragu? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988);
J. Theberge, ‘The Collapse of the Somoza Regime’, in D. Pipes and A. Garfinkle (eds), Friendly Tyrants: An American Dilemm? (London: Macmillan, 1991).
A. Lake, Somoza Fallin? (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989) p. 263.
Cited in W. LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central Americ? (New York: Norton, 1983) p. 239.
See also L. and R. Pezzullo, At the Fall of Somoz? (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994).
See M.L. Cottam, ‘The Carter Administration’s Policy toward Nicaragua: Images, Goals and Tactics’, Political Science Quarterl?, 107 (1992) 123–46.
Cited in A.R. Hybel, How Leaders Reason: US Intervention in the Caribbean Basin and Latin Americ? (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990) p. 239.
Z. Brzezinski, ‘From Cold War to Cold Peace’, in G.B. Urban (ed.), Detent? (London: Temple Smith, 1976) p. 265.
Cited in B.I. Kaufman, The Presidency of James Earl Carter, J?. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993) p. 39.
See S. Gill, American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commissio? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) p. 233;
also B. Buzan, People, States and Fea? (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) p. 302.
Presidential Review Memorandum 10: see B. Garrett, ‘China Policy and the Constraints of Triangular Logic’, in K.A. Oye et a?. (eds), Eagle Defiant: United States Foreign Policy in the 1980? (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983) p. 246.
Z. Brzezinski, Power and Principl? (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983) p. 148.
S. Talbott, Endgame: The Inside Story of SALT I? (London: Harper and Row, 1979) pp. 49, 76.
R.C. Thornton, The Carter Years: Toward A New Global Orde? (New York: Paragon House, 1991).
See also R.L. Garthoff’s review, American Historical Revie?, 98 (1993) 979.
A. Moens, Foreign Policy under Carter: Testing Multiple Advocacy Decision-Makin? (Boulder: Westview, 1990) p. 171.
Cited in R.D. Schulzinger, American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Centur? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) p. 328.
Talbott, Endgam?, p. 136. See also E.L. Rowny, It Takes One To Tang? (Washington DC: Brassey’s, 1992).
J. Carter, Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a Presiden? (London: Collins, 1982) p. 241.
D. Caldwell, The Dynamics of Domestic Politics and Arms Control: The SALT II Treaty Ratification Debat? (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991) pp. 47, 184.
See M. Oksenberg, ‘A Decade of Sino-American Relations’, Foreign Affair?, 61 (1982) 175–95.
R.L. Garthoff, Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reaga? (Washington DC: Brookings, 1985) p. 742.
C. Gershman, ‘The Rise and Fall of the New Foreign-Policy Establishment’, Commentar?, (July, 1980) p. 22.
D. Yankelovich and L. Kaagan, ‘Assertive America’, Foreign Affair?, 60 (1981) 696–713, 696.
See D.D. Newsom, The Soviet Brigade in Cub? (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).
Interview with G.F. Kennan, US News and World Repor?, 10 March 1980, p. 33.
Cited in C.V. Crabb, The Doctrines of American Foreign Polic? (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982) p. 332.
See S. Turner, Secrecy and Democrac? (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985).
H.H. Koh, The National Security Constitutio? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990) p. 122.
See J. Dumbrell, The Carter Presidency: A Re-evaluatio? (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993);
J. Rosati, ‘Jimmy Carter, a Man Before his Time?’, Presidential Studies Quarterl?, 23 (1993) 459–76.
In 1982 constant dollars (see M.M. Boll, National Security Planning: Roosevelt Through Reaga? (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988) p. 192).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1997 John Dumbrell
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dumbrell, J. (1997). Carter in Crisis. In: American Foreign Policy. American History in Depth. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25052-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25052-3_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-61094-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-25052-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)