The U.S. President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with a U.S. Air Force officer upon his departure in “Marine One” – Public Domain
“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.” — Ralph Nader
Jimmy Carter died over the weekend. As one would expect, there’s been loads of corporate media hype about “Jimmy Carter, the liberal saint.” Though all one needs to do is look at the historical record to understand he was another war criminal and head of state, and there’s simply no such thing as a “good” leader of empire. While Carter never cashed in like Presidents before or after, and even helped contribute to many humanitarian causes post-presidency, he absolutely governed the US with one thing in mind—the interests of corporate America.
The deregulation of the US and New Deal economic oversight continued under Carter. Lobbying also sharply increased and deindustrialization of the US began to take shape, as the financial role in the economy grew substantially. Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley Act during the 1977-1978 national coal strike—harming workers’ collective bargaining rights—and his pro-corporate economic policies led to substantial job losses in industries like trucking, airlines, railroads, etc. Many of the staffers from Carter’s administration were part of the Trilateral Commission that warned the popular activism and dissent which helped advance progressive policies in the 1960s and early 1970s was bringing about a “crisis of democracy.” Jimmy Carter, like all Presidents, was a company guy.
But some of Carter’s gravest crimes were in his handling of US foreign policy. While not the most prolific of Presidents when it comes to coups, Carters administration helped engineer elections in Jamaica—a defacto electoral coup—and at the least backed the 1980 coup in Turkey. Carter also intervened in Angola by making a deal with China to send 800 tons of military equipment to resistance fighters against the MPLA, Angolas Marxist government. These battles with American supplied weapons included air attacks, raids on refugee camps and a massacre in 1978 where forces backed by the US killed 800 people. Not to mention Carter supported South African apartheid throughout his administration, despite rhetoric to the contrary.
Carter also laid the stage for many crimes to take place in future administrations.
Though the Contra War and American destruction in Nicaragua was mostly a Ronald Reagan product, Carter set the stage for later intervention in the summer of 1979 when the Sandinista Revolution (FSLN) made its final push to take over Managua and then deposed Somoza in July. Earlier, when the Sandinistas were in a larger popular front group, Carter insisted it take a more moderate position, which prompted the FSLN to leave the bloc. Once the FSLN took over and began receiving aid from other socialist states Carter authorized the ClA to support resistance forces in Nicaragua; this was the genesis of the Contras.
And though there has been no official documentary confirmation, various Middle Eastern politicians and diplomats have maintained that Carter had state department officials reach out to Saddam Hussein, who’d had well known grievances with the new Islamic Republic of Iran, to encourage him to ratchet up pressure and aggression against Tehran in the aftermath of the Iranian hostage crisis, the failure of an armed rescue mission by the US, and increasing hostility from the Iranian government. While the supposed
“greenlight” to Baghdad to start the Iraq-Iran War is speculation, it’s clear that the Reagan program to support Baghdad against Tehran did not emerge out of nowhere.
In Jimmy Carter’s most militarist, hawkish, and ultimately consequential move, he intervened heavily in Afghanistan after the Soviet intervention in late 1979. He decided to boycott the 1980 Olympics scheduled for Moscow and dramatically increased military spending for 1980-81, providing a prologue and rationale for Reagan’s even more immense buildups that followed. And as Islamic fundamentalists from throughout the region poured into Pakistan to fight against the Soviet-backed government in Kabul, he began funding these mujahadeen groups—the ultimate creation of al-Queda and the Taliban. In light of the Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, where the American empire feared it was on the verge of losing control of the region, Carter established what’s sure to be one of his most significant legacies historically—the Carter Doctrine. This formally committed the US to defend its interests (oil) in the Middle East. A doctrine that had terrible consequences nearly immediately, remarkably so during wars on terror, and continues to do so.
In what’s perhaps Carters gravest crime as President, he essentially armed Indonesia as they committed genocide in East Timor.
Indonesia helped to serve US commercial interests in the region, allowing Washington to control shipping lanes vital to international trade. Contrary to the widespread belief that the US “looked away” as Indonesia slaughtered tens (and possibly hundreds) of thousands in East Timor, an ex-Portugese colony it sought to annex, the Carter administration provided heavy military, financial, and diplomatic support to Jakarta. Indonesian troops in East Timor “were armed roughly 90% with our equipment,” the State Department acknowledged. As they ran out of military materials with the escalating operation, Carter then authorized additional arms sales and steadily increased aid as the administration denied that the situation in East Timor was dangerous or getting out of hand. This was an incredibly heinous crime.
It’s certainly true that Carter has been unique since he left the White House in his dedication to giving back. His Nobel Peace Prize isn’t nearly as misguided as fellow war criminals like Kissinger or Obama. When compared to individuals like Trump, Bush II, Reagan, Nixon and the like, his ethics and morals were far less depraved. Yet, as a caretake for the American empire and military-industrial complex, Carter acted more similarly than not. He operated within, maintained, and strengthened American hegemony and imperialism, as well as global instability, during his time as President. He also provided insight into how corporations and their paid-for political parties can game the American electorate, or in the words of Noam Chomsky:
“Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a little light in the minds of political campaign managers: Pretend to be a religious fanatic and you can pick up a third of the vote right away. Nobody asked whether Lyndon Johnson went to church every day. Bill Clinton is probably about as religious as I am, meaning zero, but his managers made a point of making sure that every Sunday morning he was in the Baptist church singing hymns.”
What Jimmy Carter should show people is that even those with a mostly decent nature about themselves will justify mischievous acts in the name of the US Government and American liberalism when conducting affairs of the state. The same institutional structures exist no matter who is in the position. It’s unpopular to say but, despite possessing an objectively better moral faculty than most who’ve been President of the US, Jimmy Carter was another war criminal and lightning rod for corporate America.
The post The Real Jimmy Carter appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
