Introduction

Zbigniew Brzezinski remembered that the ‘Christmas of 1979 was grim and full of foreboding’. For the president, things would not improve as 1980 turned into a political disaster. Domestic and international circumstances conspired to make Carter's re-election chances remote by the time he faced his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan in November 1980. Stagflation afflicted the American economy as the Reagan candidacy asked the pertinent question of ‘can we afford 4 more years [of a Carter administration?]’ Whether Carter's handling of the American economy was as poor as his detractors claimed was a moot point for, as US Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal perceptibly noted, Carter was perceived to be a ‘weak and indecisive economic leader’. As Blumenthal warned:

International events only further undermined Carter's re-election chances. The ongoing Iranian hostage situation was exploited by Carter's critics as an example of a president hopelessly unable to protect American citizens abroad. Détente collapsed following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Carter's flagship nuclear arms limitation treaty, SALT II, stalled before the US Senate. The Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua in a sign that in America's ‘backyard’ Carter could not even prevent communist advances. Carter's difficulties with America's key allies continued as relations with West Germany and France bordered upon open antagonism. His difficulties were compounded by the challenge of Edward Kennedy to run as the Democratic nominee for the presidency in November 1980. Managing to just secure the Democratic nomination, Carter was soundly beaten in the general election by Ronald Reagan. It is with justification that the final year of Carter's presidency is depicted as one of ‘crisis’.