LISTEN: President Jimmy Carter's most famous speech | Political Update

Atlanta News First

In 1979, Jimmy Carter’s presidency was under siege from all fronts.

Domestically, the nation was reeling. Inflation had reached an all-time high, and consumers were feeling the effects of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ 1973 cuts in oil production. The U.S. was in the midst of a full-blown energy crisis, with Middle Eastern nations’ oil policies holding the American economy hostage.

Carter - who died Dec. 29, 2024 - was also under fire domestically for his international policies. One of his first treaties as president was to formally cede control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government led by dictator Omar Torrijos. The treaty was highly unpopular in the U.S., and barely passed Senate ratification.

Carter also halted B-1 bomber production in 1977. While his 1978 Camp David Peace Accords with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin would win all three men the Nobel Peace Prize in ensuing years, revolutionary chaos was underway in another Middle Eastern nation, Iran.

On Jan. 16, 1979, the U.S.-supported government of the Shah of Iran fell, with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fleeing the nation and the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returning to his homeland.

On March 28, a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 reactor on the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, sent panic throughout the nation. Carter’s approval rating as president was low, and on July 3, he cancelled another energy speech and began meetings at Camp David with his staff on the state of his administration.

On July 15, Carter delivered his most famous speech as president, sometimes today referred to as the “malaise speech,” but more famously as “A Crisis of Confidence.”

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