Amid all the laudatory and respectful accounts of former President Jimmy Carter in today’s press — he just passed away at the age of 100 — one key thing is missing in all the biographies of the Habitat for Humanity builder of affordable houses that was not covered — or even mentioned. And it was something that turned off an entire generation of college students to the peanut farmer-turned politician.
Carefully reading both the 6 pages of today’s Union-Tribune and the multiple pages at the LA Times tributes to Carter, there was not one mention, not one word of this Carter move that ruined his reputation among the young.
During late 1979, Carter called for the re-instituting of the military draft for all young Americans — during an era where relations with the Soviet Union were tearing thin and there was much saber-rattling in our country. The draft for the Vietnam war had ended in 1973 — and now, a mere 6 years later, Carter wanted it back. And in doing so, he caused the creation of a nation-wide and militant anti-draft movement that formed as a direct result of his fomenting another round of US militarism.
Immediately, anti-draft groups formed and held demonstrations against Carter and his draft amid calls to resist.
San Diego was no different. College and university students were the first group to mobilize in the new movement, other than longtime peaceniks who had paused their activism after the Vietnam war had ended.
Around new year’s in 1979–1980, I recall attending an organizing meeting at UC San Diego where students were just getting pissed off about the draft and wanted to hold a protest rally. At first, Carter had not limited the draft call to men, so women were also then susceptible to it. This meeting to organize a protest had 100 students in attendance — and half were women.
The UCSD students did hold their protest — but ended up doing so much more. They united with other college and university campuses and at least here in California, formed a state-wide coalition called Students United Against War and the Draft that included 32 campuses. They also formed local coalitions and worked with such groups as CARD, Committee Against Registration and the Draft.
The Selective Service System then set up a 2-week period for July 1980 in which males were supposed to register for the draft and they could do it at any post office. In San Diego, a coalition formed just for that period and called itself “Two Weeks Against the Draft” – and staged rallies outside 72 post offices across the county.
On July 21, demonstrations at the post offices culminated in large rallies. At the Pacific Beach Post Office, for instance, 300 foes of the draft gathered in protest. Another rally occurred at the then-downtown Post Office where dozens formed a human blockade at the building’s doors.
Over the 2-week period, the press reported that “turn-out was light” for people registering. Estimates nation-wide reported that just 50% of the eligible young men actually signed up.
But the damage to Carter’s reputation and image had already happened. And yes, he had brokered the famous Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel’s leaders and had gone on years later to be rewarded for his efforts at peace. Yet, in 1980, a crucial election year, Carter made enemies among America’s youth and many were loath to vote for him that November when he ran against Ronald Reagan (which is another story). Carter lost and he retreated to his Georgia peanut farm for a year or so before he invented the post-presidency president and went on to create the Carter Center for Peace and joined Habitat for Humanity.
Let’s just not forget this episode.
God bless Jimmy Carter! I agreed then and do so now – reestablish
the DRAFT. Every person should serve, presuming each is
a patriotic American. I served and am proud of it. I enlisted!
Currently, the caliber of enlistee has fallen. No one should be surprised.
Our military requires the service of all of us.
Richard, first of all, thanks for your service. But the draft is an economic one and poor community members are more likely to be drafted than rich community members. A draft or something for a general service to the country and nature is a different issue. But why do we need a military draft — and it’s actually not an issue now? One can be patriotic in other ways than a military one, a patriotism to the earth, the planet, its peoples.
Esteemed Frank: Yes some discrimination will always exist
in the DRAFT, particularly by the wealthy! Simply remember
the case of Donald Trump. His father had a paid doctor
write a letter about poor Donald’s “flat feet!” However, I remind
you that one reason Israel has the best citizen military is because virtually every youth is subject to it! including the best & the brightest. The focus must be on duty of every citizen serving his country and minimizing those excepted!
“Currently, the caliber of enlistee has fallen.”
Do you really think the quality would be better with a draft lol?
You said you served and are proud of it. How and when did you serve?
David Crosby went to SDSU?
I had to read up on this because I missed it. I was traveling on a long trip into Mexico and Central America at this moment in history. I found a couple of quotes that put it into perspective.
“Carter’s plan called for registration by eligible young Americans with the Selective Service, not conscription in the military.”
“Draft cards would not be issued, and there would be no physical examination or classification by marital or other status of the registrants.”
So the issues were just having to register at all and including women in the draft, not actually military conscription.
If anything, this seemed like bonehead thing to try right before the election.
The history is interesting because men and been required to register for the peacetime draft since 1940. When I turned 18, it was a sort of rite of passage to go down and register for the draft. The only time there has not been a draft was from 1973 to 1979, only six years. It’s amazing to see such a change in such a short time.
The draft was a huge issue during Vietnam and a staple of opposition existed in the anti-war movement.
President Carter had inherited an economy that was badly damaged by the war in Vietnam. The economy would have turned in his favor if he had won the 1980 election. Although far from perfect, I think he is underrated as a President. Certainly he was far better than the garbage that replaced him.
Thumbs up on that last point. I hope to post another article about how Reagan stole the election by conspiring with Iran’s rulers to keep the hostages until after the election.
I’m sure you’re already aware of it, but just in case:
https://newrepublic.com/article/172324/its-settled-reagan-campaign-delayed-release-iranian-hostages
Carter was pressured by the House Armed Services Committee to resume draft sign-ups for males 18 years old. One of many crises he faced. Mistake. Also, let’s not forget that Ronnie (the guy who eventually removed Carter’s solar panels from the WH) Reagan’s campaign head William Casey did a deal with Iran to additionally help sink Carter’s re-election.
Didn’t Carter end up pardoning the guys who fled to Canada to avoid the draft?
Yes, he did.
Thanks for noting the tsunami of sanctification happening since the death of former
President Jimmy Carter at age 100 last weekend. I have been wondering about this deluge and, like Editor Frank, I remember those days differently. Maybe the press is taking its shot by `drawing unfavorable comparisons between grandiose incoming President Donald Trump and the simplicity of one-term “outsider” President Jimmy Carter.
Whatever. My memories of Jimmy Carter’s four years were, first of all, that I had voted for independent presidential candidate John Anderson, who lost.bigly.
Next, more vividly, I recall being incredulous that Carter had offered medical sanctuary in our country to ailing overthrown reactionary leader Shah Reza Pahlavi, who had fled his country’s revolutionary takeover by Iran’s conservative Islamic religious leadership. (Carter
and other Americans earlier had been wedding guests of the Shah at a sumptuous fairy-tale traditional Arab wedding feast-under-stars-in-tents-in-the=desert, so I guess he thought they were friends.)
The U.S. Embsssy in Teheran had been overrun by rioters. Nearly 100 U.S. hostages were taken and held for more than a year — and were freed minutes after President Carter left office to incoming President Ronald Reagan. During that time, U.S. gas prices soared; there were severe shortages and long gas lines. Locals resorted to Mexico for diesel and cheaper alternatives. Inflation soared to an unimaginable and hence-unequalled 17%, with grocery stores daily stamping higher prices on shelved goods. Finally, I recall the disastrous helicopters’ crash in the Iranian desert –a humiliating failure of U.S. special forces to rescue anyone, least of all themselves.
Reviewing his lifetime of 100 years, Carter was fortunate to have had time to work to compensate for his incompetence as President. Mainstream media this week have duly noted Carter’s faith and good works.
I think your assessment of Carter is a little harsh.
The hostage taking was not his fault and, as Frank already pointed out, it is well known now that their release was purposefully and deceitfully, delayed. Had they been freed before the election, Reagan may not have been elected. Clearly, other forces were at work.
You can’t blame Carter for the gas prices and the shortage.
I don’t see how Carter was responsible for inflation either, but I’m listening.
Carter gets some blame for the botched rescue attempt, but who botched it? Our military botched it.
Carter’s problem was that he told the country that we needed to tighten our belts and do the right thing. No one wanted to hear that. I liked Carter but hated listening to him because he came off like the preacher that he was. He was moral and honest and it cost him. We, many of us, not me, rejected that. We liked Ronnie who got out our credit care and charged us out of our problems – temporarily- and told us it wasn’t our fault.
Reagan was a politician. Carter was not. Carter was far better.
Yeah Frank you really know a lot about the draft don’t ya since you dodge it. Someone else went for you and probably died. Fuckin liberal piece of shit !
Okay assbite Johngander — actually I was in the Army during Vietnam and earned the Vietnam era ribbon. I didn’t go there luckily. Sounds like you’re feeling guilty and it ends up you’re the fuckin piece of shit rightwing asshole fascist war-monger idiot robot (can I think of any other words of diss?)
Carter was a great President for the average citizen!
He was a man of principle, leading by example:
3 basic needs for all humans: Food, Clothing and Shelter!
“Habitat for Humanity” continues its mission.
Frank,
You and I shared the same experiences in protesting the war and the draft.
My assessment of Carter is he was a well-meaning man who was not able to impose his moral values on the world stage. He was better as an ex-president than he was during his four years in office.
He was ineffective in energy policy, he bungled the Iranian rescue mission and told Americans that they must learn to live with lower expectations.
He will always be listed as one of the five worst presidents in American History.
History is written and recorded in words that cannot be changed by the internet.
Your book, and all of the books and writings we have in libraries are where we can intelligently argue the merits of the above issue and others.
“One of the five worst Presidents?” Is that based on your opinion or is that how historians rate him?
Chris Hedges did a great analysis of Carter’s legacy in his recent Substack article. It is highly recommended, as are ALL his works.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/dont-deify-jimmy-carter
Hedges’ piece is one point this side of excellent, as he too failed to even mention that Carter pushed for registration for the draft. He did raise numerous points however that no one else has brought up.
My personal take is that Carter would have had a MUCH better 2nd term if the GOP hadn’t gone insane and put up the twisted Reagan who made deals with the fundie jihadists that overthrew that US’s brutal killer-dictator Shah of Iraq that the US/CIA actually put in office…and then supported for decades with arms and intel…and we shouldn’t forget the Reagan deal made with the Iranian fundies to funnel weapons to the brutal right-wing death squads in Centro America to attack the struggling Socialist governments that wouldn’t kowtow to the DC elites…
Of course later the US gov sent their brutal sadistic dictator Saddam of Iraq to invade Iran using poison gas supplied by… guess who? That war killed a million Iranians before they beat back Saddam…those were the same people Reagan made a deal with back in 1980!
Keeping up with all this political intrigue over the decades, I’m surprised my brain hasn’t overloaded and fried to a cinder by now.
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Frank, I have a question:
What is actually being said when someone says to a military vet ‘thank you for your service?’ Has it become as empty as ‘Have a Nice Day?’
And thanking them for what, exactly? And exactly WHO are they ‘servicing?’ The corporations, the Military Industrial Complex, keeping the wealth stolen from other countries constantly flowing upward on the economic pyramid? You mentioned the Economic Draft that has been in place for decades; think the majority of these ‘volunteer army’ would rather be working for minimum wage at McDonald’s or Walmart and adding their family numbers to the homeless population, Food Stamp/SNAP roles, and Medicaid that the corporations feed their employees into?
Oh hell no. But it seems that these enlistees are feeding into the growing numbers of right-wing militia and racist LEO’s. The so-called ‘Proud Boys’ leadership were mostly vets… That adds their combat training to their new ‘mission’ in life….Fascism under Trump? And those boys are all getting out of prison in 18 days!!!
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The wars we’ve started since Viet Nam have all been promoted by outright lies, war crimes, mass atrocities on civilian populations, outright fraud by mainstream media, and cover-ups, corruption, bribery, assassinations… The US has been arming and training al Queda and ISIS under their new names. Remember the Saudi Osama bin Laden and 9/11 but now their offshoots, children so to speak, are our friend and doing our government’s bidding? in Syria for years, and the US Army Base ‘Camp Conoco’ loaded with a couple thousand US soldiers have been ‘guarding’ the on-going oil theft by outside oil companies without paying Syrian people for the theft of their natural resource revenues.
Here’s a simplified view under the rug of how it all works:
https://orinocotribune.com/washingtons-unstoppable-superweapon/
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NOLA Attacker Was a Vet Who Fought the War on Terror Before Breakdown
Even if Jabbar had been an immigrant, his actions would have said nothing about immigrants.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nola-attacker-was-a-vet-who-fought-the-war-on-terror-before-breakdown/
And now we find out that the other bombing, the Tesla Cybertruck at the front doors of Trump’s Vegas hotel, was ALSO a US Army vet!!! Has anybody asked just exactly Who THEY VOTED FOR in the last three elections yet? And if not, why not? Since both the ‘assassination’ attempts were Trump supporters I won’t be surprised if it’s the same pattern…
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For assbite Jongander: My Uncle Kenny spent five years as a little kid in a US concentration camp surrounded by barbed wire and brutal armed guards, then was drafted for Viet Nam fifteen years later. I have his photo still, and a 10 Dong coin minted in 1965, that he sent his big sister (my stepmom) for my kid coin collection. Then his Army 6×6 and him were blown up on a supply run to a Firebase. Not enough left to bury as I remember it.
When my ‘report for physical’ notice came, surfing in Hawai’i baby. I did NOT want to end up like my Uncle, dead for NOTHING. Same with people I know, Kevin as an example, that went to Iraq in HWbush’s war because he was ‘patriotic,’ and again to Iraq in Wbush’s war ten years later 3 TIMES (NAT. GUARD) because he was still a ‘heavy oil’ guy. But his son had joined up and was sent over, too, and then came home and blew his brains out in an apartment in LA. Then Kevin’s 3rd deployment ruined his back (he was in his 40s, waaay too old to be in a combat zone). Lost his job when he got out of rehab which didn’t really work anyway, and how’s that for letting somebody else ‘kill’ for you?
I was SO glad that the Draft ended because I never did go for the physical…and they forgot about me.
You fuckin extremist piece of shit types never do learn, do you? As Trump said, losers and suckers, eh? Can’t fix stupid and angry even with duct tape.
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rich riel: My list of the 5 worst:
Andrew Jackson, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump.
sealintheSelkirks
Don’t forget that Carter also removed “Bush I” and also tried to “clean up” the CIA by removing 400 of the top agents, which only ended up sending them underground leading to even less oversight.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/US/Deep_state#The_Carter_Administration