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→Jimmy Carter 1977-81: expand
===Jimmy Carter 1977-81===
===Jimmy Carter 1977-81===
* [[Afghanistan War]]
* [[Afghanistan War]]
* [[Jimmy Carter]]
* [[Jimmy Carter]]
=== Foreign Policy ===
In his inaugural speech Carter stated that "our commitment to human rights must be absolute." He singled out the [[Soviet Union]] as a violator of human rights and strongly condemned the country for arresting its citizens for political protests. However, he was criticized for not doing enough to promote his proclaimed human rights foreign policy stance in his administration, such as continuing to support [[Indonesia]] even while it was implicated in the commission of acts of genocide in the occupation of [[East Timor]].
Carter also tried to remove the U.S. image of interventionism by giving Panamanians control of the [[Panama Canal]]. He was strongly opposed by conservatives but won, and gave back the Canal. The result was disaster and the US invaded Panama in 1989 to overthrow a nasty dictator named Noriega.
Détente with China continued successfully.
Détente with the Soviet Union collapsed in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, setting off a long war that the Soviets lost. President Carter responded by giving military aid to the rebels, imposing an [[embargo]] on the sale of grain to the Soviet Union and boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The policy of détente that was established by President Nixon had ended.
Carter's only triumph while in office was a historic peace [[treaty]] known as the Camp David Peace Accords, between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]], two nations that had been bitter enemies for decades. The treaty was formally signed in 1979, with most middle eastern countries opposed to it, bit it remains in effect in 2009.
=== Iran Hostage Crisis ===
[[Image:Iran1979.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Blindfolded American hostages being paraded before the public by their Iranian captors, November 5, 1979.]]
In 1979, a new radical [[Islamic]] regime lead by [[Ayatollah Khomeini]] in [[Iran]] overthrew America's close ally Shah. Thousands of modernizers were arrested, expelled or executed. In November 1979 student revolutionaries stormed into the American embassy in [[Tehran]] and captured 52 United States diplomats as hostages. They refused to negotiate and the government refused to intervene. The US seized all Iranian assets and tried to bargain, a process that dragged on for 444 days. Carter tried to use the US military action to rescue the hostages, but it was a total failure. Fearful of what President Reagan might do, the Iranians released the hostages were released minutes before Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981.
The result was a major humiliation for the United States, and a consensus that the country was now an underdog and needed new leadership to claw its way back.
==Ronald Reagan 1981-93==
==Ronald Reagan 1981-93==