HIS VERY BEST

James Earl Carter Jr. (b. 1924), the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, can be “brisk—sometimes peevish—in private, with a biting wit beneath the patented smile.” So writes Alter, observing that Carter, who cooperated with the author, was not always the nice guy of his public image. What irritates him most, it seems, is the widespread, almost canonical perception that he was weak. “I made many bold decisions,” Carter insists, “almost all of which were difficult to implement and not especially popular.” Alter demonstrates as much, meticulously unfolding proof of Carter’s many accomplishments while just as carefully showing his missteps. High on the list of the latter was a managerial style that left Cabinet members to operate pretty much as they wished, leading to incoherence at times. However, his achievements, both during his presidency and after, are significant, as Alter capably demonstrates. The former naval officer (the title comes from a stern interview Carter endured with Hyman Rickover) tried not just to be a good man, but also to do his best every day. As Alter notes, one bit of evidence for this was that Carter never lied, unlike the current occupant of the White House. He also made significant advances in civil rights as governor of Georgia. Even though “some reporters were already thinking of him as a fluke,” when he edged out Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, he corralled a big-tent Democratic Congress and plenty of Republicans as well with a governing style that revealed “no distinct political ideology.” Other achievements were further opening China after Richard Nixon first cracked the door and bringing Israel and Egypt together, if uneasily, for the Camp David Accords. Even the Panama Canal treaty, used by Ronald Reagan as a wedge issue, was successful, and though Carter faltered with respect to Iran’s Islamic Revolution, he can be credited for broadening democracy around the world—for which he deserves greater appreciation.

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