Former US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, died on Sunday. He was 100.

Carter died "peacefully" at his home in Plains, "surrounded by his family," The Carter Center said in a statement. 

The former US president died Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, spent most of their lives. He had been in hospice care for almost two years.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” his son, Chip Carter said.

“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”

First US president to live to be a 100 years old

Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other US president. His term is mostly remembered for historic moments in the Middle East.

Those include brokering the 1978 Camp David Peace accords between Egypt and Israel which led to the historic peace treaty between the two countries in 1979. 

He was also president when the US negotiated the release of 52 staff members held at the US embassy in Tehran, who were held hostage after the 1979 Islamic Revolution for 444 days.

As he was campaigning for the 1980 US presidential election, a US rescue mission for the hostages failed in April, with eight Americans dying. This proved to be a turning point and is often seen as a critical reason for his landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan.

The hostages were released minutes after Reagan's inauguration in 1981.

After failing to win a second term in office, Carter set up in 1982 The Carter Center, which he aimed to focus on international peacemaking, championing democracy, public health and human rights.

Peanut farmer-turned-president

Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital, on October 1, 1924, to a nurse and an owner of a general store. After a childhood marked by the Great Depression, he attended the Naval Academy and fell in love with his sister's friend Rosalynn Smith.

The Carters married in 1946 and were together for 77 years, until Rosalynn died in November 2023 at the age of 96.

Carter was relatively unknown outside of Georgia when he secured the Democratic nomination, and later the presidency, in 1976. He promoted moderately progressive policies during his single term, which was also marred by economic malaise and the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, the year he lost his second presidential run to Ronald Reagan.

Carter became best known for defining the concept of the "post-presidency." Alongside his wife, he worked to promote humanitarian causes around the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Legacy beyond presidency

Carter's continuous diplomacy efforts long outlived his stint at the White House. He once said, no longer encumbered by the Washington order, that he went "where others are not treading."

"I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don't," Carter said.

He was openly critical of former President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized the US approach to Israel and in 2006 released the book: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

Carter also repeatedly argued that North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position which long went against the official US line.

His 2002 Nobel Peace Prize crowned what the committee called his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." 

The chairman even argued it was a couple of decades too late, adding he should have won it alongside former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who both won the prize in 1978 over the Carter-mediated Camp David Accords.

rmt/lo (AFP, AP, Reuters)