Camp David. The 1978 summit and subsequent shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Egypt culminated in the only Middle East peace treaty to stand the test of time. When Carter was considering the summit and even after he announced it, just about every foreign-policy guru, Henry Kissinger included, counseled against it. The “wise men” warned that a head of state should never go into a negotiation without knowing the outcome in advance. Carter rejected that advice — and did more to further the security of Israel than any U.S. president before or since.
The Panama Canal. Although it had long been known that the Canal Zone would have to be transferred to Panama once the original lease expired, presidents from John F. Kennedy to Gerald Ford had seen this as a politically toxic problem to be tackled in a second term — or left to a successor. Carter knew that failing to resolve it promptly could precipitate chaos and armed conflict in Central America. He put his prestige on the line, recruited bipartisan support for a new treaty and, with the help of Senator Howard Baker, the Republican Minority Leader, mustered the necessary two-thirds vote for Senate ratification…
Soviet aggression. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Carter imposed a grain embargo, alienating corn growers on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. He also boycotted the Moscow Olympics, upsetting millions of sports fans and angering a major television network. These steps were politically costly. But they hit the Kremlin where it hurt and, in tandem with Carter’s human-rights drive and his aid to the Afghan resistance, they pushed Soviet communism toward eventual collapse.
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