Carter was in the White House from 1977-1981 and lived longer after his term in office than any other US president.
Jimmy Carter, the former peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died at age 100.
The Carter Center said the 39th president died on Sunday afternoon, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November last year, lived most of their lives.
The centre said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he had lost a dear friend.
Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others.
“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement.
“He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honourable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.”
Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington.
A moderate Democrat, Carter ran for the presidency in 1976 as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government.
His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and the US defeat in southeast Asia.
“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said.
Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters tired of political cynicism found it endearing.
Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world.
The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional ‘Hail to the Chief’ and enrolling daughter, Amy, in public schools.
Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats.
But he set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America’s dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking.
He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and non-whites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders.
His achievements also included brokering peace in the Middle East by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978.
Iran hostage crisis
But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran.
After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the US for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979.
Talks to quickly free the hostages broke down and eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed.
His negotiations did ultimately bring the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election.
Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded that he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference.
He and Rosalynn co-founded The Carter Center in 1982 and spent the next 40 years travelling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts”, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a US invasion of Haiti and negotiate ceasefires in Bosnia and Sudan.
By 2022, the centre had monitored at least 113 elections around the world.
But the common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians revisit his presidency and declare it more impactful than many had understood it at the time.
After a cancer diagnosis in 2015, Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.”
“I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said, “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”
