James Earl Carter

James Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th President of the United States and was elected in 1977. He was also a governor in Georgia. Carter believed in government having a more active role and was the last Democratic Liberal. He wanted America to be the first country to exercise and display human rights. Carter believed that America could remain a powerful nation without military intervention. He also pursued to improve the relationship between America and the Soviet Union.

During his presidency, he would do a few things regarding his foreign policy. He signed the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty, which promised to relinquish the control of the canal to Panama. Republicans claimed Carter to be weak because of him giving away the Panama Canal. (History.com, 2010)
However, Carter was successful with his peace negotiations. He successfully mediated the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. Carter took a more logical approach when it came to working with other world leaders. He soon expanded the American and Chinese relations. Carter passed the Taiwan Relations Act and supplied firearms for Taiwan to protect itself. He later failed at an attempt to free hostages in Iran which made his approval rating decreased significantly. Carter struggled with balancing the needs between nations.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States.
He beat Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Like Carter, Reagan was also a former governor. Reagan believed in having a minimalist role in government and was a Conservative. He believed in supporting suburban areas while ignoring urban
areas.
And had no problem exercising his military powers.He had a more dominant and defiant approach in his presidency.
His main goal in his foreign policy was challenge the power of the “Evil Empire” or the Soviet Union. Reagan negotiated with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbechev, to reduce nuclear weapons and loosen the reins of power in Eastern Europe. Afterwards, the two leaders signed an anti-nuke deal known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1982, Reagan disagreed with Law of the Sea’s international authority and announced that he was not ready to agree with the treaty.(Rumsfield, p. 262, 2011). One of the most damaging incidents in Reagan’s foreign policy was the selling of firearms to Iran for financing the war in Nicaragua. He trained 10,000 Nicaraguan soldiers to dethrone the Sandinistas. Reagan claimed that he had no knowledge of the selling of firearms and many of his officials were
indicted.

These men were not politically similar. Both of these men used different strategies to gain what they wanted. But I believe that Carter had the most impact on the 21st century. Carter applied logic while interacting with world leaders which led to his successful peace negotiations. I believe that Carter wanted to reform America’s defective policies.