Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War

by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War offers a diplomatic history of the 1980 Olympic boycott. Broad in its focus, it looks at events in Washington, D.C., as well as the opposition to the boycott and how this attempted embargo affected the athletic contests in Moscow. Jimmy Carter based his foreign policy on assumptions that had fundamental flaws and reflected a superficial familiarity with the Olympic movement. These basic mistakes led to a campaign that failed to meet its basic mission objectives but did manage to insult the Soviets just enough to destroy d�tente and restart the Cold War. The book also includes a military history of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which provoked the boycott, and an examination of the boycott's impact four years later at the Los Angeles Olympics, where the Soviet Union retaliated with its own boycott.

Genres: History, Sports, Politics, Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2010

About the author

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes is a historian specializing primarily in U.S. military, diplomatic, and political history during the World War II and Cold War eras. He is an associate professor in the Department of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarantakes has written a commendable, if at times slightly faulty and almost certainly biased, account of what was the greatest sporting controversy of the Twentieth Century. Forget doping, forget the Berlin 1936 games, forget Bodyline or the introduction of professionalism in many team and individual sports over that century; the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott was THE most significant issue to arise during the hundred years, from the Paris Summer Games in 1900 through to the end of the millennium on 31st December 1999. Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott and the Cold War reminds those of us who lived through it how divisive the issue was for sport, and how it reflected the antagonism that became inflamed between the East and West at the time. Whilst I am unsure as to whether Sarantakes thesis about the Carter administration wanting to kill off the Olympics per se is correct, he certainly is on point regarding his documentation of what happened when, who was involved and the impact of the crisis on geopolitics and sport. Yes, there are some errors that undermine parts of his historical narrative, yet there can be very little doubt that this book is a seminal study of its subject.

Through out Dropping the Torch... Sarantakes makes it abundantly clear that key players in the boycott crisis were to varying extents unable to understand either the dynamics or basis of the issues they were dealing with, or each other. Jimmy Carter and his administration, with particular reference to Lloyd Cutler and Joe Onek (key advisors to the then President), come in for some rather strong criticism and whilst it certainly seems reasonable in some areas, perhaps in others not so. That Sarantakes criticises the inability of the US Federal government to understand the intricacies of the International Olympic Committee and world sport administration is fair. However, his charge that the Carter team made erroneous assumptions about the separation of state governments and National Olympic Committees is not so truthful. NOCs in many states have been traditionally also served as either a proxy organ of the government or filled with appointees that are part of or friendly to the political regime. Throw in the state funding support many NOCs require then Sarantakes could have been less acerbic in his critique of the Carter administration.

I also wonder if in some respects Sarantakes confirms the rather shoddy reputation of the Carter regime in the boycott crisis as it is part of the wider narrative of the USA becoming 'weaker' in the 1970s, and not redeeming itself until the Reagan presidency was able to exert its influence on the country in the period from circa 1982. That the USA was undergoing a significant readjustment of its sense of who it was and how powerful it was on the global stage is an important concept to come to terms with, and it might be said that Sarantakes makes sure that failures and weaknesses of this period are confirmed.

The author does make sure that by the end of the book one is fully conversant with all the key issues, players and events, and for this he is to be congratulated. Sarantakes makes sure that important considerations such as the historical response to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the decline in the Olympic movement's popularity in the 1970s, the impromptu nature of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, and the stagnant nature of the IOC leadership are all given due recognition. Sarantakes is neither too censorious nor too approving of Lord Killanin, the then IOC President, and he quite rightly points out how both Killanin and Carter were essentially decent men. There is also plenty of exploration of the inability of most parties to back down from their positions before and during the boycott crisis. One cannot read this book and not realise how contradictory or indeed how futile the boycott seemed. It might be said that Sarantakes positions the campaign by the Carter administration for a boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics as doing no good for anyone whatsoever (well, at least the Americans).

It is gratifying as an Australian to see Sarantakes give so much focus on how the boycott crisis played out here. It truly was a huge issue at the time and I recall how high passions ran before the vote was taken by the then AOF to actually go. Dropping the Torch makes a fair fist of discussing the role of then Australian PM Malcolm Fraser in the matter, though Sarantakes is wrong to call Australia a "dominion" (as seen on one f the book's pages). The account that the author gives of how the Australian boycott debate progressed is spot on, and it would be interesting to see if anyone can actually take what he has done and run with it for a more detailed local text.

The American bias of Sarantakes narrative is readily apparent and that's fine, as it was the Americans who led the charge. Yet there is some quality work done on how it affected the governments and Olympic athletes of Britain, West Germany, Canada, Japan and France. His analysis of the Soviet response is also pretty good, though it might be said that he downplays how meaningful the Moscow Olympics were for those nations who did attend. At one point in the book Sarantakes is rather dismissive of the ceremonies fro these games; they were in fact highly popular and important aspects of how many outside the US received the Moscow Olympics.

There's lots to take in from Sarantakes book and I feel as if my review doesn't do it justice. The minor errors here and there spoil his work, and whilst he has made a very worthy analysis of the entire matter, the tone of the text is perhaps too negative towards Carter. Without other books to use as comparative texts it is impossible to say this is the definitive study of the Moscow Olympic boycott. It is, however, a major and highly readable addition to the historical literature of the Olympic movement.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read.

Why This Book?
I read this book in light of recent news this week.
I wanted to know the economical and political implications of an Olympic boycott.
Just for my own human interest.

Turns Out
It's not as easy as it seems.

Final Thoughts
Very fascinating read.

4.1/5

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very useful reference when I was writing my honours thesis. Well written and well researched.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing book on Olympic politics but less so on Jimmy Carter.