An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisors, and the Making of American Foreign Policy

by Betty Glad

Jimmy Carter entered the White House with a desire for a collegial staff that would aid his foreign-policy decision making. He wound up with a "team of rivals" who contended for influence and who fought over his every move regarding relations with the USSR, the Peoples' Republic of China, arms control, and other crucial foreign-policy issues. In two areas―the Camp David Accords and the return of the Canal to Panama―Carter's successes were attributable to his particular political skills and the assistance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and other professional diplomats. The ultimate victor in the other battles was Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a motivated tactician. Carter, the outsider who had sought to change the political culture of the executive office, found himself dependent on the very insiders of the political and diplomatic establishment against whom he had campaigned Based on recently declassified documents in the Carter Library, materials not previously noted in the Vance papers, and a wide variety of interviews, Betty Glad's An Outsider in the White House is a rich and nuanced depiction of the relationship between policy and character. It is also a poignant history of damaged ideals. Carter's absolute commitment to human rights foundered on what were seen as national security interests. New data from the archives reveal how Carter's government sought the aid of Pope John Paul II to undercut the human-rights efforts of the El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. A moralistic approach toward the Soviet Union undermined Carter's early desire to reduce East-West conflicts and cut nuclear arms. As a result, by 1980 the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) was in limbo, and a nuclear counterforce doctrine had been adopted.

Near the end of Carter's single term in office Vance stepped down as secretary of state, in part because Brzezinski's "muscular diplomacy" had come to dominate Carter's foreign policy. When Vance's successor, Edmund Muskie, took over, the State Department was reduced to implementing policies made by Brzezinski and his allies. For Carter, the rivalry for influence in the White House was concluded and the results, as Glad shows, were a mixed record and an uncertain presidential legacy.

Genres: Presidents

414 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Betty Glad was the Olin D. Johnston Professor of Political Science emerita at the University of South Carolina. She earned her B.S. degree magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Utah. After receiving her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1962, she taught at Mt. Holyoke College, and Brooklyn College and the University of Illinois before moving to South Carolina. Glad served as president of the International Society for Political Psychology, president of the Presidency Research Group of the APSA, and vice president of the American Political Science Association.

In 1997 Glad received the Harold Lasswell Award of the International Society for Political Psychology for a lifetime of outstanding contribution to political psychology. In 2000 the American Political Science Association recognized her contributions to the field of political science in the Frank Goodnow Award.

Reviews

[Brosnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise and surprisingly readable evaluation of the Carter administration's evolution in foreign policy. The chapters are short and to the point-a brisk pace that does not sacrifice the nuances and personality clashes that defined the Presidency.

[Mia Retallack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise and well paced analysis of Carters foreign policy that bears an acute awareness of the variety of mechanisms at play in decision making. limited to lack of access to archival sources but prose is fab

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes a good president? What makes a great president? Who influences the president? How does the president work with congress? These are questions that arise every day when we watch President Obama work with congress to improve health care or to confront the dangers of the radicalized Middle East. Betty Glad is the perfect guide to power and influence in the White House. Glad gives a real insider’s view of how power and influence played their parts in major decisions and initiatives in the Carter White House.

The book isn’t light reading. Glad challenges her readers and expects them to pay attention as she sets the stage and presents the major players in the SALT talks, turning over of the Panama Canal, normalization of relations with China, and Carter’s push for human rights around the globe. An appendix provides a quick review section of the “actors” involved in each challenge or initiative the Carter administration faced so that by the end of the book, I felt that I recognized key administration officials like Richard Holbrooke, Cyrus Vance, or Zbigniew Brzezinski when they would walk into a meeting.

Carter was the first president I voted for. I remember how my initial idealism turned into frustration – Why was a man as good as Carter and as smart as Carter running into so many road blocks? Glad’s book has given me a framework with which to look at Carter and the many accomplishments of his presidency that is a bit more nuanced than the good guys/ bad guys framework I had in 1977. Let’s see if I can give up some of the hero worship and use Glad’s more balanced framework to follow the actors, the challenges, and the initiatives that will make up the Obama presidency.