These steps President Jimmy Carter took while in office are still shaping the United States more than four decades later. But they didn’t he
A significant part of Jimmy Carter’s legacy hasn’t gotten much attention, even amid the recent outpouring of tributes to the 39th US president after he entered hospice care.
These steps Carter took during his presidency are still shaping the United States, decades after he left office. But they didn’t help him at the polls.
Because of Carter’s actions, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing persecution had a chance to come to the United States when he was commander-in-chief. And millions more resettled in the US after he left office.
“He was well aware of the political cost,” says Carter biographer Kai Bird, author of “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.” When it came to taking on tough issues, Bird says, Carter didn’t shy away from doing what he thought was right.
And that’s where Carter found himself in the summer of 1979, making a decision that went against what polls said that most Americans wanted.
The scenes from the other side of the world were devastating.
Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing government oppression in Southeast Asia were taking to the sea, and many were drowning as they tried to escape.
A crisis that began before Carter took office was becoming increasingly dire by the day. In 1978, Carter ordered American ships to pick up refugees fleeing by boat. A year later, the exodus had only intensified.
And as world leaders met to discuss top issues facing their countries, Carter took a dramatic stand, announcing the US would double the number of refugees accepted monthly from the region from 7,000 to 14,000. The move, according to news reports at the time, was aimed at pushing other countries to take similarly significant steps.
It was not politically popular. As writer Thu-Huong Ha noted in a 2016 piece for Quartz, a poll from CBS and The New York Times showed that 62% of Americans disapproved. And a Gallup poll indicated 57% of Americans were opposed to the US relaxing its immigration policies for refugees from the region.
Carter did it anyway. [...]
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