Former President Jimmy Carter was honored at a state funeral today at the Washington National Cathedral, where President Joe Biden delivered a eulogy. Tributes to the former president praised him as an honest man who was a leader ahead of his time.
The 39th president, who died last month in Georgia, was the oldest living former US president and the first to reach 100. He led enduring foreign policy initiatives, including a peace deal between Israel and Egypt, the normalization of relations with China and the treaties that gave Panama control of the Panama Canal from the US.
What happens after the state funeral service
After the state funeral service, Carter and his family will travel by motorcade to Joint Base Andrews, Md.
From there, they will board Special Air Mission 39 for his final journey home to Georgia.
But the Washington funeral service ran longer than planned.
Sunlight and stained glass
President Carter visited Washington National Cathedral several times, both as president and during his decades of activism after he left the White House.
The Cathedral also hosted the state funerals for Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
President Woodrow Wilson was laid to rest inside the Cathedral in 1924.
President Jimmy Carter. An accomplished statesman. A peacebuilder. A fundamentally decent man who showed us all what it means to live a life of purpose — to serve.
CAMP DAVID ACCORDS
The Camp David Accords were a series of agreements signed in 1978 between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
The agreements were brokered by Carter at the presidential retreat in Maryland. It eventually led to Israel and its Arab neighbor signing their first peace treaty.
U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
Although relations between the United States and China had been slowly warming for several years prior to Carter taking office, it was under his administration, it was under his administration that the two countries overcame opposition at home and announced they would officially recognize each other, opening formal diplomatic relations in 1979 after months of secret negotiations.
IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS
In 1979, Iranian revolutionaries seized 52 staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held them hostage for 444 days, ostensibly to punish the United States for giving asylum to Iran's recently deposed leader.
Carter came off looking feeble in the public eye after a military rescue mission he ordered in 1980 ended in failure with eight U.S. troops dying in an aircraft mishap.
The hostages were released minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office to replace Carter in 1981.
ENERGY CRISIS
Energy prices and production were shaky throughout the 1970s. But the Iranian revolution in 1979 was a flashpoint for upheaval in global oil markets, leading to a major decrease in production and resulting jump in cost.
Carter responded by pledging to decrease reliance on foreign oil imports and focus on improving energy efficiency, but public confidence was irreparably shaken.
ECONOMIC WOES
Carter's re-election campaign in 1980 was marred by fears of a recession.
His administration struggled to deal with inflation at over 14% by 1980, caused by high energy prices after the 1979 gas shortage.
He and his advisers attempted to tackle inflation by increasing interest rates to over 17%, but this contributed to a recession during the presidential campaign of 1980.
