The ability of the US, or any other foreign government, to delay or prevent a revolution in a country where popular resentments of the existing government have been building up to that high a level is pretty questionable, wouldn’t you say?
I agree there’s no question Carter didn’t handle it well after it started, and he inherited the Iranian people’s long-standing anti-US resentment following the CIA’s assassination of Mossadegh. But I think it’s just stretching way too far to say the rise to power of the Iranian theocracy is actually Carter’s fault.
I don’t see that the two necessarily have a causal relationship. His Presidency failed because he was unable to reverse a poor economy, unable to crystalize his foreign policy, unable to contain the American loss of prestige abroad, and (perhaps most importantly) unable to inspire confidence at home.
None of those tasks inherently required a “bad” man. They just required a different man. If Carter had been elected in a different era he might simply have been a forgetable President, ala Chester Arthur. Then again, if he had been elected in 1938 he might have been disastrous, rather than simply bad.
I say both nice guy and sly devil. Carter was apparently very sincere in his beliefs, but was also adept at playing hardball politics. In this he was not unlike many other politicians (e.g. the Clintons). But the difference is that Carter was very sincere and open about his religious beliefs. For some reason, many people tend to associate this with a kind of naivete, which seems incongruous with political toughness. At the time, many people considered him a hypocrite for this reason, but with his lengthy do-gooder post-presidency, this view seems to have faded.
I think cutting off aid from Pinochet was the best thing Carter could do.
It basically said-be a jerk and we won’t help you. Giving them money would not encourage them to do better-it often made things worse. Somoza took much of the money given to Nicaragua for aid after an earthquake-? and pocketed it.
I don’t care if they did turn to Marxism. That is NO excuse for supporting people like that.