Carter made it a personal goal to begin an international campaign to bring awareness toward human rights. He believed that communism had negatively impacted the lives of those living under an anti-democratic regime. Yet, an unforeseen issue arose due to the rhetoric of the Carter Administration. While Carter denounced a number of nations who either supported communism or were led by dictators, the United States relied upon several of these states as allies against the larger Cold War battles.
The most prominent example is Nicaragua. Carter's rhetoric encouraged a revolution within the nation. Unfortunately, the leader, Anastasio Somoza, was an ally of the United States! The revolution, led by militant communists (known as the Sandinistas), replaced the Somoza regime and drove a wedge between United States and Nicaraguan relations.
Carter
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The first was the Iran hostage situation in 1979. The United States had long supported Shah Reza Pahlavi as the leader in Iran. However, an internal revolution by Islamic fundamentalists dethroned Pahlavi; eventually he sought asylum in the United States. That refuge came with a price, as several revolutionary Iranians claimed 66 American hostages at the United States embassy in Teheran. The Iranians demanded Pahlavi in return for the hostages. Carter failed on all fronts to end the situation. It would not be until President Reagan entered office that the hostage crisis ended.
Simultaneously, 1979 marked the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan War. Carter withheld the United States from becoming embroiled in the conflict, which led many in the United States to believe that Carter represented the 'post-Vietnam syndrome' - that is, the unwillingness to enter the United States into another conflict. Carter attempted to impose several diplomatic and economic sanctions against the Soviet Union, but it was too little and too