Former President of the United States Jimmy Carter is in a very serious health condition and has decided to leave the clinic where he was staying and “to spend the remaining time with his family”. He is receiving palliative care.
Carter, 98, has been ill for some time. “He has the full support of his family and medical staff,” said doctors at the charity that bears the former president’s name and monitors his health.
Democrat served as President from 1977 to 1981 (39th elected). He defeated Republican Gerald Ford but was defeated in turn by Ronald Reagan four years later.
His presidential mandate was characterized by light and shadow. Internally, he faced the oil crisis that arose from the Arab-Israeli conflicts of those years and gave impetus to the search for alternative and renewable sources (he also had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House), even if it was an energy issue at the origin of one of the most dramatic moments of the Carter presidency: the accident at the Three Miles Island nuclear power plant. On the other hand, he had to contend with a phase of economic slack.
On the foreign policy front, he promoted the historic Camp David meeting between Egyptian President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin, the first attempt at dialogue between the two warring factions in decades. On the other hand, he suffered setbacks from the arrest of American hostages at the Tehran embassy during the Khomeinist revolution and, most notably, from the USSR invasion of Afghanistan.
(article will be updated)