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Crisis: The last year of the Carter presidency
Jimmy Carter's chief adviser recounts the secret meetings, conflicts, cloak-and-dagger exploits, divergent affairs of state, negotiations, and crises that filled Carter's final year in the White House
431 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 5, 2021
Former President Jimmy Carter who in just turning 97 has become our longest-loved president, is widely hailed today as a great humanitarian. But the passage of time has not improved the reviews of his disastrous 4 year presidency from 1977-1981 during which due to mismanagement, lack of experience, micromanagement and just plain bad luck, continues to rank as among the most woeful presidencies in all of our nation's history.
Hamilton Jordan was a key advisor to President Carter and during his last year or so in office held the title of Chief of Staff after Carter unwisely and disastrously tried to serve as his own Chief of Staff during his early tenure in office. Jordan penned this memoir in 1982 right after leaving office so the account reads fresh and true not yet colored by history so it is a worthwhile read for students of the time period and Jordan was also a pretty good writer I found the book interesting and easy to read.
Jordan focuses on Carter's last year in office, 1980 which by all accounts was a disaster from start to finish. What this book also shows is that while Jordan may have held the title Chief of Staff he was not performing that role in the traditional and understood way of running every aspect of the day to day White House administration.
What this book shows is Jordan spent an incredible and ultimately incredibly futile amount of time attempting to personally negotiate the release of the Americans held hostage by radical Iranian students after they stormed the US embassy in violation of international law when the Shah of Iran was overthrown and the Ayatollah Kohmeni came to power. Why Carter and Jordan and the White House allowed this issue to become their primary focus when they had no leverage in the situation at all remains a mystery and it became a central issue leading to Carter's overwhelming defeat in the 1980 election. As you read how much Jordan was personally involved and how much time and effort he devoted to the hostages you rightly wonder who if anyone was leading the White House staff on the other huge issues of the day--the energy shortage, inflation raging out of control, the Soviet invasion of Afganistan let alone the important interface of the White House with Congress, an area the Carter Administration failed miserably in. Maybe Jordan did devote time to these vital issues--things Carter might have had leverage to address unlike the hostages--but he doesn't mention it much in the book if he did. He seems to have had the title of Chief of Staff but never really played the role.
After his hostage negotiations fail, Jordan left the White House to attempt to recover the floundering Carter re-election campaign. Even with a poor campaign, Senator Ted Kennedy strongly challenged Carter in the primaries, causing great Democratic party discord and wasting a lot of Carter's limited campaign funds that should have been better spent campaigning against Ronald Reagan. In the end while Jordan tried hard Carter was his own worst enemy, and absorbed by the Iranian hostage crisis, he went down to overwhelming defeat at the polls. In the end it seems neither Carter nor Jordan understood it was never because of their endless negotiations the hostages were released right after Carter left office-- it was clearly the Iranian's concern even fear of the aloof but strong and popular Ronald Reagan and Reagan's inherent strength.
This book is a fascinating account of the last year of the Carter presidency by a staffer right in the center of it and is a book no historian could ever write.
Hamilton Jordan was a key advisor to President Carter and during his last year or so in office held the title of Chief of Staff after Carter unwisely and disastrously tried to serve as his own Chief of Staff during his early tenure in office. Jordan penned this memoir in 1982 right after leaving office so the account reads fresh and true not yet colored by history so it is a worthwhile read for students of the time period and Jordan was also a pretty good writer I found the book interesting and easy to read.
Jordan focuses on Carter's last year in office, 1980 which by all accounts was a disaster from start to finish. What this book also shows is that while Jordan may have held the title Chief of Staff he was not performing that role in the traditional and understood way of running every aspect of the day to day White House administration.
What this book shows is Jordan spent an incredible and ultimately incredibly futile amount of time attempting to personally negotiate the release of the Americans held hostage by radical Iranian students after they stormed the US embassy in violation of international law when the Shah of Iran was overthrown and the Ayatollah Kohmeni came to power. Why Carter and Jordan and the White House allowed this issue to become their primary focus when they had no leverage in the situation at all remains a mystery and it became a central issue leading to Carter's overwhelming defeat in the 1980 election. As you read how much Jordan was personally involved and how much time and effort he devoted to the hostages you rightly wonder who if anyone was leading the White House staff on the other huge issues of the day--the energy shortage, inflation raging out of control, the Soviet invasion of Afganistan let alone the important interface of the White House with Congress, an area the Carter Administration failed miserably in. Maybe Jordan did devote time to these vital issues--things Carter might have had leverage to address unlike the hostages--but he doesn't mention it much in the book if he did. He seems to have had the title of Chief of Staff but never really played the role.
After his hostage negotiations fail, Jordan left the White House to attempt to recover the floundering Carter re-election campaign. Even with a poor campaign, Senator Ted Kennedy strongly challenged Carter in the primaries, causing great Democratic party discord and wasting a lot of Carter's limited campaign funds that should have been better spent campaigning against Ronald Reagan. In the end while Jordan tried hard Carter was his own worst enemy, and absorbed by the Iranian hostage crisis, he went down to overwhelming defeat at the polls. In the end it seems neither Carter nor Jordan understood it was never because of their endless negotiations the hostages were released right after Carter left office-- it was clearly the Iranian's concern even fear of the aloof but strong and popular Ronald Reagan and Reagan's inherent strength.
This book is a fascinating account of the last year of the Carter presidency by a staffer right in the center of it and is a book no historian could ever write.
February 3, 2013
This book was written before the memoir genre became popular so it lacks some of the daily living information that adds glue to a good memoir. Having said that, if you want to feel like a part of the inner President Carter circle, it is a good read, plus instructional if you are still learning what the chief of staff does versus the secretary of state versus the joint chiefs, etc.
July 7, 2023
With President Carter in hospice care there is seems to be a new interest in his life and his Presidency. I read this book in hopes of gaining more insight into what actually happened versus the traditional outlook of Carter as a 'Bad President, excellent post-President.' Jordan does a very good job of illustrating what life was like in the White House during 1980 and the multiple events to get the American hostages out of Iran safely. The reader also gets a sense that Carter was very involved in all of the decision-making for good or ill. It was nice to read what actually happened all those years ago, free from historical revisionism and score settling.
April 12, 2015
The last agonizing year of the Carter Administration is detailed to death here in Hamilton Jordan's memoir of a trying time in American history. A very interesting look on how a presidential administration can become derailed by crisis and how intricately difficult it was to solve the hostage situation with Iran and how grating the challenge by Ted Kennedy was to President Carter.
September 27, 2010
The second book in my attempt to learn about Jimmy Carter. This is an engaging read on the mishaps of the last year of Carter's presidency, written by a key aide. But I always am skeptical of autobiography, especially any written by a politico.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews