James Earl Carter, Jr. (lahir di Plains, Georgia, 1 Oktober 1924; umur 90 tahun) atau dikenal Jimmy Carter adalah Presiden Amerika Serikat ke-39 (1977 - 1981) dan penerima Hadiah Nobel Perdamaian pada 2002. Sebelum menjadi presiden, Carter selama dua periode menjabat Senat Georgia dan Gubernur Georgia yang ke-76 (1971 - 1975). Pada tahun 1976, Carter dinominasikan sebagai kandidat kuda hitam oleh Demokrat untuk menggantikan Presiden Gerald Ford melalui pemilu presiden Amerika Serikat pada tahun 1976. Salah satu kejadian kontroversial semasa ia menjabat presiden adalah penyanderaan warga Amerika selama kurang lebih 450 hari di Kedutaan Besar Amerika Serikat di Teheran, Iran dan berakhirnya perselisihan antara Mesir dan Israel.James Carter adalah salah seorang penerima Nobel Perdamaian pada tahun 2002.
Jimmy Carter dilahirkan pada 1 Oktober 1924 di Plains Georgia. la adalah anak tertua dari empat anak James Earl Sr. dan Lilian Carter. Dikenal dengan nama "Jimmy" saja, sejak masa remajanya, ia dibesarkan dalam masyarakat pedesaan kecil di mana keluarga Carter telah tinggal selama lima generasi dan ayahnya memiliki toko kecil. Diilhami oleh kekaguman ayahnya kepada tentara, salah satu cita-cita Jimmy Carter yang pertama ialah memasuki Akademi Angkatan Laut AS di Annapolis.
Setelah belajar setahun di tingkat persiapan Universitas Teknik Georgia ia mewujudkan cita-citanya dan memasuki Akademi itu sebagai seorang siswa yang dicalonkan oleh kongres pada 1943. Pada tahun 1946 Jimmy Carter menikah dengan Rosalynn yang juga berasal dari Georgia dan mempunyai empat anak, tiga laki-Iaki dan satu perempuan. Pada 1970 ia memenangkan pemilihan Gubemur Georgia. Pada 1976 atas dasar kontak-kontak yang diadakan secara nasional, Jimmy Carter membina suatu landasan politik yang kokoh untuk memenangkan pencalonan dari Partai Demokrat sebagai Presiden. Setelah memperoleh mandat dari partainya, dalam pemilihan presiden berikutnya ia mengalahkan Presiden Gerald Ford dengan selisih suara sedikit.
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician, author, and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center. Carter, raised in rural Georgia, was a peanut farmer who served two terms as a Georgia State Senator, from 1963 to 1967, and one as the Governor of Georgia, from 1971 to 1975. He was elected President in 1976, defeating incumbent president Gerald Ford in a very close election (the Electoral College margin of 57 votes was the closest since 1916, and no election featuring an incumbent since 1976 has had a closer popular vote), running as an outsider who promised truth in government in the wake of the Watergate scandal. As of 2015, he is the second oldest (after George H. W. Bush) of America's four living former presidents.
On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts. During his term as President, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. On the economic front he confronted persistent "stagflation", a combination of high inflation, high unemployment and slow growth. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In response to the Soviet move he ended détente, escalated the Cold War, and led the international boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. By 1980, Carter's popularity had eroded such that, running for re-election that year, he ran against Ted Kennedy in the Democratic Party's primaries for the presidential nomination, marking the most recent Democratic primary in which an incumbent faced opposition. Carter won the 1980 primary with a mere 51.13% of the vote (all incumbent candidates since have won at least 72.8% of their party's primary votes) but lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of 50 states.
