THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL WORLD LEADERS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

diplomacy and advocacy, for which he was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
James Earl Carter, Jr., was the son of Earl Carter, a
peanut warehouser who had served in the Georgia state
legislature, and Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse who
went to India as a Peace Corps volunteer at age 68. Carter
attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia
Institute of Technology before graduating from the U.S.
Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1946. After marrying
Rosalynn Smith—who came from Carter’s small home-
town, Plains, Ga.—he served in the U.S. Navy until 1953,
when he left to manage the family peanut business. He
served in the state senate from 1962 to 1966. He ran unsuc-
cessfully for governor in 1966. Depressed by this experience,
he found solace in evangelical Christianity, becoming a
born-again Baptist. In 1970 he ran again and won. As gov-
ernor (1971–75), he opened Georgia’s government offices
to African Americans and women and introduced stricter
budgeting procedures for state agencies.
Although lacking a national political base or major
backing, Carter managed to win the Democratic nomina-
tion in July 1976. He chose the liberal Sen. Walter F.
Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate. Carter’s oppo-
nent was the unelected incumbent Republican president,
Gerald R. Ford, who had come into office in 1974 when
Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate. In
November 1976 the Carter-Mondale ticket won the elec-
tion, capturing 51 percent of the popular vote and garnering
297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240.
Carter tried to reinforce his image as a man of the
people. He adopted an informal style of dress and speech
in public appearances, held frequent press conferences,
and reduced the pomp of the presidency. Early on in his
administration, Carter introduced a dizzying array of