The worst president of the 20th century. As soon as he took office he was weakening America, by declaring intentions to remove missiles and troops from South Korea, trim $6 billion off of a seriously diminished defense budget, and of course his will to sign more harmful arms reduction treaties (which favored the Soviet Union). His foreign policy would be laughable if it didn't pose such a serious threat to American intrests. Apparently his administration thought that if we reduced our arms then the Soviets would be convinced to do the same. While Carter was in office the Soviet Union continued in their goal of Finlandization (a.k.a. expanding the empire, intimidating Western Europe, weakening the United States) with smashing success. There are countless other follies of the Carter years, including Iran, Nicaragua, stagflation, the hostage crisis, the gas shortage, and Afghanistan. He spoke of the inordinate fear of Communism (only 100 million killed!) that the American people had. When it became clear that he had lost the confidence of the American people he blamed it on a nation malaise and warned us that our best days were behind us. As we would find out in the eighties, great days were just around the corner. Carter's failings must be blamed on the fact that he was never fit to be chief executive in the first place. His legacy ultimately is as doorman for the Reagan Revolution.