Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100, can lay fair claim to have been the best ex-president the US ever had.
His domestic good works, his mediation in trouble spots around the world and the general sagacity of his advice were all exemplary. As an independent-minded moral voice he had few peers. Yet his one-term presidency, from 1977-81, is still widely dismissed as a disappointment.
In spite of conspicuous achievements — the Panama Canal treaties, the Middle East Camp David accords, the Salt II agreement between Russia and the US to limit nuclear forces, Nato’s twin-track approach to the Soviet Union, the new emphasis on human rights — he was defeated in a landslide by an electorate more influenced by spiralling inflation and the debilitating hostage crisis with Iran.