In 1976 Jimmy Carter, a small peanut farmer from Georgia, was elected President of the United States. Carter had limited experience in the national political arena. He used his inexperience to his advantage and promised to restore honesty and morality in government. After the corruption the United States had seen in the previous Nixon and Ford administrations, Carter was welcomed with open arms. During his presidency Carter faced a number of domestic and foreign issues. At home, economic problems dominated, causing massive unemployment and inflation. Oil shortages also posed a challenge. Domestically, Carter's policies were a failure, with no success in alleviating the economy or the oil crisis. In the Middle East, a series of conflicts between Egypt and Israel led to successful peace talks, mediated by the presidents. However, Carter was not fully successful abroad. In Iran Carter failed to find a quick solution and consequently lost public support. Although Carter was successful in addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict, he proved disastrous in his domestic economic policy and his other foreign diplomatic efforts; ultimately his successes paled in comparison to his failures. Carter's main attempt to solve the energy crisis came in the form of a national energy program aimed at conserving oil and promoting alternative energy sources such as coal and renewable energy sources. The President convinced Congress to form the Department of Energy and implored Americans to control their energy consumption. Oil companies, however, have pushed for greater deregulation of the energy sector. To prevent oil companies from taking advantage of American consumers, he... middle of paper... is Shah, the United States' close ally. Countless modernizers were persecuted, arrested and executed. In November 52 US diplomats were held hostage by student revolutionaries who had seized the US embassy in Tehran. America acted immediately and seized all Iranian assets. The United States attempted to negotiate. The negotiations, to the dismay of the American people, dragged on for 444 days. There was a strong push for President Carter to use military forces as a means of negotiation; however, he opted for peaceful means, which proved unsuccessful. Finally in April 1980 the President authorized a rescue mission. The attempt failed due to technical difficulties, eight men died; as a result the nation became extremely nervous. Carter's dialogue with Iran continued throughout 1980. This was yet another failure on Carter's part to resolve a problem.