Althouse: "Jimmy Carter’s Disastrous Olympic Boycott."

February 10, 2014

"Jimmy Carter’s Disastrous Olympic Boycott."

A history lesson at The New Republic.

Do you remember who said "Nobody made me come here and I’m nobody’s Uncle Tom" and why?

18 comments:

tim maguire said...: I've always wondered where this version of "Uncle Tom" came from and how many people using the term read the book. Tom was a man true to his principles to the end. The end being death by whipping for refusing a master's order he thought was immoral.; 2/10/14, 9:41 AM
SJ said...: @tim maguire,

thanks for reminding me of Uncle Tom, as written about by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

WikiPedia claims that this was due to many derivative works (stage plays and the like) which turned the character of Uncle Tom from a martyr into an apologist for slavery.

Adapted theatrical performances of the novel remained in continual production in the United States for at least 80 years. These representations had a lasting cultural impact and influenced the pejorative nature of the term Uncle Tom in later popular use.

Although not all minstrel depictions of Uncle Tom were negative, the dominant version developed into a stock character very different from Stowe's hero.; 2/10/14, 9:55 AM
bbkingfish said...: Ten paragraphs. For those who prefer their history lite.; 2/10/14, 9:56 AM
FullMoon said...: Haha . Boycott to protest Russia in Afghanistan.

F;kn Carter.

Such "malaise" in the country that a friend of mine got a vasectomy so he would not potentially expose a new human being to such misery.

He should have postponed that decision until the next election.; 2/10/14, 10:09 AM
SteveR said...: Epic Fail; 2/10/14, 10:14 AM
YoungHegelian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/10/14, 10:18 AM
SJ said...: I wonder what would have happened had Carter attempted anything other than an Olympic boycott?

Conversely, what is an Olympic boycott supposed to accomplish? It feels like a big, empty symbol.

Especially when the U.S. has to beg/coerce/cajole other nations to join in the boycott.; 2/10/14, 10:28 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Where Washington saw communist aggression, the perspective was significantly different in Moscow. Soviet leaders wanted to bolster a flailing regime in their backyard, a short-term maneuver of no real importance to any other country.

What the author leaves out, and what stunned Carter and Brzezinski was that the Soviets murdered Hafizullah Amin, who was in C & B's eyes, a puppet dictator already friendly to the Soviets. The invasion was not only one of many advances of Soviet influence in the 70's, but the murder of Amin seem to herald a return to the bad old Stalinist days of the commies murdering their own to boot.; 2/10/14, 10:35 AM
Joe said...: Except the article never explains why the boycott was "a disaster."; 2/10/14, 11:03 AM
mccullough said...: Glad the Soviets didn't boycott the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Would have been a shame if our college hockey player team didn't embarrass their team. That was the beginning of the end for the CCCP.; 2/10/14, 11:10 AM
William said...: As I remember it, the boycott was especially popular with liberal columnists. They thought that our participation in the '36 Olympics somehow validated or gilded the regime of Hitler and that the same would happen if we participated in Moscow......I suppose you could argue that Jesse Owens in some ways subverted Hitler's message, but the truth is I don't think our participation had much effect either way.......The Olympic committee should pick stable democracies for the games, not countries that they hope will become stable democracies.; 2/10/14, 11:15 AM
mccullough said...: The Soviets then boycotted the 1984 Olympics in LA along with their Eastern bloc stooges. This certainly helped the USA gold medal count in many events, especially women's gymnastics and Mary Lou Retton. But Reagan was president then. And so the Soviet boycott meant little since the commies were on the run by then anyway.; 2/10/14, 11:30 AM
VietPundit said...: FYI, the link goes to politico.com, not TNR. Same for the link in this post.; 2/10/14, 11:31 AM
FullMoon said...: Re Jesse Owens?Hitler snub 1936.

Just read an bio on Owens saying Hitler left early because of bad weather and did not greet any athletes. He sent Owens a signed congratulatory letter. FDR did not give Owens any recognition at all because he has an election coming up and did not want to rock the boat.

Owens was further disrespected by the USA when he was not allowed to compete as an amateur anymore.

Pretty sure I got the link from Redditt. You look it up, I am too lazy.; 2/10/14, 1:03 PM
Saint Croix said...: "Nobody made me come here and I’m nobody’s Uncle Tom"

It would be funny if one of the Russian reporters had taken out a puppet and started punching it.; 2/10/14, 4:34 PM
Saint Croix said...: I'll bet Joe Frazier thought that was funny.

I'm always happy when I see that Rocky movie where they bring out Joe Frazier and celebrate him.; 2/10/14, 4:37 PM
Drago said...: bbkingfish: "For those who prefer their history lite."

"lite"

Like those who believe that Dixiecrats were republicans/became republicans/always were republicans/republicans/republicans/republicans/republicans.....

...but surely not democrats.; 2/10/14, 6:34 PM
James Wolf said...: While I've long derided Carter and felt his administration was a fiasco, I will say that the boycott was an important moral stand that did embarrass the USSR's leaders on the world stage. Over 60 nations did not take part in the games, with several other countries marching under the Olympic flag rather than their own.
The 1984 retaliatory boycott came across as mere sour grapes. Less than a score of nations took part in that, and almost all of them firmly Warsaw Pact or their allies.; 2/11/14, 11:01 AM