First Lady Rosalynn Carter held a more prominent role than past first ladies, sitting in on her husband’s cabinet meetings, traveling extensively, taking a special interest in South Asian refugees, and serving as an envoy in Latin America. After Carter’s 1980 defeat, she ran, together with her husband, the non-profit Carter Center as well as supporting Habitat for Humanity and continuing her longtime support of mental health, for which she and former president Carter were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her successor, Betty Ford (1918-2011), also changed the role of first lady by becoming more politically involved than her predecessors and not shying away from controversial issues. She campaigned for equal rights for women and raised awareness about breast cancer and alcoholism, founding the Betty Ford Center for the treatment of addictions. She was awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Despite his Democratic affiliations, Moynihan began his political career as Republican President Nixon’s counselor on urban affairs. A former assistant secretary of labor under Kennedy and Johnson and director of the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, he was chosen, in part, because of his academic background in social policy. His subsequent diplomatic career included ambassadorships to India and the United Nations. In 1977, he was elected to the Senate, representing New York from 1977 to 2001. A hallmark of his long and impressive senatorial career was his ongoing interest, as a trained sociologist, in American poverty and the problem of welfare dependency. Moynihan collaborated with President Bill Clinton during his first term on key campaign promises including health care reform, which fell under Moynihan’s authority as the newly elected chairman of the Finance Committee.
Our letter was penned after Ford and Carter testified before Congress in March 1994 to advocate for health insurance coverage for mental illness and substance abuse treatment. After Congress spent the summer debating Clinton’s Health Security Act, which attempted to reform the American health care system and introduce universal coverage, the legislation was declared dead by its sponsor on September 26, 1994.
Folded into thirds with a paper clip impression in the upper margin; extremely fine.
