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Georgia has deep connections to three U.S. presidents who served in the twentieth century: Jimmy Carter, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. Each president led the country through difficult times—Wilson, during World War I (1917-18); Roosevelt, during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1941-45); and Carter, during the energy crisis and the Iran hostage situation. Carter, who was born in the state, and Wilson, who moved to Georgia as a baby, each married a native Georgian. Roosevelt, a New Yorker, considered Georgia to be his adopted home, and his wife's great-great-grandfather happened to be born in the state. Both Carter and Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize, two of only four American presidents to win the award. (The other two recipients are Theodore Roosevelt and Barack Obama.) Carter's election to the presidency brought new national and international attention to Georgia as a place of political importance, and Carter has continued to live in the state, carrying out his postpresidential career. As an adult, Wilson left Georgia for the Northeast, where he developed his public service career, becoming governor of New Jersey before his election to president. In the 1920s Roosevelt discovered Georgia as a place of healing for his polio and, later, as a source of inspiration for some of his New Deal policies and programs. Roosevelt and Carter have left a lasting imprint on the state; their legacies live on through the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, the Carter Center, and the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. Roosevelt found great relief at the waters in Warm Springs, and he invested his savings in and deeded property to the facility in order to preserve it for others with disabilities. The Carter Center was created to advance global health and peace, and the center's humanitarian efforts build upon Carter's diplomatic legacy as president, particularly his role as negotiator for the Camp David peace talks and for arms talks with the Soviet Union. The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains help visitors understand Carter's achievements. Several other U.S. presidents have had close ties to Georgia or Georgians: Theodore Roosevelt's mother was from Roswell; Dwight D. Eisenhower often spent leisure time in the state, playing golf in Augusta or relaxing in south Georgia, especially at Robert Woodruff's plantation; and George W. Bush chose Sea Island as the site of the G8 Summit, partially because his parents spent their honeymoon there. Lyndon B. Johnson worked closely during his political career with several Georgians—Richard B. Russell Jr., Dean Rusk, and Martin Luther King Jr. As a young senator, Johnson was a protégé of Russell's, a longtime U.S. senator. After becoming president, Johnson emerged as an ally of King's and a supporter of the civil rights movement; additionally, he relied on U.S. secretary of state Rusk as an advisor on the Vietnam War (1964-73) and other critical matters.
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