[205]
The elections of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom[206] and Abel Muzorewa for Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia,[207] South Africa turning down a plan for South West Africa's independence and domestic opposition in Congress were seen as a heavy blow to the Carter administration's policy toward South Africa.[208]
On May 16, 1979, the Senate voted in favor of President Carter lifting economic sanctions against Rhodesia, seen by some Rhodesians and South Africans as a potentially fatal blow to joint diplomacy efforts the United States and Britain had pursued in the region for three years and any compromise between the Salisbury leaders and guerrillas.[209] On December 3, Secretary of State Vance promised Senator Jesse Helms that when the British governor arrived in Salisbury to implement an agreed Lancaster House settlement and the electoral process began, the President would take prompt action to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia.[210]

East Asia
Deng Xiaoping with President Carter
Carter sought closer relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), continuing the Nixon administration's drastic policy of rapprochement. The two countries increasingly collaborated against the Soviet Union, and the Carter administration tacitly consented to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam. 