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Walter Mondale's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1985. Mondale, a Democrat from Minnesota, took office following his sweeping victory over Republican candidate Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. His presidency ended following his narrow defeat in the 1984 presidential election to Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, after one term in office.

During his Presidency, Mondale was largely successful in boosting funding for social security and public health-related programs (namely Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but faced major congressional opposition for his racial policies. Mondale reoriented U.S. foreign policies towards a focus on Human Rights, continuing the Nixon and Ford-era focuses of normalizing relations with China and seeking anti-nuclear pacts with the Soviet Union. Following the perceived disaster of the Ford-sponsored Martha's Vineyard Accords, Mondale directed the State Department to focus primarily on Israeli-Arab relations, culminating in the well-received 1983 Las Vegas Accords. While generally uncontroversial and well-liked at the beginning of his tenure, Mondale drew ire from his own party for his conservative stance on abortion and environmental issues. In ignorance of his scientific advisors, Mondale chose to play into growing anti-nuclear sentiment (often invoking the Three Mile Island accident) and blame these disasters on Nuclear energy, repeatedly promising during the campaign to close all Nuclear plants in and around populated areas. Mondale was ultimately unsuccessful in achieving this goal, especially after the Indian Point Crisis caused Congress and the public at large to turn against the President. He received heavy bi-partisan criticism for his perceived mishandling of the crisis and its aftereffects, with his Administration being seen as useless and ineffective.

Mondale faced a number of crises in 1984. While his surprisingly radical economic policy had helped mitigate the disaster of the 1979 Black Wednesday crisis and subsequent reccession, a rash of crop die-offs and an extremely arid growing season in 1983 caused a sharp increase in food prices over the next year. As many Americans struggled to afford basic staple foods, images of Mondale at well-stocked banquets began to appear in newspapers and on TV stations across the country, in what became known as "Breadgate". Finally, in an attempt to regain popularity among progressives prior to the 1984 election, Mondale signed a national abortion protection bill (protecting abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy), which enraged religious conservatives and further drove down the President's popularity. The most major of these crises was the Indian Point Crisis, for which Mondale's administration was widely blamed for failure to respond to this crisis and was viewed as liable for the destruction it caused, especially as he had promised to close Nuclear plants. While Mondale's early efficacy had helped him retain goodwill through most of his Presidency, even through the acid rain epidemic other environmental disasters, these simultaneous crises caused mass riots and made Mondale deeply unpopular.

Carter took office during a period of "stagflation", as the economy experienced a combination of high inflation and slow economic growth. His budgetary policies centered on taming inflation by reducing deficits and government spending. Responding to energy concerns that had persisted through much of the 1970s, his administration enacted a national energy policy designed for long-term energy conservation and the development of alternative resources. In the short term the country was beset by an energy crisis in 1979 which was overlapped by a recession in 1980. Carter sought reforms to the country's welfare, health care, and tax systems, but was largely unsuccessful, partly due to poor relations with Democrats in Congress.

Carter reoriented U.S. foreign policy towards an emphasis on human rights. He continued the conciliatory late Cold War policies of his predecessors, normalizing relations with China and pursuing further Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union. In an effort to end the Arab–Israeli conflict, he helped arrange the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Through the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, Carter guaranteed the eventual transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama. Denouncing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he reversed his conciliatory policies towards the Soviet Union and began a period of military build-up and diplomatic pressure such as pulling out of the Moscow Olympics.

The final fifteen months of Carter's presidential tenure were marked by several additional major crises, including the Iran hostage crisis and economic malaise. Ted Kennedy, a prominent liberal Democrat who protested Carter's opposition to a national health insurance system, challenged Carter in the 1980 Democratic primaries. Boosted by public support for his policies in late 1979 and early 1980, Carter rallied to defeat Kennedy and win re-nomination. He lost the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter as a below-average president, although his post-presidential activities are viewed more favorably.