Jimmy Carter Discusses Life After the Presidency and Today’s Politics : Ex-President Visiting on Book Tour for ‘Blood of Abraham’

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States and grand marshal for next month’s centennial celebration in Plains, Ga., pondered the question for the briefest second: Does he miss being President? “Not really. No. . . . If I had been reelected, I would now be out of office anyway.” He laughed, rather relishing that reality.

Carter, at 60, appears to be a man who has made whatever peace there was to be made with himself. While he acknowledges that “There are a lot of things that I would have hoped that I could have done if I’d had more time,” he is not bitter.

On this particular day the former President was seated on an enormous pink velvet wraparound sofa in a ninth-floor suite of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. A proper bouquet of fresh pink roses centered the coffee table but the breakfast dishes were still sitting on the kitchen divider. (A call downstairs by the Secret Service later took care of that.)

Third Book

Carter was on a book tour, in the hands of Houghton Mifflin, publisher of “The Blood of Abraham,” his new book on the Middle East. The book, his third, follows his presidential memoirs, “Keeping Faith,” and was researched partially during a 1983 journey by the Carters to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Morocco.

In the book, Carter discusses prospects for peace in the Middle East, the roots of hatred among Jews, Muslims and Christians in that part of the world, the conviction of each that they are God’s chosen people, and “the basic cause of continuing conflict . . . the struggle for land.”

Carter concludes that “it is Israel that remains the key, the tiny vortex around which swirl the winds of hatred, intolerance and bloodshed. . . . The Arabs must recognize the reality that is Israel, just as the Israelis must acknowledge Palestinian claims to civic equality and their right to express themselves freely in a portion of their territorial homeland.”

The writing Carters--Jimmy and Rosalynn, whose autobiography came out last year--are working together still, this time on a book on health.

“It’s a longtime interest of both of us,” he explained. “We’ve done an analysis in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control (in Atlanta) on the 13 most severe causes of sickness and death in our country--later we’ll extend it to other countries--” and “the basic habits or decisions that individual human beings make that shorten their lives.”

He added, “We’ll use personal experiences to give people advice on how to live longer and healthier lives.” Carter, trim and fit-appearing, was quick to say, “I don’t think the presidency was at all damaging to my health or well being or attitude toward life.”

On a recent “60 Minutes” television segment, the Carters came across as particularly critical of President Reagan but, Carter said, that was the result more of editing than of vitriol on their parts. He explained, “Mike Wallace spent 3 1/2 hours on camera with me and Rosalynn and they extracted from all that 15 minutes or so. Apparently, although I haven’t seen the program, they emphasized the remarks that were made about President Reagan.

“That’s not surprising, but I think it did create an impression that the whole conversation with ’60 Minutes’ was just about President Reagan and his shortcomings in office.”

What are his feelings about Mr. Reagan?

“Well,” Carter said, “I have mixed feelings. Obviously, we are on opposite sides of political parties and basic philosophies. This Administration has been quite revolutionary in its departure from my own policies, which were fairly compatible with those of President (Gerald R.) Ford and President (Richard M.) Nixon and (their) Democratic and Republican predecessors.

Reagan’s Image

“He’s been the most successful President, certainly in my lifetime, in dealing with the press and in projecting a very favorable image to the American people. I think he’s restored a great deal of confidence among the American people that everything is OK, even when there’s bad news to be projected.”

Rather more matter-of-factly than disapprovingly, he added, “He’s been able to convince the American people that it’s all right to have $200-billion deficits and 7 1/2% sustained unemployment, that farm prices are really not of major concern.

“When I left office the United States was the greatest creditor nation on Earth. By the end of this year it’ll be the greatest debtor nation on Earth . . . our trade deficits are enormous. We haven’t had any good international achievements, no progress on nuclear arms control. We’ve got a serious failure in Lebanon. The situation in Central America is certainly uncertain. But through all of this, the point is President Reagan has been able to convince the American people it’s all right.”

Carter’s presidency was plagued by image problems--there were, for example, the antics of brother Billy and celebrated episodes such as Carter’s encounter with a “killer rabbit” while fishing in Georgia; Rosalynn Carter has been openly critical of her husband’s treatment by television during the Iranian hostage crisis.

‘Goals Admirable’

Still, Carter said, “I don’t think the image was a problem. I think most people look back on my Administration and would agree that our goals were admirable, that we sought to achieve them with honesty and integrity and persistence, that we did reach some of them.”

He was remembering the achievements: “The Mideast peace process, bringing the hostages home to freedom and safety, normalizing relations with China, resolving the energy crisis. . . .”

As he perceives it, the “main negative” was that he was defeated in 1980 for reelection and he predicts that, in time, “that memory will fade away, be relatively less important.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who challenged incumbent Carter for the party’s nomination in 1980, has all but announced that he will run in 1988. While insisting that he bears no grudge against Kennedy--”As a matter of fact, there’s a great deal of friendship between the Kennedy family and the Carter family”--Carter doesn’t hesitate to say, “I think that there are other candidates who are likely to come forward in 1988 who would have a better chance of success than Sen. Kennedy.

“I don’t have any personal preferences but I would say Gov. Mario Cuomo (of New York), Sen. Bill Bradley from New Jersey, Sen. Sam Nunn from Georgia, Gov. Bruce Babbitt (of Arizona). Maybe unknown political leaders, as I was 10 years ago, might come forward . . . maybe some non-politician like Lee Iacocca. . . .”

In February, Rosalynn Carter, 57, acknowledged that she has been approached to run for the Senate from Georgia but said she had no plans “to run for office now.”

Carter dismissed the possibility. “If she were successful,” he said, “she would have to move to Washington for at least six years. My inclination would be to stay in Georgia and I think that would be one almost insurmountable obstacle. But she doesn’t have any inclinations to do that. I think I know what her ambitions are.”

Plains, Ga., birthplace of Jimmy Carter and home to generations of Carters, is what he calls the “core” of “a full life.” And, yes, Carter said, you can go home again.

“That’s probably one of the most remarkable characteristics of our life, as far as outsiders are concerned,” he said. “There was no difficulty at all in the transformation for us because we’ve only had one home. We’ve only owned one house in our lives, and that’s the one in Plains. My family and Rosalynn’s family have lived in Plains for five or six generations. We own land that no one else has ever owned since the Indians left Georgia.

Happy in Plains

“Our roots are deep. Blood kinship is there. And we are both very happy there in Plains.”

Since leaving the White House, they have traveled extensively--to the Middle East, Europe, the Far East, and to Panama, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, “the four nations that had become democracies, partially as a result of our human rights policy,” said Carter.

Future destination: Nepal, later this year.

Still, Carter said, “When we travel, we look forward to getting back to Plains with great anticipation, not any dread or reluctance.”

Home is a ranch-style house on a 170-acre farm on the western edge of Plains. The acreage ensures their privacy, as does a Secret Service detail.

Carter said he will not at this time follow former President Nixon’s lead and give up the government-provided Secret Service protection, explaining, “I cannot afford financially to pay for private security (as Nixon will do). . . . His wife is no longer very active, and his activities are limited. What the Secret Service provides for us is not necessarily security against danger but an element of privacy. . . .

“My mother had to move out of Plains, Billy had to move out of Plains because they couldn’t have any time alone. And when we travel overseas, if we go into a little shop in Paris or Copenhagen or Tokyo and stay for 10 minutes, when we come back out there’s several hundred people on the streets assembled, wanting to touch us or take a photograph.”

Part of the Community

Down home, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter are very much a part of the community and its civic life, including their church, where both teach Sunday school and, Carter noted, “I’m chairman of the Finance Committee.”

When on May 18 Plains celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding, the Carters will be grand marshals of the parade. Carter’s face lit up as he talked about centennial plans: “I’m on the committee for the five-mile run early in the morning. And Willie Nelson’s going to come down and sing for us. I’m sure we’ll be on the stage with Willie singing ‘Amazing Grace’ that afternoon. . . .”

Their days are full--there is the writing (they both do their own, working on separate word processors at home), there is his job as a distinguished professor at Emory University in Atlanta and, Carter said, “I have an enormous amount of mail and a very tiny staff. I get an average of about 600 letters a week. I still manage my own farmlands and we enjoy working the timberlands. We have a small garden at the house and we do a lot of that work ourselves.”

Together, they have been raising private contributions to finance the Presidential library and the Carter Center at Emory, a “think tank” where leaders will come together to discuss such topics as world affairs, health and ecology. Scheduled this month: a forum on arms control hosted by Carter and his one-time political foe, Gerald Ford.

Fund-Raising Auction

One of the fund-raising projects was an auction in October at Sotheby’s where four handmade chairs carved by craftsman Carter from home-grown hickory sold for $41,000.

As volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based Christian group, the Carters helped to renovate a burned-out building in Manhattan. “By the end of this year (Habitat will) have more than a hundred projects in communities in our country and probably 15 in foreign nations,” Carter said. “As we travel (abroad) we generally try to make visits to those projects. We’ve just begun to build homes in Nicaragua this past winter and I would guess that sometime in the future we’ll visit that project.”

“The Blood of Abraham” is dedicated by Carter to his grandson, Joshua, whose parents are Jeff and Annette Carter. He readily agreed that the baby is not only beautiful and brilliant but “in addition to his name as a great leader, he happens to have been born on Harry Truman’s 100th birthday, so perhaps fate has something good in store for Joshua.”

His own “baby,” Amy, who was only 9 when the Carters moved into the White House, is a 17-year-old high school senior who made headlines this week by being arrested while protesting apartheid outside the South African Embassy in Washington. (The incident took place after this interview, but Amy said her father had given her prior permission to get arrested).

Amy’s career interest is astronomy, and she is waiting along with thousands of her peers for responses to her college applications.

Amy’s Headed for College

“She’s decided where she wants to go,” Carter said. “She won’t know until the 15th of this month whether she’s been accepted or not. But her first preference is Brown University in Providence, R.I. She’s also put in an application at Princeton University and others.”

The day the Carters moved out of the White House, newspapers carried pictures of a tearful and obviously heartbroken Amy, who was saying goodby to life as First Daughter and to her friends in Washington. “She was in a very formative stage,” Carter said, “13 years old. . . . It was a more difficult thing for Amy to leave Washington and her close friends than it was for the rest of the family.”

But, in the long view, Carter said, being the daughter of a President, and of an incumbent President who lost his bid for a second term in a landslide election, was not a harmful experience for her: “I have to say that the presidency was not bad for my family.”

He himself looks back on those four years as “a wonderful and challenging and gratifying experience.”

Pull of Presidency

Carter explained the pull of the presidency: For those in political life it is the ultimate opportunity “to take whatever talent or ability you have and magnify its impact and make your life as meaningful as possible . . . the opportunities are transcendent . . . you realize that your decisions affect the lives of millions of people, hopefully beneficially. . . .”

Carter’s finest hours, by his own perception, were the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, his work for human rights and the Salt II agreements. His greatest disappointments?

“I would like to have seen the SALT II treaty ratified, and we would have been successful, I think, had the Soviets not invaded Afghanistan. But at the same time it’s reassuring that the SALT II treaty’s terms have been basically honored by the United States and the Soviet Union . . . (the treaty) as a premise is intact.

“I would like to have had a chance to follow up over a longer period of time on the Camp David accords and the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt because I’m convinced that the people in that region genuinely want peace and that the obstacle is the leaders and their timidity. I think in the second term I would not have exhibited any timidity. I would have been an eager partner for any person, any leader, in the Middle East who wanted to take even a tentative small step toward peace.

“I think we could have avoided the bloodshed in Lebanon, and the conflict in Central America, had I been reelected.”

His goals were the right ones, Carter said. But time ran out.

“There’s just a limit to what anyone can do in four years,” he said, “or even eight years. . . .”