USA: People and Politics; A Conversation With Jimmy Carter

a vision stations and i grant from the ford foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting suddenly this man is more than the frontrunner he's the favorite this week he picked up another one hundred delegates in the usa this is you as a magazine of people and politics special edition may six nineteen seventy six tonight a conversation with jimmy carter good evening i'm bill moyers only four months ago jimmy carter was unknown to most of us today he's the man most likely to win the democratic nomination for president although his name is fast becoming a household word we still know very little about the man himself his position on the various issues are all spelled out in a series of papers and speeches and jimmy carter's been running long enough to know those positions by heart unlike most politicians to reach for the right answer he wants no matter how an interviewer find a question so when i met in the other day in

washington for this extended conversation i chose to talk less about the issues than about the forces that shape in a court of law his family his faith and his ambition we began in the beginning and i asked him if he'd ever thought of running for president ali was growing up in a wooden covered house down airplanes georgia and another one is our aspiration the weekend before the production code college it is and then all over the local news and eighty and we saw the passion is the best option for me to get a college education would serve as tuition free and that innocuous was my goal no other fantasies

now when i was five years old and one is an old cessna type i've been intrigued as to widen almost certainly gave up a military career back find you make a gesture italian wine here but that there's something missing father died and he thought about his life and you know that was something else whether that's i'm i guess as i'm a loss of enjoyment work ahead of those jobs and it up within the commissioner's they commissioned crew chief for shipment to build a search warrant and i went in the first nuclear submarine problem of the chores jargon relating and then the federal debt terminal cancer and it the worldview and what was what was never had seen him since what intelligence seventeen years old that was too late and i was one of various opportunities even though operations which of you know stuff that maybe

lived and some of the farmers like mit and a few of those who knew him that his service on the school board that sort of a new house is dealing with the education reformers who won't cede and so forth from and his life in the church and the his life in politics you just elected to the legislature and so when you see them all homemade it was almost so irresistible to go back in the nunnery some amateurs to fourth place back home in the lives of both lived right there in plains georgia though the numbers about them to bomb seventeen hundred straw poll to let it protect it george mitchell we're going to

london to watch the first live with a lot of french village stability in a community and relationship and the lives of all people and i chose what did you regret that those last eleven years your father's life you had really not been in close touch with him while a lot of damage but even more than all the telephone with us emil but i never doubted that they had a servant and they only get paid all just travel extensively and read and study everything from you know music or classical music and so forth and stressed moment and though the great challenge and i'd never had any regret or stolen data that's been in the navy and getting out the survey actually think that for you or to expand this discipline that everyone told me about this respect for forty years and so i was going to discipline and a wife alicia

doctors have to get them to move in the summer into the heavier discipline and then amid rico nummi is one of huge relief for young naval officer to become enormously will to submarines there were that old paul and it literally pushed out of a commitment for that activity and i think second the orbiter will fall they'll go out more at the latino men and low for the state do what when you're among is something robert penn warren said to me in a recent conversation like this he said i'm convinced now that the single most indispensable element in any human being's life has the touch of another individual who says you mattered to make a difference not a mascot who's done that in your life when you set her father in the us and then what

is well there was no protocol and relationship between enrichment and impartial the land of that and you step back as the civilian commander in chief from this heavy influence of the military and of that role in your life tenure there's no aspect of militaristic information now on appeal three of the conflict but the self discipline and stuck with me all i tried to do the best i can and sometimes it's disconcerting to other people but this is not the only level who got in when you know the beach over this one and only an ipo a sense of equanimity about effective but they were bested lose revenue that's what drives you

exactly how much pressure there as a citizen an unpleasant sense of being driven feel like i have one life to live i feel like that god wants me to do the best i can with it and that's so quite often make relatively them alive so that would be meaningful and i join all tapping of difficult problems and solving a solution to a question in the meticulous organization complicated effort to challenge us with what the game laura bush has just again well isn't jocelyn hawley harvey you know this is a question i hear a lot of people may have you know god's will grow up radio reports

not continue to monitor they were on a sense of peace and to self assured that a worker from the one on his right thing so many unwanted way the world is that the group that you did when you were young who else whether to women in particular joe wambaugh visits ramallah i'm much more like i'm all of them i am the fall to then deny the breakfast table the ones to subtitle it still more shoes they're compassionate initiative outloud initiative button so that a family and if you are the newspaper in the us has worked for a while

when i was the champion of a disadvantaged people in isis poor whites liked lego issues as retirement age she is you know an indifferent to connect suddenly the school and it is always been that way masood kremlin was a superdome of us who love to open plains public school a distiller at she saw something in me i think didn't show up but when she made sure that they don't listen to classical music he would make me do actually mentioned the famous paintings on the artist and she gave me a list of the victory

and he was very strictly very traumatic experience is an anemone or roman fears of the privations of a sheltered life my mom and i divorced there and i live in an isolated area but to fly feathers the twenty five or thirty but the measure on the ballot amy bishop bridget johnson but when things went all in in the field or in those loans to polo was a haven so i don't have any fear that is not going to like you said once that you never really seriously considered disobeying your father i wonder if he was never disobeyed his father can understand the rest was

a lot of that that had bits of that and that there's a big uproar in that when he said to me you do something either the global many cases that includes an unlawful of that like publishers are vivid and then after that and you were an intern at that they're going to add to the problem or they would sail to make on a hot hot hot shoppe i was like the tone of the dissent in the bailout with much of the movies of the ocean and i would do it but it didn't set any direct orders but i know a bit disappointed that it ultimately would be a good boy a mammogram is something a friend and another perspective that i never say yes or no to follow a genius or notion that among the taste of

that and look at the most of the low low low but there was a lot of respects and what was made for comic con tanto was an afterlife on immigration about five or forty miles us from this weekend's lot of all we never went to a movie on sunday that was a first i think i would slip out with the movie on sunday we have to go to bp you and we violated that we were in trouble it was this term i wasn't implying that it was done with a lot less to do it you know the movies and planes without a very small valley of whether these laws are available to study lincoln played political small ball but my life has been a fairly isolated way

out in the woods and in the stranger and small fields my class mitchell and a black vest little white and was so completely rule planes was embarrassed know upwards of six hundred and i went there when i had to either tents who they are and though it was growing that i'm alive my back which would you do now i do a lot and i have male about the only thing and it'll fun as affordably more stable ally away from planes with more about why wood from all of them or the law of a brother and sister to live in coach but i get home it's eighty million the workload and in the region

in order to launch them a lot and i like to go out in the fields in latin label and we walked and i'll just talk to each other but sometimes politicians we have very jubilant alone it is re establishing for twenty four zero thirty two out there it has the structure of the twenties that were worse for quote they are biblical references to creation god created this in his own image opening movie which turned out to be not very simple low and then when writers as one of the to one of the great commandment from god

which a direct ally just have to love god with all your heart and soul and nine and love your neighbor as yourself so i can take that conversations with christian theology through which just search for meaningful existence of all we're voting with a more used to call in stockholm in the midst of a volunteer who lives with him to go with a privilege but the battlefield frustrated about and not all afraid to save a life in that and feel like every day is meaningful and that he feared all of this feeling that i can relate to personally chose to live alone in a lot of the official way that a lot of like mind them so cynical narrative out of a what what do you have any doubts people suddenly get a

car appears to be so full of shirking the conviction the time when the staples center and better retain its loses coming out because we have any doubt let yourself think i honestly don't know the answers to a philosophical question of theological questions and the questions of a contrived for things that haven't been fierce opposition or just accept them and don't think that i can influence a change i don't know honestly many doubts about the vast menagerie question of how to alleviate a concern about a meat and the order how to create in real life a more meaningful proportional of the like the expanded in the parliament so that's about the best avenue to

take among many options is to conduct out of that is a constant presence with me but that of other faiths no doubt about the purpose of life just that i ran to the back to the front lines of war ii a law firm in new york has been with the origin of the question yet the lebanese army leaving a not the only ones coming down to be these guys vs jimmy carter and he said that's what bothers me about jimmy carter human being is it strikes me as a decent the provincial and narrow minded man from the south who spent most of his life in that environment and i'd like to know how a man like bad expects to lead a pluralistic society

not to mention the western world and i said i would ask is because i'm not sure that you have to i lived in three different places to understand society and changing korean and so what started out as an isolated farm war as a minority member like neighborhood of moving that from there too jimmy fallon noted order to know they were to travel extensively importantly he was in the last to know their ideas of move in foreign affairs on the level with bill with prime ministers and president of formalist that has changed so forth as a governor ms davis was convinced to

launch from being in another swing at it even when i'm going to japan out of evidence to make and conoco in november columbia been overblown and so cause i had a chance to learn in a very it was a very good student the possible ways to improve violation chauffeur those countries talking to the leaders of read extensively to the history of our country the opposite approach of the alleged shipment college a similar four hundred the demographic makeup past voting record coverage of the people in the us to the campaign platform of our persons or a president who lost over one and i bet they are just go to a deal with the multiplicity of problem from the current people those who manage those two of their original flavors social corporate jets and would preserve especially social

conservatives are hungry for the chance that the marketplace those who are poor and illiterate hooligan enough funding justice so i think that for the rest of my french actually big at an unknown career ally of them will follow the person's dilemma of business loan of this until and so they'll an engineer scientist level local state governments abroad but that doesn't mean that i think that many people when you think of three or four lessons that we have to take away from this last decade no big trouble again one which is to strip away secrets of government in every possible way they can about the deliberations of the

region that the minutes of a cabinet meeting be made public their monopoly some aspersions of state have done this kind of education as a large order or pencil california massachusetts recently and don is that to be some intrusion when you have staff members in thousands of area that i would be an area that would be kept private the freedom of the bay area for some organization to make a ridiculous suggestion and not be embarrassed like don't extract from inside portion of superior suggestion that money poured into detroit would be if he knew that all the run that wouldn't be that in the particular that strip away secrets is the voice at second thing is that to make sure we have all in our government and access to that other people in other ways

a lot of sabers of cabinet members glyn ford joint session to college to be examined and question about former coach and so for like the british system is allegedly center sector stayed up to it joint session of congress actually answer questions from the floor at the college will accept this weekend the president's own truth always i see no reason to live and it was a line of people in government when you say that when you say i'll never lie our never mistreat you people have more doubts about her perception of reality than they do better integrity your people will not say jimmy carter is is he's trying to put one over on us with jimmy carter just doesn't understand the way washington an international power constantly and i have thought about a lot of relevant to read a lot and one that may surprise to

me in the campaign was when i made a simple statement eighteen months ago way to surprise anybody that as a candidate especially the lottery and it became so controversial always arises how surprising was a controversial personality was in nineteen forty eight show how some minsk to oil it mr mcferrin right don't worry felton has bought the business in to support the fbi continue business go back to what the warriors saying earlier jimmy carter is a nice man but he doesn't really know that the world is in the christian sense that the world is in the plays the world full of power brokers and power seekers and people who will pay attention but as it is you know which is the

truth when i go out i was elected but then the voyager is a meticulous labor department launched that if anybody came forward with the evidence in this campaign that you have to live with you where i think i would want to live if anybody came forward with evidence while you're in the white house that you had a life which he resigned the only terms one of ask a question that might refuse to answer with another grown with it because i think we are also whoa of the original question was one of the three or four lessons we mustn't forget from the last ten years if we don't make the same mistake and shoots speech to boise christie i would never get militarily involved in the internal affairs of another country unless own security directives

if north korea had invaded south korea which you get involved we already and though we have a commitment made by the college because of the people and the united nations in south korea i prefer to withdraw all our troops and lentils from south korea over a period of five years or three four years but though obviously we are a committed and then they committed in germany where then does the carter doctrine applied we're not apply in retrospect to south in the fire applied in recent months to the attention and go it would apply across in the future i just wouldn't do it i'm an american people at the show this fall we are still a dozen we must do and his coach is to make the government

mechanism work that it's an ineffective loaded confused unmanageable corruption and it and it hurts our people were so simple even the vegetarian government the competence of government business is at your vision you open your autobiography by the same as we observe the two hundred but their violation it's appropriate to ask yourself two basic question one can our government be honest decent open fair and compassionate and can our government be competent is that jimmy carter's vision for america efficient government there's a version of the record in the administration and george romero reporter years in his analyses the effect of which it seems to me has to see is that it's decentralized the executive branch of the government to bring the power of the executive branch of the government to bear from the white house though to find

people wary of centralized authority after lyndon johnson has traction in the war in vietnam nixon watergate know you'll find people were no now what you want to do the question a lot of people very wary about that and i was trying to separate the city and the vatican from all of applause cheering on to know more about what the record reportedly with cia with the job with the mission of course oil but it's not the fact that the government opens well owners manage to the nation of thousands of veterans and eight in georgia fish some of important but the main thing is reopen the government so that people could understand it and control it doesn't need to be the

autocratic so management nice to be so that the people who do jobs in an environment without know but this approach to a career in the nation with erik jesperson service employees to use motorola mobility all white professional have a more productive way to give the services to the people to minimize red tape and confusion anonymous paperwork you're saying in effect of trust me i'll state it is there's no question that that you have to have a feeling in the country that wants to trust it yet in nineteen sixty four and sixty ce vi john said i have that trust in nineteen sixty eight richard nixon said i have the secret plan in the war in vietnam to trust to know why the two times nor should the american people take from another politician the animation

trust those are there's a model that ours there's an absence of sixty and truth in a way i know to restore the trust of the american people voted for the government of the church were the ones that mean what would the openness openness and honesty the truthfulness are you aware that once you become president you'll be making decisions that will immediately make some people unhappy who's thought they saw a new attack ad is not inevitable is what we do about that disillusionment of those buildings is that what jimmy carter not already there that's the quest that i think we all went to this in georgia alone holds a series of things in

the house in the campaign four years ago and the government and the luge now i've been though chavez hello six hundred thousand people very carefully the legislature without them to begin with that the low and october when we didn't promise i don't like that the solution because you're going georgia isn't the solution statement they want to claim to do a lot of prayer and other words in them throughout their whole lives have been deprived of an opportunity to make decisions rather large are so curious george a secure never thought was possible that the knowledge areas just as people who make decisions in government and that human things there are some supple when their

decision to roll with the report out of disgraceful wasteful a huge collecting weapon system that the midst of a drawer there've been problems with a tax system that only get hurt because they're careful titled written the criminal justice system they echoed justice systems is a major factor in whether or not you get justice or not that that brings up the a quote you use in the beginning of your autobiography from someone we both in iran a lever the sanctity of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world you think this is a just society now so i think one of the major sports builds ahead of potentially them issa tried to establish justice and that

applies to forget about things for the national peace quality limits of injustice and racial discrimination injustice and justice and justice system and socal and though the site is just common sense you're going to be an activist government that the profile that emerges is of a man who's in it and everything in working pressing items that square with the reports are getting out of an anti government anti washington mood in the country which you sing to represent that i've never expressed deliberately any anti washington feeling or any antigovernment you know when will this truman said you know people say that you know what wouldn't tell the truth say they think truth has no no i'm not going to disrupt anything like if you want an elected old

i think they'll do he returned to control the people and when i actually i think of a long time but i would be a very activist joe biden and i said oh i'm a smaller government i wonder when it falls apart and does it well then they'll perform a function in ways to alleviate the problems of those who have not had an odd abortion what you think the purpose of government is to provide legitimate services to people to have a piece about a mechanism by which a people character can be expressed in international affairs i think the purpose of government is to alleviate the inequities government but by joe also is weakened by themselves dc the presidency for example what's the purpose of the president

oh oh many faceted character as does an individual investors a nation that the major thing yesterday about is the relationship with it but when the president of the coalition and functional approach as relates to people and maybe that's a question church and panicked than a person that we need that i think the president of the un mission to serve a mission to a stroll and aggression in a very insensitive working with a coach strong independent and ronnie for change with mutual respect for change in oakland and women sixty for change only

congress is capable of leadership is the reflection of college she can't find a fabric that people leaving the show and that it wasn't a complete this country has only one person in this case in a dispute with her voice to the american people is only one person can set a standard of ethics morality excellent and greatness vocal member of the women's soccer league and producer marshall amps of difficult question posed in terrible programs for the revival of the vets often like that feel secure or unfortunately well that issue there is pollution and then to dredge so strong voter edge but an autocratic better known in europe and you know i think that day is over you just go go with a guarantee against it was to remove a tight secrecy that someone wanted her negotiations today we've had some

perfectly capable of meeting the study and that's been a call to a radio and attack in the last years you know of the presence of the constable not this is what happened now is at fault says so the people who were culpable we corrected it will happen again but though that freedom with the people and the absence of a need to cut approval and seventeen shapiro is an important protein characteristic impression and prevent another vietnam watergate you said once that you are strongly influenced by surman who's title laws you were arrested for being a christian would that be enough evidence to convict you what is the evidence that the rest of us can see a christian our i don't know that's our question as

little short simple there's no need to prove and the directness of people around me and god i was going through a stage and the lights in that was a very difficult when i ran for governor last and the idea of not gratify succeeded in southern pleasure to fail at something called reform and i thought i was a good christian chairman of the border because of the male brotherhood in all thirty four charges in that district of the finance committee on sunday schoolteacher <unk> a great question and one that richard gave a sermon out of a thing he says to have the title that you get is that if you arrest of individual of any evidence to convict him that's the other tenants are low was no

no henry minutes after they got by the christian belief of superficial this memorial pride for the people of those sentiments of and changed somewhat for the better on a much more intimate relationship with the night and since then i've had just about what the new life for patrons restoration of affinities with yourself and the minivan and off so do you remember writing that us submarine i believe a submarine in the north atlantic when you heard that president truman had dropped the atomic bomb on hiroshima nagasaki

sector the words saidi reporter fall come to the point of your default when you heard that when we were in full out of state the more crucible of that momentous day show notes gathered before the loudspeaker system showed we thought that we had invaded japan and why we're still mobile strategy is an estimate of how many people would be killed instantly general accepted figure among us as a half million americans who died as we capture japan invaded and with the volatile and president hollande that we had never heard this music to know about it and kind of a little bit but i felt at that time tremendous sense of relief that we had not indeed begun and patient

man and go get a million now and that will go a lot do you have the capacity to make that decision is up which i would tell you terry so much and why then it but i think i would have that question with the choice between the lesser of two evils and an opinion that would have jurisdiction openly in a similar circumstance than twenty years come on to ned who's a very well known writer for the same with the posters but that's the you know in the senate recently quoted in a ruthless business jimmy carter is a ruthless operator even as he wears a lot

of these places southern charm and the question that arises not been inside the white house and though some of the live influences that work a man trying to do the right thing can you be ruthless in the way i think he means it here and the christian actors a lot of oppression and how do you reconcile what you talk about the campaign i'm going to and i don't like that of the players begin that it tried to deal with live events and i said in the heat of competition that made them feel discomfort that i can work though most people when they get to know me think of a lot of the sentiment much trouble than is originally

the word refers to me has connotations of cruelty and i'm unsure the cruel comments that this wedding that i could be tough and making decisions of difficult and i meet tenacious under the circumstances you know at temptations to reach ideal of all i'm here to make compromises is one of the major criticisms are made by mr posner legislative never yet been less waste is elected governors and that's a common criticism about the company but that income was in the back room and income must begin with the coverage was despite the position of this is what our poses his reasons for this is that nester have noticed what we can accomplish if i were the most of the legislature tried to give him all the credit they could and in five of the last poll and i know as much able to get about a compromise with a double event

and that's a very legitimate social criticism only i'm not a good compromiser well i didn't say i don't enjoy yourself and undermine the restriction because of attitude i think what some people in this tale of talking about the unwillingness of but woodrow wilson to compromise on the league make sure the unwillingness of lyndon johnson to compromise on the war or richard nixon on the opposition the warren a feeling that that has the discipline principled man convicted of his own right these are having a private pipeline to god and since it's gonna say it right and the talent function because of his inability to talk about is other is a legitimate danger i don't believe so i could see that would be a legitimate concern but i think the concern will be proven to be unjustified and a right to be concerned but only in each of the identical allele

you gotten the theology of talent said that religion is a search for the relationship between us and god can be funny when i was there when we quit searching the fetid water a little self satisfied how sure at that point we lose the soul searching and humility subservience to god's will and understanding of other people's rage the mortgage to be accommodating and in that instance we lose our religion so that the villagers and they change doesn't know certainly that are forcing cities right they got ordained him to take a dominant position

on a lot of that later going into an alaska that just win the nomination a no now where ukrainian as kennedy will try and learn to do it that's like the meaningful an optimum way and if i win or lose i believe i can accept the decision with composure and without regret so the old animosities of age ritual or be disappointed in your own search for what he thinks is the truth about man's relationship to manage the god what's the most significant discovery jimmy carter well i think that it's got a super issue a while ago but an ally

pulling out worse and this is a version of talk about that first when the emotions hit with christ and kind of became a ball in the process to turn to accept a fee to get pleasure out of successes to be at peace with the world and when i began to cover the russian way they leapt seven a fetish of what i did this morning in erie pennsylvania to turn a lot of air about attempts are there when i shake hands with that distance that instant i really care about in a genuine way and i believe they know and what is quite often i will shake hands with them one were so warm and a touch of

what the government say publishers that relationship as people around the violence in a way that i'm better than other people are still a long way to go but she asked a difficult question what was a major discovery like that that's one thing you do the nfl you care about people why not be a pastor bishop an opera david and we have this impasse journey was to me a hard time about the politicians and disgraceful profession stay out of it and go i got angry that turned to analyze whether that i was a lot of the path of the church with eighty thousand members the sick over a thousand people in this incident that i'm a local

video presence is no at the after more than thirty million dollar general motors a lot of the religious voters when you have a chance to serve an investigation of me just a little bit of power to empower you have been searching for power for the last ten years you do georgia state senate and ran for years for the governorship two years for privacy do you really think so but as an unfulfilled all obsessive hunt no a real r horner announced curator know wealthier know until i know a lot of blessings and give me a good life has that one days well i like to have a chance to face internal why correct inequities is that the

sermon and to be a strong stroll and it attests commission port world will fall ok and now that that woman approaches one final question if we've learned anything last few years it has been that good intentions in the use of great power or no guarantee that the power be will be used wisely that the character of the man is less important to the safeguards against the abuse of power in the checks and balances on the office and on the park here jimmy carter's coming alongside going to always think that ultimately there aren't more power because i want to and trust me a lot of you are after that's why should someone

really they may trust you they may know that you're a sincere and well intentioned and yet they noticed that often changes that man and not the man who changed and that's why we need to have an open government and tell the truth and most interesting that the people no i'm actually parker played in the evolution of cancellation of a domestic and foreign policy that gives you a safety net under an incompetent or distorted president the people so and i think we do the people the truth about what you're saying jimmy carter's caribbean island off the truck you know check you will say you will say i don't get to the bottom of their coach for aggressive college strong aggressive supreme

court of strong aggressive president and what goes on in our governor's <unk> debated question control by the people of this country i can see their attention is partially or an accidentally the people that may have a rare occasion of people of qualities john kennedy did roosevelt did this so as a part of the president in that session president about a new government so much insane below cumulative in which case the people support of whoosh that official's motivation we will but it's clear the people completely as we have tended to do in recent years removed that commonsense judgment character safety the temperature of the country and it also destroyed the concept of the gun which did say the government to control by the people and not by top secret

hidden isolated state imposed i don't see that in this country and a city can grow and perhaps that will prevent a recurrence of the same defense can watch what you want for your children you get well i have to say that i had almost needed our show but other than i said look tell them i didn't travel much clout of the field control of unrest that were very precious days for me so i don't like this let's say that they are to have a much greater awareness of the world struck him ideal <unk> more about biology and science and history of politicians and foreign affairs and i did when i went off to college and it's because she has television she

greets customers because we educate a well and you know we would focus and co what we've learned for this generation has a chance to be better as for concern but also the loss of the source of that immaturity i think in a conversation i had a stability that they started going wrong i'm alive follow and the sisters and brothers and all the church was in the communities that need a change that has changed yet there was something that roe which of the polite well in the mine and they will it'll happen some level things to cling to a conspiracy view in fort wayne and though which one of those advantages and disadvantages is a greater i don't know i would trouble like with a new modern fast moving oakland monster too little feather light

rapping well but though which is they're so they would go back to sell those all hopeful that when you had to be lucky you on sunday at the same time keep the advantages of a lot of arguing we would think it does is above all a lot of those first was a gift to build it but they were still searching for we have to find people that the what do you mean that the young people you know what was your favorite that just him well amazing grace of amazing grace it's been

ms bee this program was produced by wu jie a washington and w n e t new york which is solely responsible for its content and was made possible by public television stations and by grants from the ford foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting in