The Inside Story: The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter | 178

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Tran­script:

The Inside Sto­ry: The Life & Lega­cy of Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter

Episode 178 — Jan­u­ary 9, 2025

 

Show Open:

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter: 

 

I Jim­my Carter do solemn­ly swear….

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH, VOA Correspondent: 

 

As the 39th pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States, Jim­my Carter promised a gov­ern­ment as good as its people. 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter: 

 

There can be no more ambi­tious tasks for Amer­i­ca to under­take on this day of a new begin­ning and to help shape a just and peace­ful world.

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

A peace­ful world he influ­enced more as a for­mer pres­i­dent and glob­al humanitarian.

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter: 

 

I would be per­fect­ly sat­is­fied to have a lega­cy based on peace and human rights. I mean, who wouldn’t?

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

The life and lega­cy of Jim­my Carter now on the inside story.

 

 

 

The Inside Story:

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Hel­lo and wel­come to the Inside Sto­ry… I’m VOA Cor­re­spon­dent Kane Farabaugh here in Plains, Geor­gia the home­town of the 39th Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States, Jim­my Carter.

 

Mourn­ers around the world are remem­ber­ing, and hon­or­ing Pres­i­dent Carter, who died Decem­ber 29th at the age of 100.

 

On Tues­day, the President’s horse drawn cas­ket made its way through Wash­ing­ton DC, arriv­ing at the U.S. Capi­tol where — in the high­est trib­ute pos­si­ble to an Amer­i­can cit­i­zen — the late Pres­i­dent lay in state in the Rotun­da of the US Cap­i­tal where thou­sands paid their respects.

 

From there, the for­mer President’s cas­ket trav­eled to the Nation­al Cathe­dral on Thurs­day for a memo­r­i­al ser­vice hon­or­ing Carter’s life and lega­cy.  All five liv­ing U.S. Pres­i­dents attend­ed the ceremonies.

 

 

 

 

Jason Carter, Jim­my Carter’s Grandson:

Essen­tial­ly, he erad­i­cat­ed a dis­ease with love and respect. He waged peace with love and respect. He led this nation with love and respect.

To me this life was a love sto­ry from the moment that he woke up, until he laid his head.

Con­clude with this, as Andy Young told me, He may be gone. But he’s not gone far.

 

 

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden: 

 

Jim­my Carter’s friend­ship taught me, and through his life, taught me, strength of char­ac­ter is more than title or the pow­er we hold. It’s the strength to under­stand that every­one should be treat­ed with dig­ni­ty, respect. You know, we have an oblig­a­tion to give hate no safe har­bor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the great­est sin of all, the abuse of power.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jim­my Carter lived the longest of any Pres­i­dent in U.S. his­to­ry.  He saw sev­en­teen dif­fer­ent Pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tions through which time the U.S. pop­u­la­tion tripled.

 

Though he served a sin­gle term in the White House from 1977 to 1981, it moti­vat­ed his life’s work as a glob­al human­i­tar­i­an as head of his post-pres­i­den­tial non-prof­it Carter Center.

 

When Jim­my Carter took the oath of office on Jan­u­ary 20, 1977, he promised a “gov­ern­ment as good as its people.

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 1977 Inau­gur­al Address: 

 

There can be no nobler nor more ambi­tious task for Amer­i­ca to under­take on this day of a new begin­ning than to help shape a just and peace­ful world.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

A world he con­tin­ued to shape beyond his sin­gle term in the White House,

becom­ing a Nobel Peace Prize lau­re­ate head­ing the glob­al non­prof­it, the Carter Cen­ter, whose mis­sion is “wag­ing peace, fight­ing dis­ease, and build­ing hope.”

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2007:

 

I look upon the Carter Cen­ter work as an exten­sion of what I tried to do as president.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter was born in Plains, Geor­gia in 1924. He grad­u­at­ed from the U.S. Naval Acad­e­my in 1946, serv­ing as a sub­ma­rine offi­cer before return­ing to Plains in 1953 to run the fam­i­ly farm in the wake of his father’s death.

 

Carter entered pol­i­tics dur­ing the civ­il rights move­ment of the 1960s, serv­ing two terms as a Geor­gia leg­is­la­tor before becom­ing the state’s gov­er­nor in 1971.

 

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, Inau­gur­al Address as Geor­gia Gov­er­nor, 1971:

 

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial dis­crim­i­na­tion is over.

 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter went from being an unknown south­ern Gov­er­nor in 1971 to the win­ning pres­i­den­tial can­di­date in 1976, nar­row­ly defeat­ing Repub­li­can Ger­ald Ford.

Medi­at­ing the 1979 Camp David Accords and the even­tu­al peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was the pin­na­cle of Carter’s presidency.

 

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2009:

 

When I became pres­i­dent, there had been four wars between Arabs and Israelis in the pre­vi­ous 25 years, with the Egyp­tians in the lead­er­ship sup­port­ed by the Sovi­et Union. They were the only coun­try that could real­ly chal­lenge Israel militarily.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter also nego­ti­at­ed a treaty return­ing con­trol of the Pana­ma Canal to Pana­ma and estab­lished full diplo­mat­ic ties with the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of China.

 

But the 1979 Islam­ic rev­o­lu­tion in Iran would change the course of his pres­i­den­cy. Protests led by Shi­ite cler­ics top­pled the U.S.-backed Shah, who fled the coun­try. Mil­i­tants lat­er stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, tak­ing 66 Amer­i­cans hostage. In late Novem­ber 13 hostages were released.

 

In April 1980, Carter autho­rized a mil­i­tary oper­a­tion to free the remain­ing hostages. It failed, and eight U.S. ser­vice­mem­bers died.

 

Carter also faced chal­lenges at home. Infla­tion and ris­ing unem­ploy­ment hob­bled the econ­o­my, con­tribut­ing to his 1980 elec­tion defeat to Repub­li­can Ronald Reagan.

On Jan­u­ary 20, 1981 – Reagan’s inau­gu­ra­tion day — Iran final­ly freed the Amer­i­can hostages. Carter, defeat­ed and depressed, returned to Plains to plan his pres­i­den­tial library.

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2007:

 

I envi­sioned it to be a tiny thing, where I would have an office and some nice build­ings in Atlanta.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

It became much more. A well-known glob­al non­prof­it, the Carter Cen­ter has mon­i­tored over 100 elec­tions and medi­at­ed dis­putes rang­ing from a nuclear stand­off with North Korea in 1994 to a peace agree­ment between Ugan­da and Sudan.

The Cen­ter also pro­motes health and fights ill­ness in the poor­est parts of the plan­et. Erad­i­cat­ing Guinea Worm dis­ease has been a pri­ma­ry goal.

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2009:

 

There’s only been one dis­ease in the his­to­ry of humankind ever erad­i­cat­ed, and that was small­pox, more than 30 years ago, so Guinea Worm is going to soon be the sec­ond dis­ease in his­to­ry, to be wiped off the face of the earth.

 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter’s work help­ing human­i­ty— led to Oslo, Nor­way in 2002 —where he accept­ed the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2007:

 

When I won the Nobel Peace Prize // it was because of the work of the Carter Cen­ter. So, I would be per­fect­ly sat­is­fied to have a lega­cy based on peace and human rights. I mean, who would not?

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter led an active life into his 90s, sur­viv­ing brain can­cer in 2015.

But declin­ing health kept him most­ly con­fined to his home­town of Plains in his final years. Jim­my Carter last appeared in pub­lic dur­ing funer­al ser­vices for his wife, Ros­alynn, in Novem­ber 2023.

 

In one of his last media inter­views, Carter shared with VOA his hopes for the future.

 

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, 2019:

 

I would like to see the Unit­ed States in the future strive to be the num­ber one cham­pi­on in the world of peace and human rights and envi­ron­men­tal qual­i­ty, and I would say treat­ing every­one equal. If we could do that, we would have a real super­pow­er in the coun­try I love very much.

 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter lived the longest of any occu­pant of the White House, and his mar­riage to wife Ros­alynn is the longest of any pres­i­dent and first lady.

 

Six days of offi­cial funer­al cer­e­monies mark­ing the life and lega­cy of the 39th Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States Jim­my Carter were an oppor­tu­ni­ty for his friends, fam­i­ly, and the pub­lic to say good­bye to the man who was more than just a for­mer President.

 

The sun ris­es over Plains, Geor­gia dif­fer­ent­ly these days for shop own­er Philip Kur­land, as he and oth­ers in this rur­al com­mu­ni­ty of about 700 peo­ple mourn the pass­ing of its most famous res­i­dent, Jim­my Carter.

 

 

 

 

Phillip Kur­land, Plains Trad­ing Post:

 

We were hop­ing we were going to be plan­ning his 101st birth­day, but the real­iza­tion is that he will be with Ros­alynn, he’ll be in a far bet­ter place, and he’s real­ly done as much as he can for the com­mu­ni­ty and the world at this point.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

While he was known by the code­name “Dea­con” to the Secret Ser­vice offi­cers who pro­tect­ed him for near­ly five decades through more than 140 dif­fer­ent coun­tries, Jim­my Carter is more than a for­mer pres­i­dent and human­i­tar­i­an to those who lived along­side him in the place he called home for a century.

 

As Carter’s hearse and motor­cade made its way through the town at the begin­ning of

six days of funer­al activ­i­ties, Kur­land reflect­ed on Carter’s per­son­al impact on him.

 

 

 

 

Phillip Kur­land, Plains Trad­ing Post:

 

There goes my hero.

 

 

 

Jill Stuck­ey, Jim­my Carter Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park:

 

It’s the begin­ning and the end.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jill Stuck­ey is a Carter fam­i­ly friend, and super­in­ten­dent of the Jim­my Carter Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park which includes his Depres­sion-era boy­hood farm out­side Plains, where the funer­al motor­cade paused on its jour­ney through Georgia.

 

 

 

Jil­ly Stuck­ey, Jim­my Carter Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park:

 

A pres­i­dent starts plan­ning their funer­al the day after they are elect­ed, so this has been planned for decades.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

A plan Stuck­ey and oth­ers are faith­ful­ly ful­fill­ing as Carter’s flag draped cof­fin made its way through Georgia.

 

Kim Fuller, Jim­my Carter’s Neice:

 

I haven’t griev­ed yet. I’ll prob­a­bly grieve when it’s all over.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Kim Fuller is Jim­my Carter’s niece – the daugh­ter of his well-known broth­er Bil­ly Carter. She’s also his neigh­bor in Plains and car­ries on his lega­cy at Maranatha Bap­tist Church where Carter taught Sun­day School lessons since leav­ing the White House in 1981.

 

While she admits the funer­al activ­i­ties are keep­ing her busy, there are dif­fi­cult moments of reflection.

 

 

 

Kim Fuller, Jim­my Carter’s Neice:

 

Some­thing kind of just flood­ed over me… we’re doing this because he’s dead… he’s gone… and I had to go out­side. So, there are moments when it hits me just overwhelmingly.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

As mem­bers of the U.S. mil­i­tary stand at atten­tion at Carter’s flag-draped cof­fin at the Carter Cen­ter in Atlanta, thou­sands of vis­i­tors like Atlanta res­i­dent Wal­ter Ram­sey have one final oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with Georgia’s only president.

 

 

 

Wal­ter Ram­sey, Atlanta Resident:

 

I wasn’t alive for his pres­i­den­cy, but this real­ly helps you feel like you know Jimmy.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

More than 22,000 peo­ple wait­ed in line to pay respects to Pres­i­dent Carter over two days at the Carter Cen­ter in Atlanta, Geor­gia, where  I also had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to offer my own good­bye to a man I came to know well.

 

As a cor­re­spon­dent for Voice of Amer­i­ca, I was for­tu­nate to get to know “Jim­my” per­son­al­ly, although I nev­er was able to call him by his first name.  For me, inter­view­ing Pres­i­dent Carter for the first time towards the begin­ning of my career in jour­nal­ism was also the start of a long rela­tion­ship that evolved into more than just one between a reporter and a for­mer President.

 

When we first met in 2006 dur­ing one of his book tours, I had not yet inter­viewed a for­mer pres­i­dent. I was ner­vous. Jim­my Carter, on the oth­er hand …

 

It’s not your first time, is it?

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2006:

 

No, it’s not the first time.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Over the course of near­ly two decades and dozens of one-on-one inter­views, Carter became more than just the sub­ject of my news reports. He became a friend to me and my fam­i­ly, and even spent time with my chil­dren, includ­ing my eldest son Lucas.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2015:

 

I want to shake hands with you … your father is one of my best friends. You like him too? Is he a good father or not?” 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

My desire to bet­ter under­stand the 39th pres­i­den­t’s life and lega­cy brought me to events and sym­po­siums around the coun­try orga­nized by the Carter Cen­ter, his glob­al non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion. I came to know a punc­tu­al man more inter­est­ed in con­crete results than the optics — or pol­i­tics — sur­round­ing them, a supreme­ly hum­ble and patient cit­i­zen of the world who made time for every­one who sought him out.

I also col­lect­ed and read books — those he wrote and those writ­ten about him — and I often vis­it­ed Plains, Geor­gia, to see him teach Sun­day school, and par­tic­i­pat­ed in events host­ed in his hometown. 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2014:

 

When I teach, Plains prospers!

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Ini­tial­ly, I didn’t know any­one in Plains except the for­mer pres­i­dent and his wife, for­mer first lady Ros­alynn Carter. But I was wel­comed like a neigh­bor by those close to him, and through the years forged friend­ships that endure today.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2018:

 

You see what my fam­i­ly was like.  Aren’t you all amazed that I became president!

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

My friend­ship with Carter led to host­ing pan­el dis­cus­sions and par­tic­i­pat­ing in town hall meet­ings, per­son­al din­ners, fish­ing trips, and book sign­ings across the country.

 

 

 

Kane Farabaugh, VOA Cor­re­spon­dent, 2017:

I saw the clip about releas­ing the sea tur­tles. That must have been excit­ing, right?

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2017:

 

I was there with my grand­chil­dren and great-grandchildren.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

But it was dur­ing our semi-reg­u­lar exclu­sive inter­views that cov­ered every­thing from neglect­ed trop­i­cal dis­eases to Mideast peace …

 

Leav­ing the White House seems to have been the best thing that could have hap­pened to you.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2007:

 

I didn’t think so at the time! But it’s turned out to be.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

That I came to under­stand what was impor­tant to Carter, and why.

 

You bring a voice and aware­ness to peo­ple that wouldn’t oth­er­wise have a voice.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2007:

 

That is an impor­tant part of the Carter Cen­ter is to bring pub­lic­i­ty the plight of peo­ple who would oth­er­wise be ignored.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Some might think my friend­ship with Carter would pre­vent me from report­ing on him objec­tive­ly; how­ev­er, I did not avoid dif­fi­cult or con­tro­ver­sial top­ics with him.

 

 

 

Kane Farabaugh, VOA Cor­re­spon­dent, 2008:

 

Their con­tention is that just by the fact that you vis­it with Hamas pro­vides legit­i­ma­cy to the way that they behave and they act.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2008:

 

First of all, my vis­it didn’t legit­imize or dele­git­imize anybody!

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

Our friend­ship also didn’t pre­vent me from cov­er­ing Carter’s dif­fi­cult moments … such as his 2015 announce­ment he was deal­ing with life-threat­en­ing cancer.

 

What has been the most dif­fi­cult part about the news for you?

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2015:

 

The liv­er surgery was fair­ly exten­sive. They removed about one-tenth of my liv­er, I understand.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Pres­i­dent Carter sur­vived his bat­tle with can­cer but suf­fered fur­ther health set­backs. Despite falling and frac­tur­ing his hip in 2019, Carter did not can­cel our inter­view ahead of his 95th birthday. 

 

 

((NAT SOUND, Pres­i­dent Carter)) ((2019))

 

Hi, Kane!

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Good morn­ing, Pres­i­dent Carter. How are you?

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2019:

 

I’m fine.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

It’s so good to see you.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2019: 

 

You look snazzy this morning.

 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Well, not as good as you.

 

In 2011, Pres­i­dent Carter’s son Jeff wrote a book doc­u­ment­ing the ances­try of his par­ents. While read­ing it, I dis­cov­ered I had an even stronger con­nec­tion to Pres­i­dent Carter. We are relat­ed through my 11th great-grand­par­ents, some of the ear­ly set­tlers of Rhode Island, and Jim­my Carter was my ninth cousin three times removed.

 

But beyond an ances­tral con­nec­tion, while he is remem­bered as a peanut farmer, sub­mariner, gov­er­nor, artist, fish­er­man, Nobel Peace Prize recip­i­ent, car­pen­ter, glob­al human­i­tar­i­an, and …

 

He’s often referred to as the ‘great­est ex-president?’

 

 

 

Ros­alynn Carter, For­mer First Lady, 2014:

 

Yeah, and I don’t like that.  He was a great Pres­i­dent.  Peo­ple are find­ing it out.”

 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jim­my Carter will always be to me, the great­est man I have ever met and will ever have the good for­tune to call my friend.

 

Thanks for giv­ing us so much time.

 

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer President:

 

It’s a plea­sure. It’s always a plea­sure to be with you, Kane.

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

We always wel­come the chance to talk to you, Pres­i­dent Carter.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer Pres­i­dent, 2015:

 

I always like to be with you. You ask some very good ques­tions, and I enjoy being with you, thank you very much.

 

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer President:

 

Kane, it’s always good to be with you.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

It’s good to be with you, too, Pres­i­dent Carter.

 

Jim­my Carter and his wife Ros­alynn had the longest post White House life of any Pres­i­den­tial cou­ple.  They spent more than 4 decades work­ing for the Carter Cen­ter and oth­er caus­es like Habi­tat for Human­i­ty.  Vol­un­teers and sup­port­ers con­nect­ed to their many efforts say they leave a last­ing legacy.

 

Vol­un­teers and sup­port­ers con­nect­ed to for­mer Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter’s phil­an­thropic efforts in his long post-pres­i­den­cy mourn his pass­ing.  VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more.

 

Suzanne Tay­lor from Buf­fa­lo, New York, admits … she isn’t handy.

 

 

 

 

Suzanne Tay­lor, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty Volunteer:

 

I have no build­ing skills. I’m ter­ri­fied of flying.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

But when she went online to donate mon­ey to help Habi­tat for Humanity’s recov­ery efforts after the 2005 Kash­mir earth­quake in Pak­istan, some­thing caught her attention.

 

 

 

Suzanne Tay­lor, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty Volunteer:

 

And the ban­ner ad said now accept­ing appli­ca­tions for what was then the Jim­my Carter work project in India, and it struck me like a bolt of light­ning. That was what I was sup­posed to do next.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Tay­lor vol­un­teered with Habi­tat for Human­i­ty to build hous­es along­side Jim­my Carter in India in 2006.  She par­tic­i­pat­ed in a dozen more build­ing projects host­ed by the for­mer pres­i­dent and his wife, Ros­alynn, around the globe.

 

 

 

Suzanne Tay­lor, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty Volunteer:

 

So, if you ask me if it’s because of the Carters, that is the ONLY rea­son I got involved.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

The Carters spent a week each year build­ing hous­es for Habi­tat for Human­i­ty. The oth­er 51 weeks were spent in the ser­vice of their non­prof­it Carter Cen­ter, which “fights dis­ease, builds hope, and wages peace” through­out the world ((end cour­tesy)) … some­thing Chris Jones of Port­land, Ore­gon, didn’t know when he was look­ing for an orga­ni­za­tion to donate mon­ey to. Jones and his wife, Barb, were impressed by the center’s finan­cial management.

 

 

 

Chris Jones, Carter Cen­ter Volunteer:

 

It turns out, I didn’t know this at the time, but Jim­my Carter is quite the pen­ny pinch­er, and he kept a close eye on how funds were spent.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jones not only sent mon­ey to the Carter Cen­ter over the years but also par­tic­i­pat­ed in one of its key democ­ra­cy pro­grams – elec­tion monitoring.

 

 

 

Chris Jones, Carter Cen­ter Volunteer:

 

There was the Tunisian Arab Spring elec­tions in 2014, and I got the call say­ing, ‘Hey can you be in Tunisia for the next cou­ple of weeks for this mis­sion,’ and I jumped at the chance.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jones lat­er joined the center’s elec­tion mon­i­tor­ing mis­sion in Liberia in 2017. He’s grate­ful that the Carters’ glob­al human­i­tar­i­an work offered him an oppor­tu­ni­ty that tran­scend­ed finan­cial sup­port. He says his elec­tion mon­i­tor­ing work was “trans­for­ma­tive.”

 

 

 

Chris Jones, Carter Cen­ter Volunteer:

 

Mon­i­tor­ing polling sta­tions, watch­ing the count­ing of bal­lots real­ly gave me an appre­ci­a­tion of how the demo­c­ra­t­ic process works in these countries.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Jones says Jim­my Carter would wel­come being remem­bered more for what he did beyond his years in the White House.

 

 

 

Chris Jones, Carter Cen­ter Volunteer:

 

I think his proud­est accom­plish­ment was the Carter Cen­ter, and I real­ly want the world to remem­ber how trans­for­ma­tive he was, and how much good he’s accomplished.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Suzanne Tay­lor plans to con­tin­ue vol­un­teer­ing with Habi­tat for Human­i­ty and the Carter Cen­ter. She says among the great­est trib­utes to the Carters are the many sup­port­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing today — and in the future — who have nev­er met either Jim­my or Ros­alynn Carter in person.

 

 

 

Suzanne Tay­lor, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty Volunteer:

 

There are new peo­ple com­ing on board as donors and fol­low­ers and builders.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

The Carter Cen­ter has mon­i­tored more than 100 elec­tions and con­tin­ues to fight neglect­ed trop­i­cal dis­eases glob­al­ly. The par­a­sitic Guinea worm, which once infect­ed more than 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple, is down to few­er than 20 cas­es.  The com­plete erad­i­ca­tion of the dis­ease was one of Jim­my Carter’s sig­na­ture efforts with the Carter Center.

 

For­mer Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter lived long enough to enjoy a reeval­u­a­tion of his accom­plish­ments… and fail­ures… as a one-term U.S. pres­i­dent, a top­ic we explored ear­li­er this year when he cel­e­brat­ed his his­to­ry 100th birth­day Octo­ber 1st. 

 

When he returned to Plains, Geor­gia, in 1981, for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter was defeat­ed — reject­ed by vot­ers in a land­slide elec­tion to Repub­li­can Ronald Rea­gan. The rain at Carter’s wel­come home recep­tion reflect­ed his gloomy mood.

 

 

 

Jonathan Alter, Author and Historian:

 

In office, he was a polit­i­cal fail­ure. He lost over­whelm­ing­ly to Ronald Rea­gan. But he was a sub­stan­tive and vision­ary success.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Author and his­to­ri­an Jonathan Alter rec­og­nizes what many know Carter for today –human­i­tar­i­an work with his Carter Cen­ter “wag­ing peace, fight­ing dis­ease, and build­ing hope” around the world that led to the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

 

Jonathan Alter, Author and Historian:

 

He’s done ter­rif­ic work super­vis­ing elec­tions in more than 100 coun­tries. But for­mer pres­i­dents don’t have as much pow­er as pres­i­dents, not near­ly as much, and the list of his accom­plish­ments as pres­i­dent that were ignored, min­i­mized, or for­got­ten entire­ly was very long.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

The Iran hostage cri­sis, ris­ing infla­tion and oil embar­goes of the 1970s

doomed Carter’s White House tenure, cast­ing a long shad­ow over his legacy.

 

How­ev­er, Alter’s Jim­my Carter biog­ra­phy, “His Very Best,” is among sev­er­al that con­clude his four years in the White House were any­thing but a failure.

 

 

 

Jonathan Alter, Author and Historian:

 

Not just famous­ly Camp David accords and open­ing rela­tions with Chi­na, but a long string of leg­isla­tive accom­plish­ments on the envi­ron­ment and many oth­er issues.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Carter signed the 1980 Alas­ka Nation­al Inter­est Lands Con­ser­va­tion Act pro­tect­ing more than 40.5 mil­lion hectares, which Alter says is now con­sid­ered one of the most impor­tant pieces of envi­ron­men­tal leg­is­la­tion ever passed.

 

 

 

Joseph Crespino, Emory University:

 

I think we’ll remem­ber Pres­i­dent Carter as a pres­i­dent who served in very enor­mous­ly dif­fi­cult times, who had to deal with cir­cum­stances that were far beyond his control.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Joe Crespino, the Jim­my Carter pro­fes­sor of his­to­ry at Emory Uni­ver­si­ty, says Carter rou­tine­ly met with his stu­dents in Atlanta to dis­cuss the good and bad deci­sions he made while president.

 

 

 

Joseph Crespino, Emory University:

Putting human rights front and cen­ter in Amer­i­can for­eign pol­i­cy. No pres­i­dent had done that in the way that Jim­my Carter had. And it was impor­tant in shift­ing the bal­ance of pow­er in the Cold War.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Crespino says some of Carter’s over­looked domes­tic accom­plish­ments include re-orga­niz­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and de-reg­u­lat­ing the air­line, truck­ing and beer industries.

 

 

 

Joseph Crespino, Emory University:

 

We often­times asso­ciate a kind of free­ing up of the free enter­prise econ­o­my with the con­ser­v­a­tive turn that came in with Ronald Rea­gan, when in fact Jim­my Carter before Rea­gan was already doing a lot of dereg­u­la­to­ry work.

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

 

Mem­bers of Carter’s Cab­i­net, includ­ing for­mer Unit­ed Nations Ambas­sador Andrew Young, are grate­ful Carter lived long enough to wit­ness kinder inter­pre­ta­tions of his legacy.

 

 

 

Andrew Young, UN Ambas­sador Under Carter:

 

There’s no place in the world I know where peo­ple don’t have some good things to say about him, whether he suc­ceed­ed or not.

 

 

 KANE FARABAUGH:

 

 

 

The world con­tin­ues to ben­e­fit from the Carter Center’s work fight­ing dis­eases like Guinea worm, which is down to a few cas­es in Africa and could become only the sec­ond dis­ease ever eradicated.

 

As we near the end of the pro­gram, we want­ed to invite you to take a jour­ney back with us to 2014, to  show you what it was like to vis­it Plains, Geor­gia when Pres­i­dent Carter was still very much a pres­ence, and a dri­ving force for tourism and the local econ­o­my in his hometown.

U.S. Army Sergeant Sud­hir Shrestha is a long way from his home country.

 

Sud­hir Shrestha, Sergeant, Us Army:

I came here from Nepal.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

On a steamy Sun­day morn­ing some thir­teen thou­sand kilo­me­ters from his birth­place, this immi­grant from a pre­dom­i­nate­ly Hin­du nation is among hun­dreds wait­ing in line to enter a Protes­tant church in a remote part of the south­ern U.S. state of Georgia.

This isn’t unusu­al in the small town of Plains.

 

((Nat­ur­al Sound Jan Williams))

Those of us here in this sanc­tu­ary are going to put our hands togeth­er and thank this sol­dier for his service.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

Jan Williams is a mem­ber of Maranatha Bap­tist Church, which might not be the largest of the eight church­es in this town of 766 peo­ple, but it is one of the biggest tourist attrac­tions.  Sergeant Shrestha was well aware of this before visiting.

 

Sud­hir Shrestha, Sergeant, Us Army:

It’s real­ly reward­ing.  A life-chang­ing expe­ri­ence. A once in a life­time opportunity.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

Maranatha is more than just a church.  It is a forum for live his­to­ry, and a mon­ey-mak­er for the local econ­o­my.  The rea­son: Maranatha’s res­i­dent Sun­day School teacher also hap­pens to be a for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer President:

When I teach, Plains prospers.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

There are about 150 mem­bers on the books here at Maranatha Bap­tist Church, about 25 to 30 of them can be seen here on any giv­en Sun­day.  But on weeks when Pres­i­dent Carter is sched­uled to teach Sun­day school, it’s hard to find an emp­ty pew here in the church.

 

 

Jim­my Carter, For­mer President:

A lot of those peo­ple tell me they’ve nev­er been in a church before in their life and they just come to hear a politi­cian teach the Bible.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

Jim­my Carter’s faith is a cen­tral part of his life, both before he entered the White House in 1977 and after he left.  He has taught some form of Sun­day school since the age of 18.  Now 90, his class­room is as big as ever, and more diverse.

Jan Williams says what they get is more than just a recita­tion of bible verses.

 

Jan Williams, Maranatha Bap­tist Church:

You get an up-to-date his­to­ry les­son some­times. I had nev­er heard of the ISIS until one of his Sun­day school lessons and maybe what action the Unit­ed States should take.

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH:

Though he has trav­eled to more than 140 coun­tries and con­tin­ues to lead an active life as head of the Carter Cen­ter, Jim­my Carter still lives in the same small town where he was born 90 years ago.  Vis­i­tors to Plains not only have a chance to see the place that shaped the man, but the man himself.

 

Sud­hir Shrestha, Sergeant, US Army:

I just want­ed to the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see him in per­son, not just watch him on TV or read his writ­ings or lis­ten to the news, but actu­al­ly get a chance to see what he has to say in person.

 

KANE FARABAUGH:        

When Sergeant Shrestha vis­its friends and fam­i­ly in Nepal, he’ll have more than just a post­card or sou­venir to help illus­trate his vis­it to Plains.  He now has a pho­to­graph of him­self stand­ing next to the for­mer Com­man­der-in-Chief of the Unit­ed States, in the one place in the world where such a moment is possible.

Thanks for join­ing us for this episode of The Inside Story.

For the lat­est news you can log on to VOA news dot com.

 

Fol­low us on Insta­gram and Face­book at VOA News. 

 

Also catch up on past episodes at our free stream­ing ser­vice, VOA Plus. 

  

I’m Kane Farabaugh. We will see you next week, for The Inside Story. 

 

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