Voice of America :
VOA Correspondent Kane Farabaugh conducted numerous interviews with Jimmy Carter on issues ranging from his time in the White House to his post-presidential career as a promoter of global health and democracy. Highlights of those interviews are contained in this report.
A state funeral will be held January 9 for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who died Sunday at the age of 100.
U.S. President Joe Biden scheduled the state funeral for Carter to be held the same day as National Day of Mourning. Biden has also directed flags at public buildings to be displayed at half-staff for 30 days in honor of Carter.
Carter was a peanut farmer and a Georgia state governor before becoming president. When he took the oath of office as president of the United States on January 20, 1977, he promised a “government as good as its people.”
He presided over four turbulent years. Rising inflation and growing unemployment marred the domestic priorities of his administration. He scored victories in foreign policy with a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and the Panama Canal treaty. However, a hostage crisis in Iran dominated his final years in the White House and contributed to his defeat in the 1980 general election.
But Carter liked to say the end of his presidency in 1981 was the beginning of a new life, traveling the world “fighting disease, building hope, and waging peace.”
“It has turned out to open up for me and my wife, Rosalynn, a new arena of excitement and unpredictability and adventure and challenge and gratification,” he told VOA.
As the head of the Carter Center, the Carters traveled to more than 80 countries monitoring troubled elections, mediating disputes, and fighting diseases. This active post-White House life eventually led to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
“I look upon the Carter Center work as an extension of what I tried to do as president. You know, we brought peace between Israel and Egypt. We opened up a humongous relationship with Latin America with the Panama Canal treaty,” he said. “So what I have done since then has been kind of an extension. But I do not think there is any doubt that when I won the Nobel Peace Prize, for instance, 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?”
“President Carter will be remembered for his solidarity with the vulnerable, his abiding grace, and his unrelenting faith in the common good and our common humanity,” Guterres said in a statement. “His legacy as a peacemaker, human rights champion and humanitarian will endure.”
The White House released a statement from President Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Sunday. It said, “Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well.”
President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Carter’s journey to the White House began in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he was born October 1, 1924.
After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where he helped develop the post-World War II nuclear submarine fleet, Carter returned to his hometown in 1953 to run the family peanut-farming business.
