Chuo-Koron: Should we avoid war at any cost? Or should we be prepared to fight when there is a danger of losing national sovereignty?
Mr. Carter: Well, my prominent career was in the US Navy as a submarine officer. I was prepared to give my life if necessary – if my country went to war. But I felt that to have a strong defence and a willingness to use it if necessary was the best prohibition or obstacle to go into war.
And so I think that it’s been one of the mistakes that the American government has made since the Second World War – that we have been involved almost constantly in military conflicts, most recently, obviously, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and earlier than that in Bosnia. I could name fifteen different places where we’ve been in armed conflict. Japan has not; China has not; Brazil has not; and so forth. But the US stays in military conflict or the threat of that.
So I believe that in almost every case, the wars have been avoidable without betraying the basic moral principles and privileges and well-being of the countries involved. I think we’ve had unnecessary wars. The Vietnam War, I think, was an unnecessary war; the invasion of Iraq was an unnecessary war; and so forth. So I think that we need to be more reluctant to go to war, and to go there only in desperate conditions when all avenues towards peace are exhausted, including good-faith discussions, either directly with our potential adversaries or through a trusted intermediary.
Chuo-Koron: It is often said: “The first casualty of war is truth.” (Hiram Warren Johnson) In the US, when we listen to news about a war, we know every American – to the last person – who died in the war. Yet, we don’t know how many were killed on the other side. Sometimes, the death toll may reach more than 100,000, and we still do not know about it. Don’t you think that there a lack of imagination here – an inability to acknowledge that the other side consists of human beings with equal human value and equally valuable stories to tell?
Mr. Carter: Yes. We dehumanise the people against whom we are fighting. We call all the Japanese “Japs”, we call the Germans “Huns”, we call the Italians “Wops”. And you know what we called the Vietnamese when we were at war with them: “Gook”, “Charlie”, etc. We tend to convince ourselves and to convince our fellow citizens that the people against whom we are fighting are no longer human – they’re not equal to us. This is contrary to basic moral principles. It’s contrary to my own religious beliefs. But it’s certainly something that lets us rationalise what we do.
Chuo-Koron: I’ve always wanted to ask.
President Reagan and Vice President George Bush, at the time, secretly negotiated with Ayatollah Khomeini to delay the release of the Iranian hostages for 72 days to prevent your re-election. When did you find that out?
Mr. Carter: [Large smile] I never have been willing to comment about that.
Well, I spent the last three days and nights as President… I never went to bed. I was negotiating all the details with Ayatollah Khomeini on how the hostages should be released. I had confiscated twelve billion dollars of Iranian money that I was holding.
At ten o’clock in the morning, when I was going out of office at noon, all the hostages were in an aeroplane ready to take off. But Ayatollah didn’t let it take off until five minutes after twelve o’clock when I was no longer President.he has been labelled a bad president but in reality he represented what we have claimed to be those who opposed well they are still around and obviously represent war mongering and saber waving and using foreign leaders to usurp the Pres.'s power to not engage in war. like Pres. Carter said they never shot or launched anything in anger so who makes a better Pres. the ones who keep us out of war or those who lie to us to create it?????????????????
and he is still more fluid and cognizant than any on the right 2016 wannabes at 90 yrs old God Bless him
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/26ii2s/why_is_jimmy_carter_considered_to_have_been_a_bad/
