(36) Carter ― one of most respected ex-presidents

By Jay Kim

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States (1977-81), is known as a gentle man and a devout Christian. He was elected a year after the end of the Vietnam War, narrowly defeating Gerald Ford, who had been sullied by his pardon of Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandals.

However, he failed in his bid for reelection, losing by a large margin to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. People considered him incompetent and said he lacked leadership. I always thought that his biggest problem was his style. Americans don’t want to listen to sermons from their president. They want strong leadership, not a weak President who goes to church alone at dawn.

When he came into office, the first thing he did was grant amnesty to 10,000 people who had dodged the military draft for Vietnam. This was the beginning of his troubles. Next came his “Crisis of Confidence,” which perplexed Americans when he said “the erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of America.”

Americans wanted a strong speech in the vein of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “fear itself” speech during the Great Depression; their egos demanded a speech that told them that America was the strongest country in the world, Americans should be proud of it, and that failure would only lead to harder work. But Carter didn’t give them that, and it made them deeply disappointed.

I personally liked President Carter, mainly because we were both engineers. He graduated from Georgia Tech, and attended the Naval Academy, where he trained as a submarine engineer. When I was in Congress, 70 percent of the members were former lawyers, with almost no former engineers among them. When I met Carter in Georgia, I told him that I was one of the few congressmen who were engineers. He replied that he was probably the first president who was an engineer, and we shared a long laugh.

Three months after the “Crisis of Confidence” speech, on Nov. 4, 1979, 500 Iranians seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took the embassy staff of 90 as hostages. The U.S. Special Forces were sent to rescue them, but eight soldiers were killed in the rescue attempt, a dark day in American history. Americans lamented how their country had become so weak. Ronald Reagan, then-governor of California, took advantage by promising to strengthen national defense during his presidential campaign, which surely helped him to his comprehensive victory in 1980.

After that election, Carter was seen as an incompetent, failed president, a weak leader who had hurt the self-esteem of Americans. He had not only failed in his bid for a second term, but was said to be the least respected president in history. However, after his presidency his popularity steadily rose. This wasn’t because he continued to be involved in politics, but because he’d put all of his efforts into social services and human rights. In 2002, over two decades after he left the White House, his human rights activities led to the honor of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This has secured his reputation in history as one of the most respected former presidents.

It is sad to contrast Carter’s efforts with the fact that former presidents of Korea and their sons have gone to prison. I have never heard of a former U.S. president being imprisoned after his term in office, nor of a president’s son being jailed for corruption. The way our former presidents cannot wash their hands of politics and maintain that their policies should be continued, constantly bringing up their past achievements, makes it look like they’re struggling to revive their waning political influence. It is pitiful.

A few days ago, I read a newspaper article about how former President Kim Dae-jung encouraged the leaders of the opposition Democratic Party to strongly oppose the administration over a brutal police crackdown on residents protesting a reconstruction project in Yongsan, Seoul, in January 2009.

Criticizing the police operation that put down the protests, Kim said that the incident was the issue that could raise big hopes for the Democratic Party, depending on how hard they would fight over it. Why can’t former presidents like Kim stop meddling in politics and focus on an issue like social services for lonely seniors instead? If they work on this with their own resources, their reputations would shine brighter.

For example, as I understand that our country still sends orphans for adoption overseas, it would be a great project for a former president to hold a campaign for these children to be adopted and raised domestically instead. In America, there are tens of thousands of people adopted in Korea. The stories of successful mixed blood Koreans are trumpeted in the media as the pride of Korea, but the not so special ones receive no coverage.

How wonderful would it be if a former president took the lead in taking care of our poor orphans? I think the Nobel Peace Prize could even be possible if an ex-president works to represent and support Koreans who are adopted throughout the world.

Carter, 85, is still busy working to promote human rights all over the world.

Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Washington Korean-American Forum. For more information visit Kim’s website at www.jayckim.com.