Body
There are a lot of fresh assessments of Jimmy Carter, as following his death people reflect on his service as the nation’s 39th president. For me, he was the fourth president under which I served—Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Several things, large and small, stand out in my memory about his time in office.
Presidents set the tone for the country. Carter rebelled against the imperial presidency. He famously got out of his limousine on the way back from his inauguration and walked with wife Rosalynn down Pennsylvania Avenue, not something two of his predecessors could have done without facing street protestors but emulated by a number of presidents since. The Internet is full of images of Carter carrying his own luggage on trips. He sold the presidential yacht (the USS Sequoia), although his predecessors had used it to good advantage as a setting in which to cajole members of Congress to move their legislative agendas.
These things did not affect me any more directly than anyone else, but other measures did. Perks that some of my predecessors had as a deputy trade representative were no more—a car and driver, a phone that instead of a dial tone was answered by live White House operators at all times who were skilled in tracking down anyone anywhere when needed, a grand office next door to the White House in what is now called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with a view of the ellipse, access to lunch at the White House mess staffed by US Navy personnel. So much for the trappings of office (although serendipitously I did command a Boeing 707, configured as Air Force One, for a return from an economic summit in Bonn, Germany).
What stands out particularly about his presidency is its moral tone. His example suffused the administration. America would keep its word. This was ingrained into Carter’s character on personal and official matters, as near as I can tell. It was an important part of what got him to the presidency—Johnson lost the trust of the American people over Vietnam, Nixon over Watergate, and Ford over pardoning Nixon. These acts tarnished their time in office. Carter set out to rehabilitate it.
Two examples were part of my own experience in the Carter administration. My job included coordinating US trade policy. In theory that was ultimately the responsibility of my boss, the US Trade Representative, but in practice his cabinet-level committee never met. An issue arose over whether the United States would require reciprocity from foreign governments for allowing their businesses access to government procurement. A few small countries had treaty rights with the United States that would, if honored, give them free access to lucrative US public purchasing without signing the then new government procurement code. A majority of the interagency committee that I chaired favored requiring these countries to pay up despite their prior agreements with the United States. After polling my committee, a clear majority favored calling on all to provide reciprocal market access. To the surprise of all, I said the State Department, which was opposed, would prevail. I told my colleagues that if the issue went to the president, he would surely decide in favor of America living up to its international obligations, however inconvenient they had become. There was no further discussion; all knew that an appeal to the president on this point would certainly fail.
One other vignette about Carter is worth retelling. A personally wealthy senior official in one of the Federal departments gave the president a newly developed Seiko digital watch that displayed numerous global time zones. Given the president’s Navy training as an engineer, he was sure to like it, and he could be seen wearing it the next day. The folly of the gift became clear when the donor, coming through a reception line at a White House event a short time thereafter, asked the president how he liked the watch. Later that day, the White House sent the watch over to my boss, Ambassador Robert Strauss, to give the watch back. As it turned out, the hapless official who gave it did not want it back. It sits in my dresser drawer a half century later, a memento of that time.
Jimmy Carter exuded personal integrity. This, at the time, clashed with the cynicism that still infects Washington, and ultimately may have worked against him politically, taken as a sign of weakness, but he was anything but. He backed every tough initiative we took to open foreign markets and gain fairer treatment for American exports.
Being remembered for personal integrity is not a bad contribution to the office of the president. Carved into the fireplace mantel of the State Dining Room of the White House is a quotation from a letter from John Adams: "I Pray Heaven to Bestow the Best of Blessings on THIS HOUSE and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof.”
Data Disclosure
This publication does not include a replication package.
