Theyre imagining more field grains because theyve been importing them from Eastern Europe so the banking. Mr. Isaacson mrs. Carter . Mrs. Carter i wasnt there. President carter we were with the elders, the hasbeen politicians. [laughter] Nelson Mendela mandela was the founder. A former secretary general of the United Nations, kofi annan the former president of thailand, the former president of finland. Former president of mexico and former president of brazil and so forth. Thats our 11 members but also the chief negotiator for the United Nations for about 20 years, he was one trying to bring peace to the area. So we meet every six weeks or so and decide where we can go. We dont have to accommodate voters so we can pick and choose. Mr. Isaacson where did you go in the middle east on your last trip . President carter we went to the middle east, we went to gaza the Carter Center has had an office there. For several years. We still are working on bringing peace to israel. We are still working on that. Were trying to promote peace between israeli and palestinian factions. Mr. Isaacson do you think netanyahu wants a twostate solution . President carter no, i dont think he ever did. When he said he would accept a twostate solution, i didnt believe him and everything hes done has indicated he doesnt want twostate solution he doesnt want a palestinian state next to israel. I believe he wants to take over the entire west bank except for a few tiny spots hell leave for others. Mr. Isaacson you did the camp david accords, the last really major peace accord. What type of solution do you think is possible now . President carter the camp david accords have two different factors. One was to bring peace between israel and egypt that Peace Agreement, now more than 34 years old, has never been violated, not a single word has been violated in it. Theres still peace between israel and egypt. But the other half of the camp david accords and the one on which we worked hard was independence for the palestinians, and that part has not been honored. Thats what has always haunted my successors. I tried to bring peace to israel by working between the israelis and palestinians. We have pretty much given up on that. He does not want a twostate solution. Mr. Isaacson you also met with king solomon on this trip. What do you think of Americas Alliance with the saudis especially when it comes to bombing yemen and what did you all talk about . Or what did you find out about the bombing . President carter in saudi arabia and qatar and other countries in that region, i was able to meet with the new king there. We were supposed to meet with the new crown prince and then the king. The crown prince, we got through visits with him, instead of going to the kings office, we were escorted to our car and i got a message that said he wanted to see us but the next day. We found out on that night, the reason he couldnt meet with me is he was planning a very unfortunate decision to attack yemen. Since then saudi arabia has been bombing yemen which i think is a serious mistake. But i met with him the next day to talk to him about the issues that i had on my schedule. Mr. Isaacson mrs. Carter, when you go to a place like saudi arabia, what is your role and what do you see as your role for advocating for women in places like that . Mrs. Carter this time i didnt advocate for women. Mr. Isakson but you have before. Mrs. Carter i didnt this time with the king. But the main thing i worked on was Mental Health issues. I have fellowships, Mental Health fellowships for journalists, teaching them how to report on Mental Health issues, accurate and in depth. We have been doing this for 18 years now. I wanted to get journalists from aljazeera because they cover that whole area and the stigma there is so bad, theyve shut people up and dont let anybody know they have an mentally ill person. But theres a good program in qatar and so i do talk to, and advocate for women and care giving and those kinds of things but not with the king. I take notes. Walter ok. [laughter] mrs. Carter i get to see the top officials because i take notes. And i write down everything he says. President carter she also gives me instructions [laughter] walter yeah, i was reading this book, which was a total delight. But part of this, and i am going to ask mrs. Carter about this, you say the president writes in there, that when you came back from the navy and youre doing your business work in georgia, you left the decisions to the family, but in 1962 when he decided to get into politics a changed your relationship with mrs. Carter and she became much more a partner in making decisions. Is that right . [laughter] walter i want to fact check this book. Mrs. Carter i did not want to come home from the navy. By then i had become very independent. Because jimmy was gone all the time in the navy and i was taking care of everything. So, i became a total housewife for a few years. I have that for about a year. [laughter] mrs. Carter then jimmy called me and asked me one day to come down. He was the employer and had no employees, except seasonal. He would sell seed and fertilizer and in the fall we bought the produce from the farmers. So he did not have anybody to stay at the office while he went out to visit the farmers, so i came down. It got to be a habit. The children the schoolhouse is right across the street, the highway from our office and the children would come, the little boys would come over in the afternoon after school. But pretty soon after the first year or so, maybe not even that long, i knew more about the business and the books than he did. I could say, shut down the cornmeal. Were not making any money off of it. But anyway, we just developed this really Good Partnership that lasted for a long time. Walter how long has it lasted . Mrs. Carter we will have been married 69 years. Walter whoa. [applause] mrs. Carter in july. Walter what is the secret . I will tell you one secret i learned from this, you wrote a book together once. Mrs. Carter oh, that is the worst experience of my life. [laughter] mrs. Carter we have totally different writing styles. I am a night person. He is a morning person to start with. I like to write at night. He does not like for me to write at night. Thats not much of a problem. The problem was trying to remember what we did in the past its not possible. You can remember 95 and we would fight. We got so we could not mention it without me crying. [laughter] mrs. Carter and so, we started writing notes to each other through the process. Never and he said, it takes me a long time to write a chapter because i wanted to be just right. He can write one in an afternoon. And he wants to swap, so he sees mine and i see his, and i was like, i figured my chapter was i had gone up on mount sinai and came down with it in concrete words and i did not want him to change a word. And it was true. Walter that does mean a rough draft. Mrs. Carter could not do it. [laughter] president carter so we decided to agree upon the book. We had gotten a small advance, and we decided to give the advance back and cancel the book. Our editor came down on a plane and said, look, youve written 95 of the book. This other 5 is where you cannot agree. Let me resolve this for you. We said, ok. Half of these paragraphs are roses and she can write them and jimmy you cannot touch them and the other half are yours and rosa cannot edit them. So, if you read our book, a lot of paragraphs have an r by the side or a j. [laughter] president carter that is why we are still married today. [laughter] walter let me, if i may, take you back to World Affairs for a moment, which is your presidency is when the iranian revolution happened. And lets go back there, but also what is happening with the u. S. And iran right now. Right after the iranian revolution, you kept diplomatic relations, am i correct . But the hostages, that is who they were, the diplomats. You think the ayatollah wanted to have that rupture with the United States . President carter no, he didnt. I think he was completely surprised when the Young Students ill call them captured the u. S. Embassy. There were over 70 ambassadors there, diplomats. He had almost to the same amount in washington. After the Young Students were there about 2 or 3 occupying the embassy, the ayatollahs son went to the embassy and allied himself with the students and then and only then did the ayatollah endorse the taking of the hostages. I have never believed he originated it or was in favor of it. Walter do you think we could and should work to have restored relations with iran . President carter i do. The others visit, by the way. The others go where they want to. But the present negotiations i hope the present negotiations on the Nuclear Issue will be successful. Walter do you think that will take us back to the period in the 1970s where the iranian people are our strongest allies in the region . President carter i do not think the strongest. Walter cautious. President carter weve got a lot to work on, but one of the things putin said, almost to change the subject, he said, i have had two different sessions in russia this year, in january and april, with representatives from syria to try to resolve the syria issue. He said it has not been very fruitful. But what i think we should do is have the United States and russia sponsor a meeting with the top leaders in the region. Saudi arabia, iran, and turkey. If you get those five leaders together or the representatives, and we can decide together what to do about syria, and whatever we decide, aside and his Syrian Opposition will have to agree to it. I said, thats a wonderful idea. Have you made that proposal to president obama . He said, no, i havent. I said, do you mind if i make that proposal to him on your behalf . He said please do. So the next day i sent obama an email and told him that is what putin had asked in about a week later, you may remember that john kerry went to see putin to discuss that issue with him. I do not know what has happened since then. Walter what you think of john kerry as secretary of state . President carter i think he is one of the best secretaries of state we have ever had. I think he is outstanding. [applause] walter what about president success or failures on the world stage . How would you assess that . President carter on the world stage, i think they have been minimal. I think he has done some good things domestically. On the world stage to be as objective about it as i can, i cant think of many nations in the world where we have a better relationship now than when he took over. If you look at russia, england china, egypt. I am not saying it is his fault. But we have not improved a relationship with individual countries, and i would say the United States influence and prestige and respect in the world is probably lower now than it was six or seven years ago. And let me add let me repeat i do not blame him for it because circumstances have evolved. But i think john kerry has been a very courageous and innovative and dynamic secretary of state. As a matter of fact, when president obama was inaugurated, his second term, rosa and i went to the inauguration and john kerry came to our hotel room and spent two hours before the inauguration ceremony and john kerry outlined all of the things he planned to do as secretary of state. At that time, president obama had not even visited israel and one of the things he said he was going to ask, for obama to visit israel, which he did later on. He tried, i think, his best to bring about a Peace Agreement in the mideast and do other things that i need not mention. Walter to what extent though do you think it is partly obamas fault that he hasnt been able to establish relationships with other countries . President carter i think this may not be a good thing to say to a group of americans, but i think the historical trend is for the United States to relinquish its unquestioned domination of the worlds politics and economy and cultural influence. Walter is that a good or a bad thing . President carter i think it can be a good thing, because i think the socalled bric countries china is rising, russias going to come back, and other countries, like brazil, are increasing their influence, and india is increasing its influence, compared to what it was 10 years ago. I cannot say i could blame president obama for it. I think it is an inevitability. I think the thing for president obama and the next president is to say how can the United States fit in instead of promoting the elements of a superpower . What are the elements of a superpower . This may be preaching a little bit, but i think a superpower should not only be the top country as far as military power is concerned, which we are going to continue to be, but i think the american superpower goal should be to be a champion for peace. [applause] president carter and to be the champion of human rights. And to be the champion of the environment. And to be the most generous nation on earth. Those of the elements that i hope eventually the United States will set as goals. We have been the most warlike country on earth. We have been a laggard in addressing the problem of Global Warming and we are now violating about 10 of the 30 paragraphs in the universal declaration of human rights. So, you know, i think this is something that is looked upon as opportunities for the future. Walter the two of you came on this aspen trip that a lot of us took to the arctic. I want to turn to mrs. Carter your views, how they changed on the environment, that trip to the arctic, and also may be just what it is like traveling with president carter . [laughter] mrs. Carter i travel with him all the time. We go we have programs in 80 countries. 80 countries, the poorest and most isolated countries in the world. But that trip to the arctic was really special, i thought. We had on that ship, i think was what was it . National geographic . Yeah, it was national geographic. And everybody on the trip had to be an expert, had to Say Something about the environment. We heard the best people. Jimmys been working on Environmental Issues since he was governor of georgia, saving rivers and marshlands, things like that. So i think he has taught me pretty well a long time ago that we really needed to take care of the environment. Walter president carter, in this book, which i really do urge people to read, one of the things i didnt really quite know, although i did read hour before daylight, which is about your childhood and about growing up in a tiny, unincorporated town. You were one of only two white families and the only white kids in that town. Explain how your views on race were formed there, and then i would love to take you to this past week, where weve had another great confrontation on race. President carter well, youre right about this. There were about 55 africanamerican families and our family, and i was the only child of that age. And all of my playmates when i grew up were africanamerican, were black boys. And we played baseball together and fought and wrestled and went fishing and hunting and worked in the field together, so that was my life. It was during a time of racial segregation, which lasted 100 years in this country, as you know, from the 1860s to the 1960s. And i was very unaware of the racial distinctions, because we treated each other equally. Whoever was the best wrestler or caught the biggest fish or hit the baseball the best was the best for an hour or two. [laughter] president carter i didnt realize at the time that the africanamerican kids had inferior schools. They had to go to their own schools, their own churches. Black people were not permitted to vote. They were not permitted to serve on a jury, and so forth. But my opinion was distorted by the fact that the richest and most influential and respected person in archery was a black person, who was an africanamerican episcopal bishop. That was the same denomination as the church in charleston. He was in charge of the ame churches in five northern states. When Bishop Johnson came home to archery, it would be front page in the county paper that he would be visiting his home church on the weekend. He was rich. He had a black cadillac or a black packard all the time. He had a driver. He was a chauffeur. When he got ready to talk to my father, the custom was the black people didnt come to the front door of a white family. He wanted to abide by the mores of the south but not admit he was inferior in any way. So he would send his chauffeur down to our house to make sure my father was at home, then he would go back and get Bishop Johnson and drive up in our front yard and blow the horn and my daddy would go out and talk to Bishop Johnson in the car. So i look upon him as the most successful and admirable person in my life. But later, i began to see much more clearly about the distinctions. My mother was a registered nurse, and she was immune from criticism because of her treating black people as equals. After my father got a little farther along, my mother quit nursing in the hospital. She had nursed in africanamerican homes in archery. She was supposed to get paid 6 a day for 20hour duty. So, my sisters and i very seldom saw my mother during those times because she would come home at night at 10 00 and she would wash her uniforms and take a showerbath and write instructions for us for what to do the next day, and she would go back on duty at 2 00 in the morning. She was on duty 20 hours a day. And so she refused to admit in any way that africanamericans were not at least equal to white people. And so that, those kind of experiences really shaped my life for the future, i would say. Walter what happened in charleston last week involved three of the most controversial issues we have race, guns and Mental Health. I want to get mrs. Carter to address the Mental Health issues, but what was your reaction on how people reacted with regard to race and the guns issue . President carter on the race issue, i think there is no doubt that South C