It is fitting from time to time to salute prominent men who love God and in their finest moments seem to radiate Christ.

James Earl Carter, Jr. (Jimmy Carter) was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and became subsequently a submariner, a farmer, a county school board chairman, a Georgia State Senator and Georgia’s 76th Governor. From January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981 Carter was 39th President of the United States.

His Presidential accomplishments include the Panama Canal treaties, the
Camp David Accords with Israel and Egypt, the SALT II treaty with the USSR and deepened relations with the People's Republic of China. He has written 12 books. [as of 1999]

President Carter's path and my Foreign Service career crossed in
Bonn, Germany in July 1978. I was Embassy Commercial Attache and the
President made two consecutive official visits to the West German capital city.

First came a  bilateral America-Germany state visit. Next was a working Economic Summit of the Group of Seven (G7). The G7 principals were heads of state or government. Represented were Canada, West Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Also attending were the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission.

I recently described visits to Foreign Service posts by Congressional Delegations ("CODELs"). Congressional visits, however, are nothing  compared with overseas travel by a sitting President. Carter’s entourage at the 1978 Economic Summit, including the Secret Service and American media, occupied six entire hotels in and near Bonn. Ambassador Walter Stoessel and his wife moved out of their residence on the Rhine and turned it over to President and Mrs. Carter and their daughter Amy.

The Embassy had created two task forces for the President's visit. I served
on both. The bilateral State Visit came first. Initially, I was tentatively
assigned as "control officer" for 10 year old Amy Carter. But someone
decided that a female Foreign Service Officer would be more welcome to a
little girl. I was then reassigned to help the Agricultural Attache manage
the Embassy contribution to the "State Dinner" given by the President of
Germany in a stately palace in Bonn.

Amy Carter became an object of popular concern. German psychiatrists wrote columns  and preachers orated about Amy. Why were father and mother Carter doing this to their little girl? Could the dear child stand up to the pressure? Amy added to her legend during the Carters' official visit to the Mayor's office in downtown Bonn. Invited to sign "the Golden Book" of the City of Bonn, Amy added a cartoon of Mickey Mouse. A misunderstood translation from German at a Presidential press conference changed "How big an allowance do you give Amy?" to "How big a government subsidy does Amy receive?" A flustered Jimmy Carter labored to clarify that Amy's pocket money came from Jimmy and Rosalynn, not from the Treasury.

My role as assistant control officer for the state visit to the Federal
Republic of Germany was fairly undemanding. My reward was that, at the
black tie dinner, I was seated at table 141 with officers of the German
Foreign Office. I enjoyed watching the politicians of Germany and their
ladies, also Kurt Juergens and other film celebrities, enter the great hall.
President Carter mounted the ornate stairs hand in hand with Rosalynn. He
was clearly enchanted by the dazzling baroque ceilings. 

Two days later I was the Embassy's control officer for the G7 working dinner at Schloss Gymnich, an elegant hunting lodge some miles from Bonn. The G7 leaders, all male, dined informally in a chamber no bigger than many an Asheville living room. A day earlier, at Secret Service insistence, I had wormed the menu out of the German caterer. As the dinner broke up I entered the room. I noticed that Mr. Carter called the other leaders by their first names: Valerie, Jim, etc. In reply, however, they all called him Mr. President. 

Mr. Carter asked U.K. Prime Minister James Callaghan, 

"Jim, where are you staying?" 
"With my ambassador Mr. President." 
"I think that's near where I'm staying. Can I give you a ride, Jim." 
"Why, yes, thank you very much Mr. President."

I eased myself away from the distinguished gathering and made a bee line
for the Prime Minister's limousine. "Friends, I have news for you," I said.
"Your guy has hopped a ride with our guy." Mad scramble! The groups of
vehicles had been arranged in protocol order. Tires screeched as the
British cavalcade, security cars and all, broke out of line, and raced to
catch up with the Americans who had burned rubber and were heading for Bonn at well over 80 mph.

Over the intervening 20 years I have caught occsional glimpses of Jimmy Carter. I have seen a well balanced man always true to himself. There is a warm Carter spirit, a refusal to take himself too seriously. This is the modest man about whom cartoonists had a field day after a rabbit was photographed swimming toward his rowboat, allegedly in attack mode.

On his Presidential watch the news was not all good. Inflation soared. The
Shah of Iran was deposed. American hostages were not rescued.

In retirement Mr. Carter created the Carter Center in Atlanta. Its 200
full-time employees support a combined think tank and a miniature private 
State Department with worldwide operations. Jimmy Carter brokered peaceful transfer of power in Haiti. His own hands now construct houses for Habitat for Humanity. Jimmy Carter is even more successful and admired in retirement than when President.

Above all, Jimmy Carter has been a notably good human being, morally worthy of his high positions of trust. No father and mother worried when their young daughter worked in his Governor's office or his White House. His word was and is his bond. Jimmy Carter promised the American people, "I will never lie to you." I believe that he never did. 

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for Asheville TRIBUNE