Transcripts

DAN OLSON: The 51-year-old Carter says his most formidable opponents for the presidential nomination are Senator Edward Kennedy and George Wallace. Carter says Kennedy probably won't run. So he's devoting more attention to Wallace. He says the former Alabama governor is trying to appeal to voters by generally criticizing the bureaucracy and dishonesty of big government along with calling for lower taxes.

But Carter says that Wallace has never spoken to specific issues and that Wallace has an unacceptable record as a public official on issues of race relations and human justice. Carter denied that his campaign is being used by the Democratic party to offset the votes that Wallace may take from the party.

JIMMY CARTER: I don't have any relationship with any so-called pawnbrokers or pawn manipulators in the Democratic Party. I don't even know who they would be. I think that Chairman Strauss, for instance, has bent over backwards to assure the people of this country, and to assure Governor Wallace if he needs any assurance, that he'll be treated just like any other candidate.

It's obviously very helpful to Wallace to be able to cast himself in the role of a martyr and to say, everybody is trying to hurt me, or here I am, a lonely candidate just depending on the people to sustain my strength in the face of all these adversities. But I think almost everyone, including very liberal people like Gary Hart even recently, have gone out of their way to show Wallace that there is no plot against him.

I'm not trying to run as an anti-Wallace candidate or as a sectional candidate. If I was, I wouldn't be in Minnesota. And I wouldn't have been in Wisconsin yesterday. I wouldn't have been in Illinois the day before, Missouri the day before that. I'm campaigning all over the nation with an all-out effort to show the people that I am a worthy candidate and to let them know my strengths and weaknesses, my stands on issues. So I'm perfectly willing to meet whoever runs.

DAN OLSON: Carter's campaign literature says that his beginnings as a farmer give him an appreciation for hard work and honesty. And in person, Carter cultivates the personal approach. He shakes the hand of everyone in a room, asking their name, where they're from.

He says he will campaign for 250 days this year, five days a week, and will visit every state in the Union. By the end of the year, Carter predicts he will have contributions of $5,000 from each of 20 states, enough to qualify him for federal presidential campaign funds. Contributions so far total over $350,000 towards Cotter's goal of 750,000.

During the press conference, Carter was most specific about his feelings towards this country's foreign policy and the work of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He said that Kissinger has carried the burden of both president and Secretary of State because, as Carter put it, President Ford hasn't taken an interest in foreign affairs to amount to anything. Nevertheless, Kissinger does not meet with Carter's approval.

JIMMY CARTER: I think he is much too inclined to conduct our foreign policy in its evolutionary stages and its consummation stages in secret. He's excluded not only the American people from an awareness of foreign policy issues and decisions, but he's also attempted to exclude Congress. And I think in some instances, he's possibly kept the president even at arm's length about some of the things he's done.

I think that Secretary Kissinger is too much inclined to want to get militarily involved in the internal affairs of other nations. He's been a very combative kind of Secretary of State, which I personally would not desire. He's put too much emphasis, in my opinion, on highly publicized efforts to assuage the feelings of our adversaries or potential adversaries to the exclusion of our natural friends in Canada, Mexico, South and Central America, and Europe.

DAN OLSON: Carter said this country's foreign policy reached a low point during the last six years due to the poor diplomatic appointments by former President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger.

JIMMY CARTER: I've traveled extensively in the Middle East, Far East, South and Central America, and Europe in the last two years. And quite often, the qualifications of our ambassadors are an insult to the American people.

They sit there, fat, bloated, heavy contributors to Nixon's campaign, not being able to speak the language of the countries that they are in, knowing very little about our own nation's purposes or ideals or aspirations or character, and are an obstacle rather than an asset in the effectuation of our foreign policy. And I personally hold Kissinger partially responsible for this sort of appointment quality.

The qualities of our ambassadorial appointments has deteriorated substantially. They have always been appointments made of major political figures. But I think, for instance, the last time I was in Europe, out of 33 diplomats who were in top posts, only three had any previous diplomatic experience or any acknowledged or detectable interest in foreign affairs. The rest of were just political payoffs. I think this was an abysmal low in the record of our nation in this very crucial aspect of foreign affairs.

DAN OLSON: That was Jimmy Carter, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, talking with reporters during his day-long visit to Minnesota. I'm Dan Olson.