(35 of 35)
On Brother Billy. The issue of Billy and his work for the Libyans hurt me. Billy is exceptionally independent. He has a mind of his own. If I had told Billy, "Don't ever talk to the Libyans any more," he would have said, "Jimmy, you go straight to hell. I'll talk to whom I choose. You're not my boss." He would then have proved to me publicly, as Menachem Begin does so well in dealing with the President, that he cannot be told what to do. Billy said the extent of my defeat could not have all been attributable to him. I agree. At the most, it may have cost me one or two percentage points.
On the Democratic Party's future. An approach that would be successful for the Democrats would be a combination of fiscal responsibility and conservatism on one hand and an allocation of priorities to help people develop their own capabilities through education, employment and equal rights on the other. The Democrats could help themselves by unequivocally espousing environmental quality, peace, nuclear-arms control and human rights.
I do not think an ultraliberal on fiscal policy, a person who wants to reinstitute federal regulation of private industry or go back to an overemphasis on social giveaway programs, is going to win.
On other Democrats. In addition to Fritz Mondale, I like John Glenn very much. He is one Democrat along with Mondale who could carry our party to victory in 1984. Gary Hart and Reubin Askew also meet my criteria for potentially successful candidates. Any of these would have an excellent chance to win.
On history's verdict. I will be remembered as an incumbent President who was defeated for reelection. There will always be a thought in the minds of historians that the American people made an accurate judgment. I hope people will say that one of the the reasons he was not re-elected is that he addressed difficult issues; that he did not yield to political expediency; that his basic principles were sound; and that he was effective in some of the major tasks he undertook—energy, arms control, Alaska lands, the Panama Canal, the Middle East, China relations. I hope history will deal kindly with me. But I am at peace with the knowledge I did the best I could.
Next Week
"I listened to every proposal, no matter how preposterous, including dropping an atomic bomb on Tehran," writes Jimmy Carter of his most frustrating experience as President: trying to free the American hostages from Iran. In the concluding TIME excerpt from Keeping Faith, Carter tells of the fallen Shah's fateful visit to the U.S., the seizure of the Americans on a day "I will never forget," the tragic failure of the rescue mission in the desert and the 444-day ordeal that ended in freedom for the hostages. Carter also tells of those achievements for which he expects historians to give him greater credit than did the U.S. voters who rejected him in 1980: his human rights policy; the treaty yielding control of the Panama Canal; and his efforts to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.