Jimmy Carter

39th President of the United States (1977–1981). President Jimmy Carter was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office.

“26 minutes” - 11/15/2011

Transcript

The World War was still with me, like it was with John Kennedy who came almost a generation ahead of me. I was a Navy man, like he was. I served in the Navy 12 years. In fact, I served longer in the Navy than anyone except Dwight Eisenhower since the Civil War, in the military.

So I had a military background, and I could see a lot from that perspective. But it's hard for people in the modern day now, particularly young folks, to realize that we were still involved deeply in a Cold War. And every decision that I made, no matter where it was, every decision that the Congress made, every news story from a newspaper or television program was shaped substantially by our competition with the Soviet Union, who was then the dual superpower on earth, not being the only one.

But then, it was an equal competition. They had the same nuclear capability that we did. They had the same economic influence that we did. And in every country in Africa or Latin America or Asia, we were constantly competing with the Soviet Union for access there, who would be our trade partner, who would vote with us in the United Nations. So it was a competition everywhere.

So almost every decision I made was shaped by that competition with the Soviet Union. And the constant threat at that time over my head, like it was John Kennedy, was, ―Let's avoid a nuclear exchange. Because I knew that I might get a notice some day that the Soviet Union has launched intercontinental missiles toward the United States. From the time of launch in Siberia until they landed in Washington or New York was 26 minutes. And I would have had to decide during that 26 minutes how and when to respond.So that was a constant threat for me that doesn't exist anymore, thank goodness.