Jimmy Carter said what?

[tinanator]

In the case of Vietnam, Carter was hardly a strong critic of the American war, one that killed 2-3 million Vietnamese. As governor of Georgia, he responded to the 1971 sentencing of Lt. William Calley of My Lai massacre infamy by calling upon his fellow Georgians to "honor the flag" as Calley had done, and to leave their headlights on to show their support. As president, he explained in 1977 that that there was no need to dispense monies to Vietnam to repair damage caused by Washington's war of aggression --as stipulated by a secret protocol to the Paris Peace Treaty--nor even to apologize to the Vietnamese people as "the destruction was mutual."

http://www.etan.org/et2002c/december/08-14/11beyond.htm

[Zynx]

1. Jimmy Carter also made remarks about "ethnic purity" at one point.

He said a lot of things simply to appease southern voters.

[_Jumper_]

3. What did he say about that?

?

[Zynx]

5. My memory fails me on exactly what it was.

However, it was either busing or something else. Someone in an earlier thread said it wasn't busing, but he said something along the lines of "I wouldn't want to disturb the ethnic purity of those communities".

[_Jumper_]

6. When?

Was this before he was elected governor?

[JackSwift]

9. Context is everything and the statement was out of naivitee

if anything. He was speaking about Polish neighborhoods at the time, and they have a quaint culture all to their own, kinda like a Little Italy or a Chinatown. He was saying it would be a shame to wipe these out and replace them with plain old subburbia.

He was not using a coded message, and when he realized how it was misconstrued, he apologized. I am no big fan of the Carter presidency (although it was better than Reagan or either Bush), but I am a huge admirer of the man.

[snoochie]

2. I've heard him called

the beginning of the shift to the right for Dems.

Doesn't surprise me too much, really.

After JFK, most knew what the risk was for not 'playing ball'.

[blm]

4. In fairness to Carter, he lost most of his more conservative leanings

after leaving the White House. He governed as a centrist and that's where he had more than a few battles with the left wing of the Dem party.

[JohnKleeb]

7. He has changed since he left indeed

[Johnyawl]

8. Carter ran as a centerist, southern moderate in 1976

That's why I voted for him.

To the young people today, who only know Carter as an ex-President, I'm sure he seems very liberal. He wasn't that liberal then. Very much a moderate.

He's also the first President, in my lifetime anyway, who described himself as a "born again Christian".

[Johnyawl]

10. North Vietnam broke the Paris Peace Treaty in 1974...

...when they invaded South Vietnam. That's why the US never delivered on the foreign aid as specified.

[oasis]

11. The only thing wrong with Jimmy Carter is that there is only one of him.

period.