As a young man in the 1960s moving up the ranks in journalism and a student of politics in Macon, Georgia, retired CNN President and CEO Tom Johnson kept a close watch on the Georgia state senator and later governor Jimmy Carter.
Then, in his 20s, Johnson was starting his career as a reporter at his hometown newspaper. He quickly realized Carter, a former World War II naval submarine officer and peanut farmer whose political base was 80 miles south of Macon, would make an impact.
Carter, who died Sunday at 100, was climbing the political ladder from his base and beloved hometown of Plains, Georgia, pushing for racial reconciliation in the Deep South, which was still segregated at the time.
“I got to know Jimmy Carter very well when I was a young reporter in Georgia at the Macon Telegraph,” Johnson told WTOP.
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“He always strived to leave things better than the way he found them, and that was very true during his battles against segregation, where he grew up in the small town of Plains. He formed friendships with Ambassador Andrew Young, people like Dr. King, and others. He was a leader in the legislature, governor and beyond, to do all he could to try and overcome so many of the racial barriers erected.”
Once sworn in as governor in 1971, Carter declared in his inaugural address that “the time of racial discrimination is over.”
During his time in the White House from January 1977 to January 1981, many presidential historians point to the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the 444 days that Iranian militants held 52 American diplomats, military personnel and others in 1979, 1980 and early 1981 as a turning point in the Carter presidency.
Johnson said while that period in American foreign policy was controversial and still caused long-term foreign policy problems for both nations, Carter should be credited with ultimately getting the Americans home alive.
“His four years in the White House were very strongly affected by the capture of the hostages and them being held by the Ayatollah until the day President Carter left office. It had a dramatic impact on him,” Johnson said. “Thankfully, the lives of the hostages were saved. He showed great courage to find ways to get them released.”
Johnson pointed out that 45 years after leaving office, Carter’s legacy is still felt by the long-standing Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Peace Accord.
“Jimmy Carter was a very consequential president. He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner,” Johnson said.
Once he left the White House, Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter toured the world, monitoring elections, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, negotiating agreements and creating the Carter Center in Atlanta to promote world peace.
During much of Carter’s life post-presidency, Johnson led several media organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, before moving back to his home state of Georgia in the early 1990s, when he became the president and CEO of CNN. The two Georgia natives reconnected and reestablished their friendship that had begun decades earlier.
“He took our international editor Eason Jordan and our team from CNN to Pyongyang, North Korea, for his historic meeting with the then Dear Leader,” Johnson said, pointing out that this was the first face-to-face contact between any American and North Korean official since the end of fighting in July 1953.
Historians believe the U.S. and South Korea were on the verge of war, as the North Koreans were ramping up their production of nuclear weapons when Carter stepped in.
Johnson looks back on his 50-plus-year friendship with Carter with deep respect and admiration, pointing out that Carter always placed his priorities on his deep religious faith, his unwavering love for his wife, to whom he was married from July 1946 until her death in November 2023, and his devotion to country.
“Jimmy Carter told me about the greatest test in their marriage, when they tried to write a book together and he said they would not do that again,” Johnson said. “They had a strong marriage, and that goes back all the way to his years back in the Navy, when he was on a submarine.”
“Everything to Gain” was the 1987 book the couple wrote about their six years after leaving the White House. The formula of working together, side by side as writers did not work.
“One thing I hope people will learn from the book is not ever to try to write a book together, unless they want to terminate a marriage. We were incompatible authors,” Carter said. “All of Rosalynn’s bad characteristics came out during the writing of this book, and I guess mine did, too.”
“We were so frustrated with each other about it that we couldn’t even talk about it,” Rosalynn Carter said. “It was not just frustrating. It was angry.”
But through it all, the couple prospered.
Johnson said he is grateful he was able to report on this remarkable life and get to know the person he was covering.
“We have maintained email contact in recent years, and Jimmy Carter has always wanted to stay connected,” Johnson said. “President Carter lived a life that mattered; he cared deeply about our nation, planet and world peace.”
Johnson said Carter made a very positive mark and set a very high bar for the future of people in public service.
“Jimmy Carter was a man of integrity. He believed in doing good with his work, Habitat for Humanity and his trips to Africa to remove the disease. He was a man of peace and great determination.”
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