Richard Haass: ‘Jimmy Carter Was a Really Interesting Foreign Policy Person, Who at the Same Time Was Both an Idealist and a Realist’

EXCERPT:

HAASS: “So I actually think Jimmy Carter was a really interesting foreign policy person who at the same time was both an idealist and a realist. In some ways, if you think about him, he was the forerunner of Ronald Reagan. He put human rights front and center on the foreign policy agenda, but he was still willing to deal with regimes like China and the Soviet Union, which, to me, you know, was impressive. And he — by the end, he was increasing American defense spending significantly. He understood that — yes, he was a man of peace, but he understood the we’re world wasn’t there. So he went through the Camp David thing, but he jacked up American defense spending significantly. All of our military capabilities in the Middle East, what we now call Central Command, guess what, they had their origins in late ’79, early ’80 under Jimmy Carter and his Pentagon. So I actually think there’s much more continuity between Carter and Reagan than anybody understands, and so I would give him a lot of credit for what he did.”