Greatest Living President?

It turns out you can learn something from television. A few months ago, I stayed up later then normal watching a repeat of the “West Wing.” What made this particular episode unusual was that it included interviews with real life inhabitants of the White House. And among the familiar faces of staff members past, there were also former presidents, including Jimmy Carter talking about his truncated tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.Along with his reflections on life inside the real executive mansion, he also offered some very interesting insight into what goes on during an actual crisis. In his case the one that colored his entire presidency: the Iranian hostage crisis. Looking back now a quarter of a century later, Mr. Carter expounded on a fascinating view of the event that gripped the nation for 444 days. He talked about the enormous pressure put on him for some sort of military action in Iran. As our 39th president tells it, he was strong enough to resist the pressure and probably lost re-election because of his choice. But, he reminded us with that famous grin, all 52 hostages did come home alive.I looked up, with probably one of my usual befuddled expressions, and said to my wife: “Wait a second, is it my memory? Wasn’t there a military operation that ended in disaster in a place called Desert One with a lot of dead Americans? In fact, didn’t they even have to leave the bodies there for Iranians to do whatever they did?”But there was our Nobel Laureate – the same guy who has reminded us time and again that (like George Washington) he has never stretched the truth with the American people – talking about how he avoided confrontation. In Mr. Carter’s mind, he took the high road during the siege and thus, making the correct decision, eventually ended the crisis in peace and harmony.As the “West Wing” faded from memory, I picked up the January issue of Esquire magazine this past weekend and was once again confronted by our former president expanding on this theme. He was writing on what he has learned along his eventful walk through life.Mr. Carter tells us he could have “destroyed Iran with one strike,” which, “would have been politically popular,” but with the help of his family, he did not do what most of his advisors urged him to do. Then he added what may be the most telling sentence in the entire article. Apparently with some pride, he says, “I was able to go through my entire term in office without firing a bullet, dropping a bomb, or launching a missile.”This is a fascinating statement coming from one of the 43 men who has held the office of president of America. First, as angry as Americans were over Iran summarily overturning the centuries’ old concept of diplomatic immunity between sovereign nations, I don’t think we would have wanted the country “destroyed with one strike.” Angry, yes, for good reason; but bloodthirsty, I don’t think so.It should also be remembered (if memory loss is contagious) that Mr. Carter left office with many Americans feeling pretty lousy about our standing in the world. Short of mega death, the nation was also frustrated by what seemed to be his inability to act. And when he finally did act, results were disastrous. Largely for this reason, he was resoundingly defeated for re-election in a historic landslide.Regarding his perceived crowning achievement, leaving office without firing a shot: As horrible as it is for any president to lose a single serviceman or woman under his watch, there are times when it appears unavoidable. And those times are sadly all too constant. Americans inherently understand this and although they completely rejected Mr. Carter’s bloodless brand of stewardship, they never held the loss of life against Abraham Lincoln (500,000 killed – and re-elected), or Franklin Roosevelt (over 300,000 dead – and re-elected), or Woodrow Wilson, or Harry Truman, or, most recently, George W. Bush (witness his recent re-election with the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq). Somehow most Americans realize that freedom does not come without cost.Then, there is the basic question of the amnesia. For the record, operation “Eagle Claw,” which was approved and given the go-ahead by the commander in chief, Mr. Carter, took place on April 24, 1980. It was a complicated operation that called for airmen, Marines, and elements of the U.S. Army’s Delta Force to fly from carriers into a staging area, into a desert outside Tehran. From there, they were to enter the city itself, free the hostages, take them to a soccer stadium, and then fly the choppers in and bring them all out.Eight helicopters were used. A strategic minimum of six was necessary for the operation. One never took off. That left seven. A second developed problems. Now we were down to six. And then, when the sixth of the original eight experienced a hydraulic failure at the staging area outside of Tehran, the operation had to be aborted. Finally, as the troops were leaving, a departing helicopter kicked up so much dust that it crashed into a C-130 transport plane, turning misfortune into disaster.Five Airmen and three Marines died. Another former president, Richard Nixon, was mystified when he heard that only eight helicopters were used, saying, “It’s not as if we don’t have them.”Now, 25 years later, a grateful nation should remember the names of the eight men killed in the Iranian desert on April 25, 1980. They are:Captain Richard L. Bakke, 33Captain Harold J. Lewis, 35Captain Lyn D. McIntosh, 33Captain James T. McMillan II, 28Technical Sergeant Joel C. Mayo, 34Marine Staff Sergeant Dewey L. Johnson, 31Marine Sergeant John D. Harvey, 21Marine Corporal George N. Holmes Jr., 22Yes, the 52 hostages were released at the hour of Mr. Carter’s exit… and of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Perhaps the Iranians weren’t sure the cowboy from California would be able to resist the pressure from his advisers. Perhaps it was because the Iranians were tied up in war with Iraq. It should also be remembered that as part of the deal that freed the 52 hostages, America unfroze as much as eight billion dollars in Iranian assets, making it perhaps the largest ransom payoff in the history of kidnapping, proving, yet again, how well appeasement works in the real world.All of this said, I realize there is something inherently unfair about Monday morning quarterbacking anyone who sits in the Oval Office. No one can begin to imagine the avalanche of crises and the constant pressure of that job. My wife asks me why I am even going after an octogenarian who is often regarded not as a failed president but a great “ex” president.Perhaps it’s the hypocritical truth-stretching and the revisionism. Perhaps it’s the grin, which could be misinterpreted as smugness. Or, could it be the fact that Mr. Carter can’t let go as he still insinuates himself into our foreign policy with the usual disastrous results? Recall North Korea and his less than helpful in the already difficult Middle East.At the end of the Esquire article, Mr. Carter says, “Winning the Nobel Peace Prize was a great honor. I was the same person the day after I won it as I was the day before.”Perhaps that’s the one point on which Mr. Carter and I can agree.Mr. Kozak is the author of “The Rabbi of 84th Street” (HarperCollins).

Greatest Living President?

Greatest Living President?

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