1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you missed in history class from 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com. In celebration of the reopening 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the 4 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:19,080 Speaker 1: former president's eighty five birthday, we sat down with Nobel 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: Laureate Jimmy Carter to talk about the highlights of his 6 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: presidency and his hopes for the Carter Center. Do you 7 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:32,040 Speaker 1: think the United States does a good job protecting human rights? Sometimes? 8 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:40,800 Speaker 1: In general? We do. In the days before I became president, 9 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: there was a policy of America to go to bed 10 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: with all the dictators and to step out any sort 11 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: of ball demand. But will prushed people for freedom and 12 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 1: equality and democracy because our major American corporations would have 13 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: contracts with the owners off the Couple of Minds, and 14 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: they still iron Minds and the banana plantations and so forth, 15 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: so they can make more profits on those things in 16 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: pineapple and all. And they didn't want to see the 17 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: economic benefits endangered by the dictators offended to us being overthrown. 18 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: And a lot of those dictators military were educated at 19 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:36,400 Speaker 1: West Point or Anapolis where our so they knew American 20 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: customs and they spoke English well, and so it was 21 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: just natural for our country to protect them and not 22 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,680 Speaker 1: let them be overthrown by radical people who demanded human rights. 23 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: They were called communists and so forth. And if the 24 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: dictator was sometimes endangered because the people were became too strong, 25 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: the United States were sending marines into that country to 26 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: protect the dictators, and so I thought that was a mistake. 27 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: So we began to promote human rights, particularly the right 28 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,520 Speaker 1: of people to demand MHM, the ability to choose their 29 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:22,600 Speaker 1: own leaders, which leads to democracy. When I became president, 30 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:26,360 Speaker 1: most of the country's in Latin American, South America, Central 31 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: America with dictators Oh now there's not a single dictatorship 32 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: in South America or Central America because human rights were 33 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: protected by America and we encourage the people to express 34 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: themselves through free elections to choose their own governments. All 35 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: of those democracies are not what we do with defines democracy. 36 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 1: They are not the measure up to our particular standard. 37 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: The fact is their all democratis now. So that's one 38 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: definition of human rights and that we have not in 39 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: the past protected. I hope we will continue to in 40 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: the future. And in the last administration, we had horrible 41 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:17,040 Speaker 1: violations of human rights uh saying abou grabbed prison and 42 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 1: in Guantanamo where we had people arrested, taken to prison, 43 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 1: never given a chance to have a lawyer, never being 44 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: informed about what the charges were against them, never being 45 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: able to have their families visit them in prison, never 46 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: having any hope of ultimately going to trial, and that 47 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: to some degree is still going on. I hope that 48 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: person Obama will be able to do away with that, 49 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: and I believe he will. At the same time, we've 50 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: seen a great restraints placed inside the United States on 51 00:03:54,920 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: the freedom of American people to be not nature not 52 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: endangered by intrusion our own privacy, people listening in on 53 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: our telephone conversations, or American citizens being arrested and accused 54 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: of certain crimes under the under the patriotide, within which 55 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: they can be deprived of legal counsel or to confront 56 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: their accusers, or to even know what the crimes are 57 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: that are raised against them his accusations, and held in 58 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 1: isolation from their own families. We've have been done that 59 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: a few American fatilers. So the judicial system, the High courts, 60 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: Court of Appeals, and the Spin Court have been correcting 61 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: those mistakes perpetrated under the administration of President George W. Bush, 62 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,360 Speaker 1: and I think that personal Obama is trying to undo 63 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: those mistakes. But America has a chance or temptation sometimes 64 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: to slip in its commitment to human rights when it's convenient. 65 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: All when security so called is is it threatened or 66 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 1: on the terrorists threats. But almost in very body, that's 67 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: proven to be a mistake. And one of the great 68 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 1: things about our democracy is that we have an ability 69 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: to correct our own mistakes with changes in leaders and 70 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: also with the stability provided by the judicial system of 71 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: our country have an ultimate voice when there is a 72 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,279 Speaker 1: dispute between the executive branch that is a president and 73 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: the Congress. So that is now correcting very rapidly the 74 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,720 Speaker 1: mistakes that we've made in the recent past. Be short 75 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: of Tune in every Wednesday in September for more of 76 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,159 Speaker 1: our interview with President Carter. To learn more about the 77 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: Carter Center and its mission of waging peace, fighting disease, 78 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:02,919 Speaker 1: and building help, visit www dot Carter Center dot org and, 79 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: as always, for moral miss and thousands of other topics, 80 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:10,600 Speaker 1: visit how stafforks dot com.