Carter Diary Reveals Rocky Relationship with German Chancellor Schmidt
US President Jimmy Carter and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt seemed like good friends in public. Behind the scenes, however, they didn't much care for each other. Indeed, not having to deal with Schmidt anymore, Carter wrote in his diary, was the only positive aspect to losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Helmut Schmidt was Germany's chancellor from 1974 to 1982, and Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Though they have both grown older now, they are still as active as ever. Schmidt continues to deliver sharp-tongued, self-assured commentary on economic and political issues. And Carter has turned his attention to negotiating in the world's trouble spots. Such diplomatic efforts even earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
But, as often happens between two larger-than-life figures, when the two talk about each other, they are both prone to a bit of one-upsmanship. Both of their memoirs reveal that the two politicians were anything but friends. But now Carter, 86, has gone a step further, publishing portions of the private diary he kept while president. And one of the things the book does is to settle an old score with Schmidt.
Carter's diary portrays the Hamburg-born politician, now 91, as a mercurial grouch, at one moment annoying his American colleagues with lectures on global economics, and then making himself scarce when the US needed his help. According to Carter's notes, Schmidt "acted like a paranoid child," and he was upset on several occasions by Schmidt's "unbelievable" behavior toward him. For example, in early 1978, Carter wrote: "Schmidt seems to go up and down in his psychological attitude. I guess women are not the only ones that have periods."...
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Helmut Schmidt was Germany's chancellor from 1974 to 1982, and Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Though they have both grown older now, they are still as active as ever. Schmidt continues to deliver sharp-tongued, self-assured commentary on economic and political issues. And Carter has turned his attention to negotiating in the world's trouble spots. Such diplomatic efforts even earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
But, as often happens between two larger-than-life figures, when the two talk about each other, they are both prone to a bit of one-upsmanship. Both of their memoirs reveal that the two politicians were anything but friends. But now Carter, 86, has gone a step further, publishing portions of the private diary he kept while president. And one of the things the book does is to settle an old score with Schmidt.
Carter's diary portrays the Hamburg-born politician, now 91, as a mercurial grouch, at one moment annoying his American colleagues with lectures on global economics, and then making himself scarce when the US needed his help. According to Carter's notes, Schmidt "acted like a paranoid child," and he was upset on several occasions by Schmidt's "unbelievable" behavior toward him. For example, in early 1978, Carter wrote: "Schmidt seems to go up and down in his psychological attitude. I guess women are not the only ones that have periods."...