Former President Jimmy Carter, whose high-profile negotiations with North Korea and Haiti have raised eyebrows in Washington, made public peace Saturday with his former aide, Warren Christopher.
Carter, in Washington on his 70th birthday to accept a $50,000 J. William Fulbright Prize for fostering international understanding, got a laugh when he told a State Department gathering, "Our next task is to work more for domestic understanding."That comment may have been a veiled reference to Carter's remarks as interpreted in a New York Times interview published September 21, in which he was said to feel he was being treated shabbily by Christopher, who was a top aide in Carter's State Department and now heads that department for the Clinton administration.
Carter was quoted as saying he encountered inexplicable opposition to his involvement in international diplomacy, specifically from the State Department.
Carter and Christopher met quietly in Georgia last Saturday, and one U.S. official said that following that meeting, there was no "heartburn" over the relationship between the two men.
The former president went out of his way to praise Christopher at the award ceremony, even though Christopher stayed away.
Noting that "my good friend Warren Christopher" met him as he entered the State Department Saturday morning, Carter recalled the day in 1981 when he awarded Christopher the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in securing the release of U.S. hostages from Iran.
"He was the interlocutor between the White House and Iran and it was his determination and his courage and his ability as a negotiator and his wisdom that resulted in the release of every American hostage, safe and free," Carter said.
"Now those unique human qualities of Warren Christopher are being used in the service of another president," Carter said. "I'm very grateful for his willingness to serve in this difficult position."
Carter did not specifically mention his negotiations with Haitian military leaders that preceded a massive influx of U.S. troops to the fractious Caribbean nation two weeks ago.
However, he noted that the work of the Atlanta-based Carter Center is often misunderstood "because we deal with leaders who are human-rights oppressors."
After accepting the award and a statue on behalf of the Carter Center, Carter celebrated his birthday with a cake at the State Department.