Jimmy Carter's White House Diary
As far as I can tell, nearly every American president took extensive notes. These days, my thoughts have turned to Jimmy Carter, who, at the time of this writing is receiving hospice care. I don’t know nearly as much about his presidency as I’d like, but I do know that he kept a diary while in the White House. He published it in 2010.
The diary consists of over 5,000 pages of notes typed from voice memos Carter recorded during his presidency. He explains:
During my four years in the White House, I kept a personal diary by dictating my thoughts and observations several times each day. Some days I kept notes and dictated later.
In this 60 Minutes segment, Carter shows his diary to Lesley Stahl.
Carter got the idea to keep a diary from a comment Richard Nixon made to Rosalynn, Carter’s wife. Nixon asked,
“Young lady, do you keep a diary?” Rosalynn replied, “No, Sir.” Nixon then said, “You’ll be sorry!”
Nixon expected the wife to be the record keeper; instead, Jimmy Carter became the family’s note-taker. In a 1984 interview, Rosalynn Carter said:
Jimmy kept a diary every day—he is a note taker. And he kept a tape recorder on his desk so he could talk into it. He has volumes of notes that he brought back with him to Plains. In fact, he wrote his books from that diary.
These are some of my favorite excerpts from Carter’s diary.
Inauguration Day
January 20, 1977
I [decided to] walk from the Capitol to the White House on Inauguration Day . . . I thought it would be a good demonstration of confidence by the new president in the people of our country as far as security was concerned, and also would be a tangible indication of some reduction in the imperial status of the president and his family.
The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty
March 26, 1979
The signing ceremony [marking the Egypt-Israel peace treaty] was well attended, exciting, and pleasant. Sadat was effusive in his praise of me; did not mention Begin at all. Begin made a longer speech. All of them were adequate, with a sense of the historic importance of the treaty. I just pray that we can keep this same sense of cooperation in the future.
Meeting with Pope John Paul II
In October of 1979, Jimmy Carter met privately with Pope John Paul II. Here is a section of his diary entry from this meeting.
October 6, 1979
I asked him if he wanted to talk as officials or just have a personal conversation. He said personal...We agreed that our common Christian belief was a significant tie…I told him I would like him to make a trip to Jerusalem. He replied that this is a sensitive subject for him. I said, at times I felt lonely trying to solve the Mideast problem as the only outsider involved in working toward a comprehensive peace. My belief is that a visit by the Pope to Jerusalem would reassure Christians and be well received by Arabs indicating that Jerusalem was not exclusively a Jewish place to worship. He said there was the opportunity there for embarrassment. I told him it would not be a catastrophe for the Pope to be embarrassed if acting in a good cause.
Carter’s handwritten notes from this meeting survive. The diary entry roughly follows the outline of these notes, suggesting that this sheet of paper lay before Carter as he dictated his entry.
Carter’s diary is a remarkable document of American history. It is housed in Carter’s Presidential Library in Georgia, along with all of his other notes.
I’ll be back on Monday with Noted’s scheduled post.
Till then,
Jillian
P.S.
If you’d like to learn more about Carter’s life, check out James Fallows’s post:
Carter, Jimmy. White House Diary. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010, xiii.
“Carter Kept Diary of White House Years - UPI Archives.” UPI, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/12/03/Carter-kept-diary-of-White-House-years/3029470898000/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023.
Carter. White House Diary, p. 307.
Carter. White House Diary, p. 359.
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“told him it would not be a catastrophe for the Pope to be embarrassed if acting in a good cause.” Love this!
I really appreciate the example of positive action these notes example, and your choices from the diary that demonstrate the hopeful mind of Carter during seemingly impossible interactions, that he was not afraid of external perceptions, but committed to a greater social outcome.
These examples remind us that not only do we have opportunities for better choices but our government can also take the higher road--that it continues to exist.
I love these posts. Thank you.