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CNN Live At Daybreak

Jimmy Carter Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Aired October 11, 2002 - 06:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Jimmy Carter has, of course, become as well-known for what he has done after leaving the White House as for what he did when he was the 39th president.
CNN's Brian Cabell takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981, it wasn't expensive speaking engagements or golf tournaments or hobnobbing with Hollywood stars that lay ahead for him.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: One of the crucial things Carter did was to say, "I will not sit on a corporate board; I will not be using my presidency to line my own pockets."

CABELL: Instead, he became a man of the world, an effective and engaged ambassador for humanitarian and democratic causes.

BRINKLEY: The one thing Jimmy Carter brought with him from his presidency to his ex-presidency was integrity. He was considered an honest broker all over the world.

CABELL: He offered himself up as an unbiased election monitor in nations where balloting fraud was considered a possibility. In Panama in 1989, he didn't mince words. The election there was on the verge of being stolen.

JAMES EARL CARTER, JR., FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I examined the documents myself in the presence of the election officials. They were patently counterfeit.

CABELL: A year later, he helped persuaded the leftist Sandinistas to step down for the sake of democracy after a dispute of the election. He brokered a peace in Ethiopia in 1989.

He persuaded a corrupt Haitian government to give up power in 1994 and avoid a possible civil war and armed confrontation with U.S. troops. He also brought North and South Korea back from the brink in '94.

TOM JOHNSON, FORMER CNN PRESIDENT: I am convinced that we came very close to a war between North and South Korea, and it was only because of President Carter's determination and his trip there to meet with Kim Il Sung was a war averted. CABELL: Carter has taken a particular interest in Africa, and the seemingly unending civil wars, depressing poverty and the crippling epidemic of diseases.

BRINKLEY: What's so fascinating about Jimmy Carter is, when he looks at diseases around the globe, he wants to be the leader for eradication.

CABELL: He spearheaded the efforts to virtually eradicate the diseases of guinea worm and river blindness from Africa and Asia.

Despite his globetrotting and his wide-world renown, Carter remains a simply man, donning a carpenter's belt one week every year with his wife, Roselyn, to help build houses for the poor in Habitat for Humanity.

CARTER: I'm a cabinet maker, so I really like the detailed work. You know, once you get the house framed in and start doing -- put in the doors and windows, and they have to be precise.

CABELL: He's precise, he's detailed, he's humanitarian, whether it's building a house or building a peace. He's used his post- presidency like no man before him.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired October 11, 2002 - 06:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Jimmy Carter has, of course, become as well-known for what he has done after leaving the White House as for what he did when he was the 39th president.
CNN's Brian Cabell takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981, it wasn't expensive speaking engagements or golf tournaments or hobnobbing with Hollywood stars that lay ahead for him.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: One of the crucial things Carter did was to say, "I will not sit on a corporate board; I will not be using my presidency to line my own pockets."

CABELL: Instead, he became a man of the world, an effective and engaged ambassador for humanitarian and democratic causes.

BRINKLEY: The one thing Jimmy Carter brought with him from his presidency to his ex-presidency was integrity. He was considered an honest broker all over the world.

CABELL: He offered himself up as an unbiased election monitor in nations where balloting fraud was considered a possibility. In Panama in 1989, he didn't mince words. The election there was on the verge of being stolen.

JAMES EARL CARTER, JR., FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I examined the documents myself in the presence of the election officials. They were patently counterfeit.

CABELL: A year later, he helped persuaded the leftist Sandinistas to step down for the sake of democracy after a dispute of the election. He brokered a peace in Ethiopia in 1989.

He persuaded a corrupt Haitian government to give up power in 1994 and avoid a possible civil war and armed confrontation with U.S. troops. He also brought North and South Korea back from the brink in '94.

TOM JOHNSON, FORMER CNN PRESIDENT: I am convinced that we came very close to a war between North and South Korea, and it was only because of President Carter's determination and his trip there to meet with Kim Il Sung was a war averted. CABELL: Carter has taken a particular interest in Africa, and the seemingly unending civil wars, depressing poverty and the crippling epidemic of diseases.

BRINKLEY: What's so fascinating about Jimmy Carter is, when he looks at diseases around the globe, he wants to be the leader for eradication.

CABELL: He spearheaded the efforts to virtually eradicate the diseases of guinea worm and river blindness from Africa and Asia.

Despite his globetrotting and his wide-world renown, Carter remains a simply man, donning a carpenter's belt one week every year with his wife, Roselyn, to help build houses for the poor in Habitat for Humanity.

CARTER: I'm a cabinet maker, so I really like the detailed work. You know, once you get the house framed in and start doing -- put in the doors and windows, and they have to be precise.

CABELL: He's precise, he's detailed, he's humanitarian, whether it's building a house or building a peace. He's used his post- presidency like no man before him.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.