Jimmy Carter's flaws.

• Author: Quintero, David
• Position: WE HEAR YOU - Letter to the editor

Before he became President, Jimmy Carter was a principled man. So why did he risk tarnishing his reputation, knowing full well that as chief executive he'd have to engage in Machiavellian machinations and abandon his moral standards?

Or did he believe he'd be spared from having to participate in the merciless game of realpolitik?

In any event, we can be certain that "guilt-free" history will forever mask his misdeeds in palatable rhetoric.

To his credit, Amitabh Pal mentions Carter's support for the Shah of Iran and the El Salvadoran junta ("The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter," November issue). However, he fails to remind his readers about our ex-President's role in providing arms to Suharto. If it were not for Carter's help, that brutal dictator of the Jakarta regime may not have ventured to invade East Timor. His invasion resulted in a near genocide of East Timorians.

Yes, Carter certainly deserves Pal's accolades for not engaging the United States in military action during his administration. And who can forget his laudable orchestration of the Camp David Accords?

Nevertheless, none of those accomplishments can wash from Carter's hands the blood of those East Timorians which, with his help, Suharto spilled in a diabolical orgy of violence.

--David Quintero

Monrovia, California

Amitabh Pal's review of Jimmy Carter's new book, A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, omits Carter's most egregious foreign policy "blemish"--his support of the Afghan Mujaheddin. FAIR'S Extra! update bimonthly newsletter of December 2001 reported on...