As president, he treated everyone with respect – recalled the US ambassador to Poland, Marek Brzezinski, who talked to the journalist of “Fakty” TVN and TVN24, Piotr Kraśka, about Jimmy Carter. The former US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner died on Sunday at the age of 100.
During an interview on TVN24 BiS, Mark Brzezinski showed a framed letter that was placed in the vestibule of the entrance to the US Embassy in Poland. The ambassador explained that the letter was written to him by Jimmy Carter.
– My father was President Carter's national security adviser at the time. I was thirteen years old. I was about to be confirmed at Saint Luke's Church in McLean, Virginia. My father was my confirmation witness, but it turned out that at the last minute he was called to a special mission to Egypt – recalled the ambassador. He continued that President Jimmy Carter then offered to be his witness, but when Brzezinski's father heard about the idea, he said it was “absolutely out of the question.”
– President Carter wrote me this letter: “To Mark Brzezinski. Because your father was on a mission in Egypt, on a peace mission, he was unable to be your witness at your confirmation. He and I are very proud of you on this special day. You can too be proud of your father. Your friend Jimmy Carter,” Brzezinski read.
– I displayed this letter here, at the entrance to the ambassador's residence, to show what a great leader (Jimmy Carter was – ed.). For great leaders, very little things are also important, he emphasized.
Brzezinski about Carter: a man with local roots and a global reach
Brzezinski recalled that whenever he could talk to President Carter, he “showed respect for everyone.” – When he returned to the White House, for example, the staff, butlers, room service, kitchen staff, everyone crowded to greet him because as president he treated everyone with respect, Brzezinski noted.
He recalled that Jimmy Carter, although he was the president of the USA, said that “everyone is the image of you and everyone is important.” – He could afford a villa overlooking the ocean somewhere in California, and after four years in Washington, he wanted to return to the same tiny town (where he lived – ed.) – he noted. In Brzezinski's assessment, Carter was “a man with local roots and a global reach.”