>> from our studios in new york, this is "charlie rose." >> president jimmy carter is here.

he served as the president from 1977-1981. his major achievements include the camp david accords, improved relations with china, and most successful post-presidencies. he received the nobel peace prize in 2002. his latest efforts are against violence and discrimination against women and girls. his latest book, "a call to action." i am pleased to have jimmy carter back of this table. we first met during the campaign, 1976. >> a long time ago. >> it was. "lessons from life," "through the years with jimmy carter," "meditations," "waging peace," "endangered values," "the hornet's nests," -- 25 books.

do you write because you love to write? is it a primary source of income? or is there is so much you want to say? >> all three. [laughter] i like to write. this is my 28th book. i don't have any outside source of income. i'm not on the lecture circuit. >> by choice. >> by choice. i'm a professor at emory university so i get a salary. but it gives me a source of income for my family. we have a big family now. it also lets me address issues of importance, and be on the

"charlie rose show." and let the people read my book. this is the most important book i've written. it is a subject that is the worst affliction on society that exists on earth. it is the greatest human rights abuse i've ever known. it is largely unaddressed. women and girls are suffering in an unconscionable way that very few people know about. one example. the worst case of genocide i have known was the holocaust. 25 times that many girls have been killed by their own parents. either strangled at birth, or aborted when they find out it is going to be a girl and not a boy.

this takes place in china and in india. it takes place in other countries. the result of that is that young men cannot find brides to marry. that has a contributed factor to the greatest level of slavery. $32 billion a year. the state department is required by law to analyze how much slavery does exist. they estimate 800,000 people sold across international borders every year. 80% are girls being sold into sexual slavery. 100,000 girls are sold every year in the united states. atlanta, georgia, the number one location for trafficking in girls. >> why? >> it has the largest airport in

the world. it serves the southern part of the hemisphere more than most big airports. girls are cheaper to buy in latin america and africa than they are in europe and so forth. $1000 for a brothel owner to get girls from the south. they buy cheap girls in the south. they come through the atlanta airport. >> who is karen ryan? >> she is in charge of the human rights program at the carter center. we began it aired years ago in the third world. 79 countries we have had programs in. we began to see as we tried to 11 eight diseases and conduct elections, 35 million people for disease treated, women in those countries were so severely

treated, deprived of an equal status within families, the boys got the food, girls didn't. they sent one child to school, the boy instead of the girl. that led us to become aware of this. the carter center policy has focused on abuse of girls and how religion and violence are two factors that contribute to the abuse of women. religion is one of the major causes. the bible is interpreted by men leaders as ordaining that women are not equal to men in the eyes

of god. jesus christ never said any such thing. he elevated women. >> is it more in christendom? >> it is about the same. it can be misinterpreted. the actual verses you can quote, 36,000 verses. if you want to prove the bible says women are inferior, you can find a verse to do it. jesus never did that. st. paul wrote letters to tiny churches and sometimes said that women couldn't teach boys and couldn't speak in church. other times he said there was no difference in the eyes of god. other places, he listed about 25 of the key leaders in the early church. a good portion were women who occupied all levels of the church hierarchy. >> is this one reason you left southern baptist? >> it is one reason.

the southern baptist convention was my area of work until the year 2000. my dad was a teacher. a sunday school teacher. we left the southern baptist convention when they ordained that women had to be subservient to their husbands and could not serve as pastors in a church, or deacons in a church. southern baptist convention universities, seminaries, a woman is not permitted to teach a class if a boy is a student. you can find a bible verse that says that. we left for that reason. >> you want to encourage women and girls, including those not abused, to speak up.

those who speak out protected from retaliation. >> in the united states, the two most revered institution in america. our great university system. the most horrible abuse of women and girls in america is in the university campuses. the reason for it is that rapists, serial rapists, on a campus they are impervious to trial or persecution if they rape girls. presidents of universities and deans are reluctant to encourage a woman who has been raped to report her attacker and have him brought to justice. it brings adverse publicity to the university campus. here is a place for sexual abuse takes place because they report it. they go to counseling. if you bring a boy to a trial, quite often he will claim that it is consensual. the other institution is the u.s. military. the statistics have been made

available, 26,000 reported cases of sexual abuse. only 320 of them actually brought the attacker to justice. that is one percent. on a college campus, only four percent are reported. in civilian life, six times are reported. campuses in universities don't want women to report abuses. those are two examples. another thing that exists, the pay for women. women get paid 23% less for the same exact work. if you look at the fortune 500, less than two dozen have women ceos. they get 42% less pay than a man doing the same job. when the catholic church and southern baptist convention says a woman is not equal in the eyes of god, a husband who wants to abuse his wife, or employer that wants to pay less says, if she is not equal on the eyes of god, why should i see it that way?

>> may i turn to when i mentioned in my introduction to you, secretary kerry is working hard to make a difference. i know you are impressed by what he is doing. you are wishing him well. what was it about you at camp david that ended up with a peace treaty between israel and egypt? >> the playwright's and others have spent hours with me figuring out why it did happen. it was almost impossible. representing israel, the most reluctant person among the 50 israelis that were there. everybody else wanted to go along and be constructive. on the other hand, some thought

sadat was the most instructive. his secretary of state resigned in protest because he thought he was too forthcoming. it involved, as the play will point out, you had a devout christian and a devout muslim and a devout jew. the first devout jew that served as prime minister. if they got in the same room, sparks would fly. they would berate each other. for 10 days, i went back and forth between them. the last day, bagan had taken an oath before god. may my right arm fall off if i

ever dismantle the settlement. one of the provisos was that israel had to withdraw from this territory. the other was that palestinians had to be given full rights. i thought it was over with. we were ready to go back and announce a failure. which would have been embarrassing. bagan asked me if he could have a photograph to give to his grandchildren. my secretary decided on her own to call up israel and find out the names of his eight grandchildren. i wrote his name. i signed it. i took it over to his cabin. he was ready to go to washington in defeat.

he was angry with me. he looked at the first photograph, and he called out the name of his grandchild. then he looked at the second one, and tears ran down his cheeks. i shed tears also. finally, he looked around, and why don't we try one more time? he sent his assistant over there. we decided to compromise. he would not take any role in dismantling the settlements. he agreed to let the parliament make the decision. he didn't violate his oath of dismantling a settlement.

he let the parliament do it. that is how we got that. >> you came down from camp david with a historic agreement. everybody said to you, don't do camp david now. do it in a second term. it will be nothing but trouble for you. you said, i'm going to do it. >> i told my top staff to devise me the ultimate goal we should reach. they presented it to me in the roosevelt room. it was a very limited ambition. we would let the secretaries of state negotiate an agreement. i said, no. i hand wrote a letter asking

them both to come meet with me. i don't know whether to bring these two guys. 125 acres, private, bunch of cabins. i decided to bring them to camp david. we locked up camp david. we didn't let anybody in. >> part of the four years was iran. >> i recall that. >> how many times have you thought if you had only added a helicopter or two. >> every time i get the question. what would you do different? >> one more helicopter. >> you believe that would have done it?

>> there is no doubt. >> we were going to send seven. we had to have six. i could leave them back. we had to have six. harold brown said we will send seven. i said, why don't we send eight? they had a long flight across the desert. one of the helicopters, went back to the helicopter. one was forced down in sand storm. another one had an oil leak and crashed. we had to abort the mission. >> bob gates will tell you that when they went over to get osama bin laden, they had problems with helicopters. the mission would have been successful in your judgment because you would have been able to get the hostages under the cover of darkness? >> we knew every ambassador. we know what room they are in.

we knew how well armed they were. we can tell which car in front of the compound was on duty. there was a cook that had been there to give this information. nobody knew we were there. they never knew we were there until our rescue team was out. they found the debris in the desert. ♪

>> there is this today in contemporary american politics. some people would talk about president obama and say, he is another jimmy carter. notwithstanding the things i have talked about, the sense that somehow jimmy carter was weak. where does that come from? >> republicans decided, and i left in defeat, that we didn't strengthen the military, which we did, that we didn't take care of the country, which we did.

i'm not trying to resurrect the old times. but when the soviet union invaded afghanistan, i took strong action with our ambassador. we declared a total embargo. the olympic committee decided not to go. we began to give the secret weapons to the fighters inside afghanistan to defeat the soviet union invaders. that was picked up by my successors. we did everything we possibly could. the most important thing was if he went beyond afghanistan we would respond militarily. >> if they had gone beyond afghanistan you would have attacked. >> absolutely.

or i would have violated my word of honor. >> we were prepared to do it. the president has gotten some criticism. he said a red line was here. >> i was prepared to do it. i might say it is different now. crimea, putin would have gone into crimea no matter what kind of embargo, no matter what happened. he was considering crimea as part of russia. most of the crimean people consider themselves a part of russia. we have to stop them now so he doesn't go any further. that is where we need to draw the line.

>> he would say you would have your president say -- >> i'm not going to tell them what to say. >> are you saying that if putin decides to go send his troops into the ukraine, you would militarily demand he stopped or face consequences. >> i think now, we would join in with europe in making that statement. >> with nato. >> i didn't have nato with me when the soviets invaded afghanistan. i felt i was responsible. what's the most important thing is the belief that you have that if you do not stop it at all costs, it is appetite is huge. >> he had to make him believe

that if he crosses a certain line, the consequences will be unbearable. >> how does this president make him believe? i'm not asking you to criticize the president. how to make vladimir putin believe? what do you do with u.s. strength to make him believe that if he does that, it will be at unattended consequence for him? >> i'm not sure how to do that. i don't know vladimir putin. i looked very carefully at his speech that he made last week. he deftly said i'm not going to do the same thing in eastern ukraine. what he is going to do, he is going to woo the people in eastern ukraine. he will use all kinds of loans, and grants, and trade preferences to make them believe that they are better with russia than they are with ukraine. that might resolve itself. i don't favor this.

the western part might go to europe or the eastern part might go to russian of their own volition. a military action into ukraine, that is unacceptable. >> do you think he wants to? >> i don't think so. i believe he said he is not going to do it. why should he lie? >> henry kissinger set what you are seeing and said you have to respect that ukraine's relationship with russia, it ought to be a transition between europe and asia. that may be the solution >> the point i'm trying to make, i have known for a long time that crimea was a special place that sticks out into the black sea.

>> let me talk about the middle east. the negotiations that kerry -- do you know what his framework is? >> he has gotten my advice. >> he sought your advice? >> i didn't say that. i sent e-mails. >> tell me what you say to him in your e-mails. >> i tell him to be equally between the two. the last thing i told him, which is predictable, don't violate international law. the laws that applied at camp david agreements, that don't

violate the peace treaty, that don't violate what nixon and kissinger and brezinski and i, and george w. bush, have all pursued. don't violate the international law. all the nations in the world have agreed with the basic laws that prevails from unopposed u.n. resolutions. there are some that ought not be violated. i think that the 1967 borders are basically inviolate. they can be modified back and forth. this is -- ariel sharon, who was

my friend, we were both farmers and friendly. the last time i met with him, the last day of his prime ministership, he had a wonderful idea that he showed me. israel would take over the area of palestine near jerusalem. >> jerusalem would be the state capital for both. >> but israel would give palestinians an amount of territory. it would provide a corridor 36 miles long between gaza and the west bank. in the corridor, there will be a highway in a railroad. his farm is south of that. he said we will dig a tunnel under the highway or a bridge over. he had that all worked out. that is the kind of thing that could be put into effect in the

future. >> it is tragic. they seemed to have the courage and respect to make it go forward and convince the israeli public that their national security could be preserved at the same time they had an agreement with the palestinians. >> every prime minister in israel except netanyahu has accepted that premise. this was the basis on which president obama gave his famous speech. this basis is what john kerry is

trying to negotiate. >> wouldn't have been better if >> wouldn't have been better if president obama had flown to jerusalem? >> it might have been, in retrospect. if he had made the same basic speech in jerusalem that he made in cairo, i think it would have been good. netanyahu, i happen to be in jerusalem, the speech was made in cairo, i heard netanyahu make the statement. he said for the first time that he accepted the two state solution. i think he said it with his tongue in his cheek. >> settlements are not constructive? >> no, they are not. they were illegal. >> the palestinians insist on the notion of israel be understood as the jewish state. it seems high up on the priorities. >> yes. it is high on their priorities. >> should it be agreed to by the

palestinians? >> they will never agree to that. it would suit me. but it is a matter of the fact that 1.5 million arabs who live inside israel do not belong there because they are not jews. if israel is called by the arabs as a jewish state, it means everybody in israel is a jew. a fourth of total israeli citizens are not jews. it may be an insurmountable problem that is to some degree semantical. it is all right with palestinians if netanyahu calls this a jewish state. but to make the arabs say it, it would be difficult.

river. >> the other issue they are demanding is israeli defense forces on the jordan river. >> that is a new development. how can you have a jewish state if you have troops across the west bank, including the eastern side next to jordan? another thing on the other side, the palestinians are demanding right of return. i've always said there's no way israel will agree. they could come to the palestinian new state, but not israel. there may be token ones that could be admitted. i think that palestinians cannot return to israel, but if you have a legitimate complaint, we will pay you a modest amount for the property you lost.

>> do believe that if there is a window of opportunity, at some point, because of demographics, it will mean that a two state solution is not possible, and that would be a very difficult proposition for israel to make choices to be a state that it doesn't want to be? >> that is the proposition that 10 years ago, when i was meeting with a large group of palestinian business leaders, i asked them there, how many would favor a one state solution? almost half raised their hand. qaddafi later wrote a piece in the new york times calling for that.

they see inevitably in the future, the total number of non-jews will be greater than the total number of jews. that would destroy the possibility of jews themselves calling it a jewish state. it would mean that the palestinians will be denied the right to vote on an equal basis. in either case, it would be a bad option. the two state solution has been the basis for every piece of -- peace effort that has been made. we ought to stick to it. john kerry and president obama, and the european union community, even the islamic nations, including iran, have voted to accept the two state solution. >> there is also this. syria. robert ford, the former ambassador to syria, said recently that he is concerned

that assad may be in power for a long time. >> i think that is true. >> longer than expected. >> well, i'm not trying to say i told you so. but when this altercation deteriorated into a civil war, i met with the leader of the arab league. we assumed that it would be almost impossible for assad to be overthrown. he had the army that was almost unanimously behind him. the christian groups that i knew in syria very well were giving him full support, fearing the

consequences if the regime was unable to protect them. i never saw the possibility that assad will be overthrown. what has been proposed by the first peace negotiator, we have a limited term for assad. that he put forward proposals that would make it acceptable for the opposition to agree, and that there be an election held where he would be the titular head but parliament would take over. there will be a transition so that he would leave office. for him to be forced out of office in my opinion has never been possible.

>> the opposition has been so fragmented, i don't think we could have found enough rebels to support them. as you know, the russian and chinese have agreed with what i described. the united states has been the holdout from the beginning. that assad must step down first. i don't know the information he has. it was not the same summary that i gave to secretary clinton when she was secretary of state. i sent her a message with my position, different than the one

the united states adopted. who knows. i'm not trying to criticize. >> i'm trying to get your sense of experience. we assume john kerry wanted your e-mail. or secretary clinton. have they always felt that the democratic administrations have welcomed you? >> the secretary of state has, very well. hillary clinton, and john kerry. >> rather than through the white house. house. why? >> it is just been a factor. i can understand some of the problems. when i was president, i had two immediate successors, predecessors to work with. richard nixon and gerald ford. they were acquaintances of mine. i kept them briefed until

richard nixon said i don't need any more. i'm getting too many. i would say that is the relationship that president obama has had with his immediate predecessors. i have been out of office 35 years. i am ancient history. >> but you travel around the world. they talk to you. >> that's true. >> it is not like you are a holdout in georgia. >> i wanted to talk about women tonight. >> well, we talked about that. >> it has been aggressive since i left office to have an equal relationship with palestinians and arabs on the one side, and israel on the other. we have had some controversial things we have done. we did meet regularly with hamas.

we have counseled with the palestinians. when i go to israel, i meet with the leaders of the israeli government. i also meet with palestinians. that balance was not politically popular in the united states. i wrote a book that was not very attractive. that may be one reason why we don't consult. >> you former national security advisor has -- i regret it. i'd rather have a more intimate relationship. i believe my position is represented to the secretary of state. >> you won a nobel peace prize by the way. >> i remember that.

[laughter] i give them a trip report the day after i return. so we deal with unsavory people. i go to north korea. i meet with the leaders there. i bring messages back. even when we can't send an envoy to them. we have met and worked with nepal when they described the united states as terrorist. we go to other places. i meet with the leader of sudan, because we have many health programs. he can help me with those. we are getting ready to train tens of thousands of health workers in sudan. when i go to meet, i get

requests for caring information from the united states government. government. >> you ought to be viewed as an asset then. >> i think that is true to some degree. [laughter] i wouldn't want to exaggerate my status. [laughter] >> you do have access. you don't negotiate with your friends. you negotiate with your enemies. >> i go where i wish. i meet with whom i choose. i say what i believe. i say what i believe. i feel at ease with it. i try not to burden him with positions i have taken publicly. >> i hope you'll be angry with me. do you think it has to do with personality, that there is some sense that president carter

feels so strongly -- you know what i mean. >> president reagan, during the eight years he was in office, his national security advisers called on me regularly. there were a number of countries with whom we didn't have good relations. syria was one of them. i went every year.

we went other places in the world. they called on me. when george h.w. bush got in office, we were involved in the iran-contra scandal. jim baker, the secretary of state, asked me to represent them to bring peace to nicaragua. when you come back from a george bush senior sent his plane to bring me to the white house to give him a report on what i had learned. when president clinton was in office, he authorize me and sam gunn to go to haiti. i've had good relationships. sometimes not personal in

political areas. but every time we meet at an event, we always are how marius -- we're always harmonious. we drop anything that might be divisive and meet like a fraternity. we greatly respect each other. that is the way i feel that the president that have succeeded me. >> there are those who say the following. you bristle at the idea of people always saying he's the most popular post-president. >> i don't bristle at it. i don't object to that. >> you think it minimizes the things that i said? >> it does. nobody remembers how much a challenge there was around the world. you were in the depths of the cold world. nuclear conflict could have broken out any time. we have not diplomatic relationships with china for 35 years. israel and egypt have been at war three times.

>> relationships had not been established at the time you became president. >> 1972 is when nixon declared shanghai. >> it had not led to recognition. >> taiwan, all the rest of nixon's term, the one china was taiwan. they were out of against nixon for the train the taiwanese or looking at red china as [indiscernible] to have demonic relations with them was another step that i took. i had no china since i was a young person. i went to china before they became the national people's republic. i was kind of ready when i went to the white house to normalize relationships with china. there were unmet needs. we try to end apartheid in africa. we were successful, as you know, in zimbabwe. we declared in south africa it

should be one person one vote. we did some difficult things. we kept our country at peace. we enhanced the quality of our we enhanced the quality of our military, primarily with electronics. we had energy policy. >> you are proud of the accomplishments you made. >> i am. >> you think it raises as much importance as we have done since then. >> i had the best batting average with the congress than any president since lyndon johnson. >> what would you like your epitaph to be? >> i am about women's rights. peace and human rights. we kept the peace.

we never dropped a bomb. we promoted peace for other people around the world. we respected human rights. i think the human rights policy had incredibly beneficial effect in many parts of the world. when i became president, almost every country in south america was a military dictatorship. from ecuador, peru, chile, uruguay, paraguay. we instituted a very strong human rights policy. in 5-6 years, every one of those countries was a democracy. not because of me, because of their awareness that human rights could prevail. they were heroic.

instead of sending military forces we encouraged the indigenous people to establish a democracy. that was one result. like thank you. it is a pleasure to have you here. i want to remind our audience that the book is called "a call to action." ♪ >> governor george wallace. >> robert strauss died last week. he was 95 years old. president obama called him one of the greatest leaders the democratic party ever had. he once said my strength was people. he advised presidents and politicians from both parties from lyndon johnson to ronald reagan, jimmy carter, and both george bush 41 and 43. in 1991, present george h.w. bush appointed him as the first u.s. ambassador to russia after the breakup of the soviet union.

looking back at his life, he claimed to have no regrets about the life he lived, and said i don't have any regrets about anything in my life. i like the whole damn deal. here is a look back at a conversation with bob strauss. >> lyndon johnson use to say that he intimidated you. >> that is an understatement. when he called on the phone i would perspire. president johnson is on the phone. i'd say to her, i'm not going to let that guy intimidate me again. i get on the phone, and sure enough johnson would take over. he knew had my number. >> did anybody else have your

number? >> no. he did. >> what was it about him? >> he was an intimidating fellow. he knew how to intimidate you. he like to intimidate you. >> they always say the johnson treatment new the weak spots. he could find it. he could push it. >> he knew that i was intimidated. he never failed to take advantage of it when he could. i liked him a lot. he wasn't the most likable man in the world. >> you can get that from the phone conversations. >> oh yes. >> you just see it coming out. the charm.

he exercised power as well as anybody. >> as effectively as anyone. he did it for the right reasons, most of the time. he did it to move programs. watching it up close as i was privileged to do, he was a master. he was determined to get those programs done. johnson always thought he had a brief time here on earth. he had better take advantage of it. >> civil rights, voting rights, poverty. all kinds of social welfare. >> he remembered his background. he remembered member what it was like. he was something special.

>> what do you think -- why was it he couldn't get his arms around vietnam? >> one thing was he had members of his cabinet, mcnamara, johnson was always the smartest man he'd ever known. mcnamara was wrong on that war. johnson was wrong on that war. >> i love the thing that jim wright supposedly said. i don't know who the next president will be, but i know who his best friend is going to be. bob strauss. he said that not about jimmy carter, but about somebody else. what is it about you that powerful men are attracted to? >> i don't have any desire to run for public office. i was nonthreatening. i had a reputation as being loyal. i had a reputation of good

judgment. >> judgment is what it is about. >> that is the main thing. >> somebody you can trust. somebody that has good judgment. >> and not in it just for himself. but in the country is good, and the president's good. >> bob strauss, dead at 95 years old. ♪

>> live from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to the late edition of "bloomberg west," where we cover the global technology and media companies that are reshaping our world. i am emily chang. the maker of candy crush gets crushed. we will talk about why. and new details in a possible dish-directv merger, but first, a check of the headlines. german giant sap is pushing ep