I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. - Jimmy Carter

This morning I had a meeting with the Panama Canal negotiating team, both our two Ambassadors and the two representing General Torrijos. And early this morning I met with Cy Vance, who will be leaving very quickly now to go to the Mideast. He'll go to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia, to Jordan and Syria, back through--Israel is the last stop this time, to try to put together some sort of framework on which we and the Soviet Union jointly can call for a Geneva conference this fall. We still have a lot of difficulties to overcome. My own belief is that they can be overcome. Harold Brown is on the way back tonight from California, having finished a trip to Japan and to South Korea. Cy Vance is also preparing to go to China, and we'll spend all tomorrow morning, with me and him and Dr. Brzezinski and the Vice President and a few others, going over the component parts of his discussions with the Chinese Government. We've embarked on a massive, 3-year reorganization program for the Federal Government, and I think this will be a slow, tedious, thorough improvement in the organizational structure of Government. It minimizes unnecessary intervention in the private lives and the business lives of our Nation and, at the same time, to be more efficient, more economical and simpler structured, with a clear delineation of authority and responsibility on the officers who will be responsible for certain functions. We have, at the same time, tried to restore or improve our relationship with the developing nations of the world, with our own allies in Europe, with the African countries and, particularly, to deal with the long-standing problems in Rhodesia and Namibia. And at the same time, we've made strong and continuous overtures to our friends in the southern part of this hemisphere to make sure that we have as close as possible a relationship with them. The last thing I'll mention, in passing, which is of crucial importance to us all, is the progress in our friendly relations with the Soviet Union. I put a lot of time on a speech that I made in Charleston last week to try to encapsulate, as best I could, the overall thrust of our policies. We were successful yesterday in reaching an agreement with the Soviet Union and Great Britain to go to the detailed negotiations of an agreement on the comprehensive test ban. Our own desire is that we prohibit the testing of nuclear explosives completely, and we are making some progress in that direction. So far, the Soviets still would like to reserve the right to conduct some peaceful nuclear explosives. But we've opened up new concepts of actual reductions in atomic weapons for the first time since they've been invented, to restrain military development in the Indian Ocean, to work with the Soviets on comprehensive SALT discussions, a prohibition against the destruction of observation satellites, prior notification of firing of test missiles, and so forth. So we've a lot of things going on with the Soviet Union, which I think, potentially, are going to be very constructive. We have found them in their private attitudes toward us to be very forthcoming and cooperative. And these are difficult matters which have been ignored or postponed for decades, and we're trying to address them as forthrightly as possible. I could go on with another long agenda, but I won't do that. I'd rather let you pick out the other items on the agenda that I have not mentioned, and I'll try to answer your questions as briefly and thoroughly as I can.

Yes, that's something I'll have to balance. And as I said yesterday in a telephone talk to the news programers of television and radio stations, I don't know of anything illegal that Bert Lance has done. I don't know of any unethical conduct on his behalf. And I'm keeping an open mind about this entire subject until the Senate goes through its present procedure of analyzing in detail all of the new charges and allegations and claims and statements that have been made about Bert Lance. He's now being given a fair chance to say these are all of the charges, this is my answer to them. And of course, I will certainly have an eagerness to learn of any reason for me to change the assessment that I've just made. But I want to be fair about it, and I have a sure sense of the basic fairness of the American people. The facts, if divulged, will be conclusive, I think, in the shaping of public opinion. And one problem about the whole incident that I can't comprehend, perhaps, adequately, is--let's leave Bert Lance out of it for just a moment; just take any of you, or myself. If a series of, say, incorrect allegations are made day after day after day with the highest possible publicity, the lead story on every television network every night and the headlines in the Washington Post and other newspapers every day, and then all those allegations are proved to be false, how much of those allegations remain to damage the character of the person who might be totally innocent? And then you say, well, this person is damaged so that he can't perform his functions adequately, when the damage has been caused either erroneously or falsely. Well, if that was the only factor, then my decision would be easy. But if I also have confidence that as the American people learn--and it might take a while--that the allegations were basically false and have successfully been answered, that the character of the person, say, yourself, would be restored, then my decision would 'be a different one. And I really have been concerned about this matter, as you know. I don't know an easy answer. But at this point, I have no evidence to indicate that Bert's done anything illegal or unethical. I wish that every one of you could read the FBI report which has been the subject of many references. Bert has an ability, under the law, to get the FBI report under the Freedom of Information Act and make it public. They interviewed, I guess, a hundred people--three of those people were in the Comptroller's Office; three additional ones were in the Department of Justice. And the FBI questioned them about these same allegations, and the response of those, I think, all men, six men, were unanimously almost effusive in their recommendation of Bert. But now their testimony under the pressure of Senate interrogation is a little bit different. But at the time that the Senate investigated first, I think the information was offered to them. Obviously, a lot of new questions have been raised. But in general, I'm still keeping an open mind about it.

There is a similar system of discrimination, extending far beyond a small geographical region to the entire globe; it touches every nation, perpetuating and expanding the trafficking in human slaves, body mutilation, and even legitimized murder on a massive scale. This system is based on the presumption that men and boys are superior to women and girls, and it is supported by some male religious leaders who distort the Holy Bible, the Koran, and other sacred texts to perpetuate their claim that females are, in some basic ways, inferior to them, unqualified to serve God on equal terms. Many men disagree but remain quiet in order to enjoy the benefits of their dominant status. This false premise provides a justification for sexual discrimination in almost every realm of secular and religious life.