Soviet help for Carter presidency. (Insider Reports).

Former President Jimmy Carter's post-White House career has included innumerable trips to other countries to advise foreigners about how to run elections. But he showed a more ruthless side as president when he was trying to keep the reins of electoral power in his hands. Indeed, as the campaign for the White House was winding down in 1980, Carter dispatched Armand Hammer to the Soviet embassy to seek Moscow's help in manipulating the voting in the U.S.

Armand Hammer, a longtime KGB asset, was a friend of the Kremlin since the days of Lenin. Hammer told Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin that President Carter was "clearly alarmed at the way things stood in the election campaign" against Ronald Reagan, an episode described in Peter Schweizer's new book Reagan's War.

Hammer told the Soviet ambassador that if Moscow would make a gesture boosting Carter's popularity--such as increasing Jewish emigration in time to make a difference in several key states -- "Carter won't forget that service if he is reelected." Such a gesture might also improve President Carter's image as someone who could deal effectively with the Soviet Union, Hammer informed Dobrynin.

Schweizer found repeated instances where Carter attempted to persuade the Soviet ...