(gentle inspirational music) (gentle inspirational music continues) - Welcome to "Georgia Legends."

I'm Jeff Hullinger, inside the Atlanta History Center.

Sam Nunn is the third longest-tenured senator from the state of Georgia.

His work, making the world a safer place from weapons of mass destruction, is indisputable.

His fingerprints on the US' military, indelible.

I sat down with the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee to talk about his illustrious career, his life, and his legacy.

(majestic music) He was one of the most influential senators of the late 20th century, leaving his indelible mark on all things related to the military and national defense, from restructuring US and NATO's response to the Soviet military threat, to nuclear detente and disarmament, always striving to make the world safer from weapons of mass destruction.

During his tenure in Washington, Sam Nunn would be called the Democrat's Supreme Commander on Defense Matters, and gain the reputation as the most strategic thinker on Capitol Hill.

Quite the resume for a man from a small town in middle Georgia.

(gentle upbeat music) Samuel Augustus Nunn, Jr.

was born in Macon, Georgia, on September 8th, 1938.

Sam was the second child of Mary Elizabeth Nunn and Samuel Augustus Nunn, Sr.

Nunn's father was a lawyer, farm owner, and the mayor of Perry, Georgia.

His mother, a homemaker, an older sister, Harriet Betty Nunn, was born in 1936.

- 48 when he got married.

He was 50 when I was born.

He was born in 19, I mean, in 1888.

- [Jeff] Nunn lived in Perry with his parents, but he did some work on the nearby family farm.

- I spent a lot of time out there with my father, but we lived in town, and so my first jobs were not on the farm.

My first job was with my basketball coach.

Teachers never have gotten paid enough.

They still don't.

But they really didn't get paid much back then.

He had a worm farm in his backyard as a part of supplementing his income.

So he sold, to the local fishermen, jars of worms, had a big manure pile.

So my first job was digging in the manure pile, finding big, fat worms, and putting them in a jar.

It was not a high-paying job, but it was good practice for way to experience in politics.

- [Jeff] He also learned about being a member of a close-knit town where life's lessons were often taught by the collective community.

(bat smacks ball) (crowd cheering) One evening while working as a bat boy at the local semi-pro baseball team, Nunn decided that he wanted to keep one of the team's baseballs.

- I didn't have a baseball, so I stuck it in the bushes and said, "I'll come back and get it later."

Petty theft, but important principal violated.

- [Jeff] When he got home, his father was waiting.

- I walk in about 10 o'clock at night after a baseball game and having hid one ball, that was the first time I'd ever done it.

And he puffed and said, "How'd the game go?"

I said, "It was great."

He said, "Sam, you are gonna take back that baseball, aren't you?"

And I said, "Yes, sir, now that you put it like that."

Somebody had called him and told him that they saw me.

So the town expected better of me.

You know, my father expected better of me.

So that was a real expectation, and that's symbolic of a small town, made a big difference in my approach to little things.

- [Jeff] Nunn was active in the Boy Scouts, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, an honor student and a standout athlete in high school, co-captaining the high school basketball team and playing for the high school coach who gave him his first job.

- I was not talented, and I was not big, I was not strong, I was not fast.

I say, jokingly, I played basketball back when you could be short and slow.

But I had a coach who was a psychologist, and I probably heard him say 10,000 times, "If you're going to win, if you're going to be a great contributor to this team, you gotta pay a price.

You gotta pay a price."

What he meant was training, work, teamwork, shooting a lot, running a lot, he meant you gotta pay the price.

- [Jeff] The Perry High School basketball team would go onto the state championship his senior year in 1956.

The coach, Eric Staples, ever the psychologist, gave the team an unusual speech after trailing the other team by two points at halftime.

- "Boys, they're bigger than we are, they're stronger than you are, they can jump higher, they're fast as lightning, they're well coached, and they're good shooters.

You have played as well as you could play."

He said, "We're probably gonna lose this ball game, but I want you to know how proud I am of you, and they just have more talent."

He walks out.

(Jeff chuckles) We were so angry with the coach, we couldn't contain it.

I mean, none of us figured it out until years later.

We went out, we ended up winning the game by 20 points.

He knew us.

- [Jeff] It, too, would provide a lifelong lesson.

- It had a big effect on my life in terms of teamwork, in terms of discipline, in terms of you've gotta pay the price.

- [Jeff] In 1956, Nunn contemplated going to Auburn or Georgia Tech.

Both had something Nunn was interested in, good SEC basketball teams and a Navy ROTC program.

While neither offered him an athletic scholarship, Georgia Tech's coach scouted Nunn while he was playing in the North-South High School All-Star game and offered him a chance at a future scholarship if he came to Georgia Tech.

While his dream of making the team came true, he had less luck getting into the Navy ROTC.

- The first day at Georgia Tech, my first test was an eye test physical for Navy ROTC.

I never worn glasses.

I never had an eye test.

I couldn't see at all.

I had 20/80 vision, but you had to have like 20/30 correctable, something of that nature.

And so I could not get in Naval ROTC.

So I was in Army ROTC, but I still had that sort of itch for the Navy, so a fraternity brother of mine had joined the Coast Guard for six months.

And my dad was ill then, I knew I had, at some point, a responsibility back home, and so the six months in the Coast Guard at Cape May, New Jersey, enlisting was appealing to me.

And I looked into it, and signed up, and got in, and went.

After my junior year at Tech, I knew by that stage I wanted to go to law school.

So I went six months to Cape May, New Jersey, enlisted, and came back and went directly into law school.

At that stage, you could go three years of undergraduate if your record was okay, and then go directly into law school.

You did not have to have a degree.

- [Jeff] He would continue in the Coast Guard as a reservist until 1968, reaching the rank of petty officer.

Nunn decided to finish his undergraduate work at Emory University when he was done with his Coast Guard commitment.

He went on to complete his law degree there in 1962.

After passing the bar, Nunn took a job in Washington, D.C.

- I had spent a year in Washington right out of law school, '62 to '63, and that was one of the most eventful years of my life.

I was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee.

My great uncle was the chairman of that committee, Carl Vinson, and he told me if I passed the bar exam, I could come up and work as a staff lawyer.

My father was ill, so I just stayed one year, and that was a huge factor.

I probably would've wanted to stay much longer if that was not the case.

But lo and behold, right in the middle of about six months into my service in '62, that would've been October of '62, my boss was named John J. Courtney, and wonderful Irishman, he came in and said, "Sam, I've got a death in my family.

I cannot go on an Armed Services Appropriation Committee" staff, this was not senators and congressmen, top staff people, Senate-House Armed Services Appropriation, "Air Force trip to NATO."

And he said, "Would you like to take my place?"

I said, "Of course."

And lo and behold, the Cuban Missile Crisis breaks out right in the middle of that.

So everywhere we went, we were being briefed by the top Air Force people.

We were being shown maps.

We were right there in Wiesbaden Air Force Base, right at the peak of the danger.

We thought the war was gonna happen at any time.

Made a huge impression on me in so many different ways.

For one, how short the decision time was, how crucial the decisions were.

And then, of course, the next day we were in Norway, Khrushchev backed off the crisis, the world breathed a huge sigh of relief, and so did we, and that was the way I got so involved in not only the nuclear risk, nuclear dangers, can we make the world safer, but also decision time, realizing how short the decision time is.

That trip, in 1962, not only got me very interested in perhaps running for political office, but also had a lot to do with my focus on NATO, on military affairs, on trying to reduce nuclear risk.

One other thing, Jeff, and it also had to do with my own personal life, 'cause I met my wife-to-be, I had never met her before.

Right after Khrushchev backed down, the next stop after Norway was Paris.

- And she was with the CIA?

- She didn't tell me that at the stage.

But she was in the American Embassy, and she was a, quote, "agricultural attache," but she was in the CIA.

So a couple of years later, we got married.

So that, to say the least, was an eventful trip.

- Did you know right away that this was going to be your spouse?

- [Nunn] Well, I kid her by saying, "I fell in love, first sight, first date."

She picked me up late at night.

We rode around.

She had had to entertain some guests with the embassy, and I fell in love.

And I tell her it was because of the euphoria of Khrushchev backing down, I was just in a euphoric moment.

But, in any event, I really did fall in love.

She didn't, and it took three years for me to close the deal.

In any event, it was a big moment in my life and a great decision.

She played a huge role in my whole political career.

- [Jeff] In 1963, he returned to Perry to set up a law practice and help his ailing father run the family farm.

After a few years, Nunn's lifelong sense of community and his new sense of public service moved him to run for the Georgia State House of Representatives.

Campaigning was a new and important experience for him.

- I kind of forced myself the first two or three weeks to really shake hands with everybody and meet everybody, and I got where I enjoyed it.

- Yeah.

- I enjoyed it.

I wouldn't want to do it 24 hours a day, you know, seven days a week for the rest of my life.

But campaigning actually is a tremendous education in terms of getting prepared to represent the people of Georgia.

- [Jeff] After getting elected, Nunn spent just one term in office.

But, during that time, he contemplated a more ambitious role.

- My aspiration was to be a member of the House of Representatives.

I never thought I could be a United States Senator.

I didn't look in the mirror and see a senator staring back.

- [Jeff] When one of George's US Senate seats became open in 1972, he took his shot.

David Gambrell had been appointed to fill the seat by Governor Jimmy Carter after the death of longtime Senator Richard B. Russell.

But Nunn decided to run for the open seat and eventually beat Gambrell in the primary.

While he was not Jimmy Carter's first choice for the job, he eventually came to support Nunn in the general election.

- Carter supported me vigorously in the general election, which was a tough general election in 1972, when Nixon was winning 76% of the vote against McGovern in Georgia.

So Carter was a big factor.

So we worked together for a long time.

I had great admiration for him, and I really got to know him when I traveled with him.

- [Jeff] The lifelong Democrat would spend the next 26 years representing Georgia in the US Senate quietly gaining power and gaining influence.

- I'm pleased to bring, before the Senate, S1352, the National Defense Authorization Act.

- [Jeff] He would chair the Armed Services Committee for eight years during the late eighties and early nineties, and become a trusted and experienced expert in the US Senate on national security and national defense shaping US military policy and procurement.

Along the way, guiding and shaping the foreign policy of six presidential administrations.

In 1986, Nunn would team up with Republican Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona and helped create the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act, sweeping legislation that would reorganize the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, increase civilian control over the Department of Defense, and make defense spending more efficient.

While Goldwater's name was listed in the bill's title a tribute to his years of service, he was about to retire from the Senate.

The bill included many of Nunn's ideas and recommendations fostered during his time serving on the Armed Forces Committee during the previous decade.

It would create the most sweeping changes in US national defense in almost 30 years.

Throughout Ronald Reagan's second term, concerns grew about the growing defense budget and the impact on the national debt.

Nunn began to look at ways to make the US military more responsive to the changing threats from around the world.

He believed that NATO nations needed to shoulder more of the cost for their defense.

In 1985, an amendment he added to the military authorization bill would have drastically reduced US troops from Europe.

The amendment failed, but it did put NATO on notice.

And NATO countries eventually increased their stockpiles of weapons and ammunition to thwart any conventional Soviet attack.

He also took on the president's plan to house the new MX missiles in existing fixed silos, eventually forcing the Reagan administration to abandon the idea.

Nunn worked tirelessly to reduce the number of nuclear weapons from both the Soviets and the US, but.

more importantly, he wanted to reduce the risk of hair-triggered reactions from either side.

Three years earlier, Nunn, along with Senator John Warner, proposed the establishment of crisis control centers in Washington and Moscow.

The centers would exchange information on ballistic missile launches, nuclear accidents, and other incidents to help diffuse any potential crisis.

In 1987, President Reagan would sign an agreement with the Soviet Union that would establish the nuclear risk reduction centers in both countries.

During President George Herbert Walker Bush's term, Nunn would flex his power and influence again when he opposed the confirmation of John Tower for the Secretary of Defense.

He would delay the confirmation vote twice while the FBI investigated allegations that the senator received campaign money from Department of Defense contractors.

While charges were never brought against him, Nunn had other concerns.

Tower, who was a former four-term Republican senator from Texas, was also known as a hard drinker and a womanizer, things that Nunn believed made him unfit for the important cabinet position.

- Mr.

Nunn.

Mr.

Nunn, no.

- [Jeff] Nunn's stand would push Democrats to reject Tower in the final tally.

It was the first time in 30 years that a presidential cabinet nominee would not be confirmed.

In 1991, Nunn reached across the aisle, collaborating with Republican Senator Richard Lugar from Indiana to create the Nunn-Lugar Threat Reduction Act.

The legislation helped assist the Soviet Union account for and dispose of their weapons of mass destruction as the communist government crumbled and vast areas of the former Soviet Union separated into independent nations.

- I think we're too much governed by the whims of the moment, rather than the visions of the future.

- [Jeff] Considered a conservative Democrat, Nunn supported school prayer, amending the US Constitution to require a balanced budget, but opposed the push to allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military.

- [Nunn] So if they keep their views private, if they don't reveal anything about their private life, there's no problem, is that right?

- No problem with me at all.

- [Jeff] He also supported abortion rights, certain gun controls, and increased immigration.

In early 1991, Nunn voted against President George Bush's authorization for military force to remove Iraq troops from Kuwait, preferring to let us sanctions have an effect before committing troops.

- Iraq is isolated and suffering from the embargo, and time is on our side.

- [Jeff] A decision that he says he later regretted, and one that may have tempered any ambitions to run for even higher office.

- Back in the eighties and nineties, I had several opportunities to, say, throw my name in the hat if I had desired that position.

But I love the Senate, and I love the Armed Services Committee.

I love working with the military.

I felt I was getting things done, every now and then at least.

And so I never developed the burning desire, which is what you have to really have to run for president.

And if you're gonna be running for vice president, it means you really, at some point, would probably run for president.

And that burning desire is absolutely essential, I had it for the US Senate seat.

I had that burning desire, so I know it when I feel it.

And I never did have it for being president.

- [Jeff] In 1994, Nunn, along with Jimmy Carter and Colin Powell, went to Haiti, at President Bill Clinton's behest, to demand Haitian Dictator General Raoul Cedras step down and restore democratic rule.

The envoy succeeded in convincing the strongman to leave, averting a US military intervention on the matter.

- I have been in constant contact with them for the last two days.

They have worked tirelessly almost around the clock, and I wanna thank them for undertaking this crucial mission on behalf of all Americans.

- [Jeff] In 1995, Nunn announced his retirement from the US Senate saying he no longer had the zest and enthusiasm for the job.

- This has been a difficult decision made much harder for me, because of my deep respect for the many people who have encouraged me to run.

But I know in my heart it is time for me to follow a new course.

- [Jeff] After leaving public office, Sam Nunn returned to his first profession as a senior partner at King & Spalding Law Offices in Midtown Atlanta.

In 1996, he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for distinguished public service for his work and leadership, quote, "During a period of extraordinary challenge and change for the Department of Defense," end quote.

He served and continues to serve on various corporate boards such as Chevron, Coca-Cola, and General Electric.

He also received an honorary degree in '08 from Georgia Tech where he became a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.

- We have democratized the ability for people to learn how to make weapons of mass destruction if they have the raw material and the ingredients.

So you've got supply, and you've got demand, and you've got knowhow, proliferation, all the ingredients of a perfect storm.

That's why I've concluded that preventing catastrophic terrorism is the number one security challenge facing us in the 21st century.

And it's gonna take a global effort to be able to reduce that risk.

- [Jeff] Using the expertise gathered during his decades long career in Congress, Nunn teamed up with media mogul Ted Turner in January, 2001, to form the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

- We have a global challenge, and we are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe.

- [Jeff] The nonpartisan, nonprofit's goal is to reduce the threat of nuclear and biological weapons, as well as finding solutions to these threats.

Sam Nunn would continue to help lead the organization for the next few decades.

While Sam Nunn has slowed down a bit, he still enjoys a good game of golf or a long hike, a longtime member of Augusta National, as well as spending time with his two children and two grandchildren on the family farm in Perry, Georgia.

How much time do you spend thinking about your legacy?

As you grow older, is that a part of age?

Is that as much a part of, I don't know, grow growing older as health concerns?

- I think it is inescapable.

And when you're walking a little slower, and you're thinking a little slower, and you're writing a little slower, you start thinking about, "Well, what difference have I made?"

And I kind of think of a couple of things, one is I hope that I've somehow lived up to the expectations that my family had of me.

And I hope that I've lived up to the expectations that small-town community had of me.

They had high expectations, and that was one of the things that helped inspire me.

And then, second, I hope that, even in a troubled world, someone will say that, "Sam Nunn helped make the world a little safer than it otherwise would have been."

And the third thing that I would think about is that in the day where we have so much bitterness in our country, and in our politics, and political system, I hope that perhaps young people observing or reading about my career will come away with a feeling that you can be in politics and still conduct yourself with dignity and civility and respect all of those you deal with.

That is enormously important for young people to understand that, and to believe that they have a place in governance and in the political world where we have to have good leaders.

(gentle music) (gentle music fades) - Senator Nunn's still active with the Nuclear Threat Initiative and in public policy.

He likes to squeeze a round of golf at Augusta National when he can get the opportunity.

Few Georgians probably know the name Mary Willis, but her death, in the late 1880s, would move her father, Dr.

Francis T. Willis, to create the first free public library in the state.

It also houses something rarely seen outside of a major city.

I ventured to the small town of Washington in Wilkes County to check out the historic Queen Anne facility.

Just off the main street in Washington, Georgia, there is a stately old building, notable for its Queen Anne style of architecture.

It's antiquity sure to catch your eye, but it's what's inside the red-brick building that makes its historical importance and uniqueness.

- It is the oldest freestanding library in Georgia.

It opened its doors in 1889.

- [Jeff] Most libraries at the time charged a fee to be a member, allowing only the wealthy and the well-connected to have access to books.

- But when they opened this one up, they decided not to do that.

And so, yes, it's known for that.

- This was a real change agent at a time when it was a revolutionary thought.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

The access to books, access to information is important for a community, important for democracy.

So the fact that this community and the people, the wealthy people, realized that at that time and wanted to make that available to the public as a whole was a very big plus.

- [Jeff] The Mary Willis Library has something else quite remarkable.

- This is Tiffany stained glass.

A lot of folks come in to see just this alone, but the library itself is just so gorgeous.

But the middle panel we know is Mary Willis, the right panel is Shakespeare, and the left panel is Homer.

We believe that to be Homer.

A lot of people ask if this was originally a church, but it was not.

It was always built in memory of Mary Willis.

And, as you can see, these are literary figures, and Mary Willis is in the center.

- [Jeff] Katherine Gregory is the library's director.

- The library is named after Mary Willis, who was the daughter of Dr.

Francis Willis.

He grew up in this community, but then he later on moved to Richmond, Virginia.

His daughter passed away in her forties, and he wanted to do something for this community in memory of Mary Willis.

He paid for the building of the library, donated $2,000 for the start of the collection, as well as his own library collection.

- [Jeff] But it is the Tiffany glass, rarely seen outside the major cities of North America and Europe at the time, that somehow made its way here that draws so many people to the library.

- Since I've been the director here, we've actually had two couples get married in front of the Tiffany stained glass back kind of to the relation of the church.

But, again, this was never really a church.

It's definitely a piece of history.

And the architecture alone is pretty important.

The architect that did this library was Edmund Lind.

- [Jeff] Up top, in the attic, are the original wooden boxes that the stained-glass panels were shipped in.

- For whatever reason, they felt they wanted to keep the, maybe if something happened and they had to send them back or something.

But we still have the crates.

- [Jeff] There are other historical pieces at the library, too, like a chest believed to have been left by Jefferson Davis as he was dissolving the Confederate government about a block away.

It was the end of the Civil War.

- This is the Confederate treasure chest.

It was donated to the library when it was discovered in the basement of a bank.

For the longest time, they couldn't figure out how to unlock this.

But a locksmith from Atlanta figured out that it was underneath this area here.

And, apparently, it was a very intricate lock that it required to open it, so it was not actually over there.

And so it was a big thing when they first opened it up, there was a big gathering and everybody was excited to see what was inside of it.

And there was nothing inside of it, so the question of whatever happened to the Confederate gold is still an ongoing question going on today.

Nobody really knows actually what happened to it.

- [Jeff] More modern wings were added over the decades.

But being a library, the collection of books, many documenting the history of Washington and Wilkes County, are still a big draw.

- This is our local history room.

It brings in a lot of people from a lot of places that come back to look for their ancestors.

It's amazing, I mean, they've come from all over to come this area.

I've had people that come to the state from Alaska looking for their ancestors.

- What's your oldest book?

- So I've seen them 1850, maybe even as low as 1800.

- State and local funding help keep the library operating, and a variety of grants ensure that the preservation of the building's colorful past remains visible for its future generations.

Future of this library seems to be intact and in pretty good shape?

- I feel pretty good about it.

- Annexes, in 1971 and 1999, help keep the library current as it continues to serve the local community.

For "Georgia Legends," I'm Jeff Hullinger.

Thanks for watching.

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