I don't know about the Carter oopsie, but there was an incident during
the planning stages of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (the joint
US-Soviet mission in 1975) -
During a pre-flight visit to the Soviet training facility, one of the US
astronauts complimented one of his Soviet counterparts on his piloting
ability by saying "You could fly this backwards!" Unfortunately, the
translator translated this as "You fly with your <back end> forward!"
(definitely not a compliment). There were some hard feelings until
everyone figured out what had happened...
Paul Silbermann National Air and Space Museum
[log in to unmask] Archives Division
**************These opinions are mine, not NASM's**************