Carter and Human Rights
* What: Carter was the first and only US president to proclaim human rights the center of foreign relations. As Cambodia and East Timor both show (see Sections One and Two), it was not a practice uniformly followed, with huge gaps and contradictions. But Carter's policy did save many lives, very imperfectly. Many dissidents in right wing and military dictatorships were saved. Dictatorships limited their repression or even ended sooner because of Carter.
* Even more surprising to those on the right who think little of Carter, his human rights policy enormously aided dissidents in Communist countries and helped bring that evil system to an end, far more effectively than hardline anti Communism from Reagan and others that prolonged the Cold War. (See Section Four.)
* The Number of Lives Saved: The Carter administration claimed over 40 countries changed for the better because of human rights pressure. Not all those claims stand up. But the following nations were better off directly because of Carter.
* The dictatorship of Argentina cut off military ties to the US and turned to Britain and Israel for weapons and military training. This made them far more vulnerable during the Falklands War with Britain, leading to the dictatorship's fall. Reagan overturned the weapons ban, publicly praising the dictatorship until the invasion of the Falkland Islands. While publicly neutral during the war, US intelligence aided the British. Carter's pressure saved lives in Argentina, with kidnappings by the military dropping from over 500 in 1978 to less than 50 in 1979. Some conservative critics like William Buckley later admitted they were wrong about Carter, that his intervention likely kept most prisoners from being executed. Perhaps 1,000 Argentinians were not kidnapped nor killed because of Carter.
* Bolivia's dictatorship refused US military aid because of Carter's pledges for human rights and democracy. The country stumbled through three corrupt elections in the late 1970s. A military dictatorship returned in 1980. General Luis Garcia Meza was so brutal and corrupt, including alliances with drug cartels and neo Nazis, that even Reagan agreed with Carter the US should have no ties to Meza. In 1982, Meza fell and was convicted of murder. After several other brief military dictatorships, democracy returned to Bolivia. Both Carter and Reagan deserve partial credit for Meza's fall.
* In Brazil, the Carter administration did aid the pro democracy movement. The military dictatorship did not end until five years after Carter's presidency. But when ex Carter visited Brazil as an ex president, human rights activists hailed him for aiding the return of Brazil's democracy.
* Carter also tried to stop Brazil from developing nuclear weapons, but did not succeed. He pushed two US banks to stop trade with Brazil's government and stopped nuclear material going from Germany to Brazil. The country's nuclear program did not end until the late 80s, when both the Brazilian and Argentinian governments agreed to end their rivalry.
* Chile's military dictatorship also cut off military ties to the US and publicly refused to hear criticisms about human rights. But just like Argentina, the dictatorship changed. There were no military kidnappings of dissidents in Chile after 1978. Chilean dictators killed perhaps 13,000 and falsely imprisoned 27,000 more. A very rough estimate is that, averaged out over the 27 years of dictatorship, Carter in two years saved perhaps 1,200 Chileans.
* In Cuba, Castro released 3,600 political prisoners in response to Carter's pressure. Later Castro released all US prisoners and any prisoner with dual citizenship. Carter tried to establish relations with Cuba, setting up a US Interest Section and planning to end the US embargo that harms Cubans far more than Castro. Carter halted recognizing Cuba when Castro sent troops to support the Ethiopian Communist dictatorship in the Ogaden War against Somalia.
* Carter and Castro did temporarily end the travel embargo on Cuba, letting 110,000 Cuban-Americans visit relatives in Cuba in 1979. This likely led to the discontent in Cuba that caused over 125,000 Cubans to flee to Florida in boats or by seeking refuge in embassies. There have been sensational claims about Castro dumping criminals and mentally ill among he refugees, most notably in the stereotype filled film Scarface. But one study found that such types only numbered about 2,700, less than 3% of all the refugees..
* In the Dominican Republic, the Carter administration prevented a military coup. The military stopped ballot counting in the 1978 election. Carter quietly sent a message saying the US would boycott the country. The military backed down, letting the count continue. Antonio Guzman, the winner of the election, thanked Carter. The Balaguer dictatorship of twelve years that arrested and killed many dissidents was ended by this election. In 1986, Balaguer returned to power. Reagan bizarrely praised him as the “father of Dominican democracy.” This is one of several countries where Reagan later undercut Carter and supported dictators.
* In Ecuador, Carter pledged to support the return of democracy in 1978, though he blocked the US sale of Israeli jets with American parts.
* Egypt signed the Camp Davis peace accords, ending the state of war with Israel and getting the Sinai Peninsula and the Israeli-occupied side of the Suez Canal returned plus funds and peacekeepers from the US to monitor the withdrawal and new Israeli-Egypt border. There were six conflicts in 25 years between Egypt and Israel before Camp David, killing from 80,000 to 100,000 on all sides. The peace achieved at Camp David successfully prevented perhaps a similar number of future wars and deaths.
* For his accomplishment, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize, and unlike either Obama or Kissinger, actually deserved it. For without Carter, there would never have been a peace. Both Egyptian and Israeli leaders were noted warmongers. Egypt's Sadat launched a bloody failed war against Israel in 1973. Begin started as an outright terrorist, killing not only Arabs and British, but extorting even from fellow Israelis, and a failed attempt to kill German Prime Minister Adenauer. Camp David was the high point of Carter's presidency, peace achieved almost entirely from his strenuous efforts, over the hardened objections of two dedicated enemies.
* El Salvador's dictator General Humberto Romero cut off US aid rather than be pressured on human rights. Moderate officers overthrew him and worked with civilian leaders. The US supported the new leadership, but they were pushed out by the right wing. Even so, Carter's people pushed for reforms, only to see limited land reform combined with repression and death squads. In El Salvador, it is clear Carter's policy failed. Toward the end Carter even sent military aid to fight guerillas. The only real success Carter could point to was getting the dictatorship to investigate the murder of four American nuns killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Several soldiers were convicted and officers fired, but the top officials responsible were never convicted or even charged.
* Guatemala's extremely repressive military dictatorship also refused US military aid rather than be pressured on human rights. Then the dictatorship briefly brought the Christian Democrats into the government. This lasted only a few months until death squads killed off the moderate leaders. In Guatemala, Carter's policy also failed. Reagan completely reversed what Carter tried in Central America, sending US bomber and advisers, sponsoring state terrorism and even genocide that killed 325,000 in the region. (See Section One.)
* In Haiti, dictator Jean Claude Duvalier released political prisoners as Carter came into office. Duvalier later re arrested many of the same people as soon as Carter left office and Reagan became president. Reagan still continued US aid to the dictator. In this case the failure is both Duvalier's and Reagan's.
* In Honduras, Carter successfully pressured the dictatorship into allowing elections, though the left was barred from taking part. Once more this progress was undone when Reagan came into office, when the US sent huge amounts of military aid to use Honduras as a base for terrorism against Nicaragua's elected government. Honduran civilian leaders were overthrown and the military dictatorship began again.
* In Indonesia, at least 30,000 political prisoners were set free, 10,000 every year for three years. Given dictator Suharto's record, it is almost certain most if not all would have been executed. This is Carter's second greatest success on human rights, besides aiding the fall of Communism, but also one of his lesser known.
* In Iran, the Shah of Iran tried democratic reforms, ending the arrest of most political prisoners, because of pressure from Carter. His dictatorship ending is partly due to Carter, a cause worthy of celebrating. The Shah's regime by most estimates killed 80,000 dissidents.
* Some revisionists tried to blame the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic regime on Carter. While it is certainly repressive, even today it is still more democratic than the Shah's dictatorship was. For its first five years, the Islamic Republic of Iran was democratic and represented the popular will of most Iranians. Its greatest repressiveness and corruption came later, actually after Carter left office.
* Israel signed the Camp Davids peace accords, ending a long state of war with Egypt.
Egypt had fought six wars with Israel, the most powerful enemy Israel faced. Camp David made Israel far more secure and eased quite a bit of tension in the Mideast. Egypt went from being allied to the Soviets to US allies. This was no better for Egyptians though, because in both cases Egypt's Sadat and his successor Mubarak were brutal dictators.
* For Palestinians, the Camp David accords did little beyond promise to keep talking. They were not represented at the talks, and their situation actually worsened over time. Carter himself in recent years described conditions in Gaza and the West Bank as “apartheid” with widespread segregation, discrimination, and the entire population collectively punished by the Israeli government. For this, Carter faced the ludicrous accusation of being an anti-Semite. Even including Truman's recognition, no US president has done more for Israel or Jews than Carter.
* In Jamaica, First Lady Rosalyn Carter pledged on behalf of her husband that the US would not try to overthrow the government as Nixon and Ford both tried before. Jamaican politically allied gangs called posses had terrorized Jamaica for much of the 1970s, killing hundreds. Their most notable victim was a failed murder attempt of Bob Marley, his wife, and manager. Political violence dropped off in Jamaica.
* In Nicaragua, the Carter administration called publicly for the end of the Somoza family dictatorship the US government had put in power and supported for over 40 years. But almost all credit for ending Somoza's dictatorship goes to the popular Sandinista movement, a wide coalition of Nicaraguan business, churches, farmers, labor unions, and students. At first the Carter administration called for compromise. When Somoza refused, the US instead called for him to leave. Most other US presidents would not have supported the Nicaraguan public. Johnson or Reagan would not have permitted the revolution to happen and likely sent US troops. Reagan later tried to overthrow the Sandinistas, organizing the Contra terrorists with US money, weapons, and advisers, killing 75,000 Nicaraguans. (See Section One.)
* In Pakistan the military dictatorship released 11,000 political prisoners because of pressure from Carter. Carter was far less successful in trying to prevent Pakistan from building nuclear weapons. Despite much pressure and a cutoff of aid, Pakistan had the bomb by 1988.
* The Panama Canal was returned, undoing an injustice of almost 80 years and likely preventing further deaths from riots or terrorism against the canal. Carter described the return of the canal as more difficult than getting elected president. Reagan in particular led a jingoistic campaign falsely claiming the canal was “ours.” Returning the canal improved US relations with all of Latin America since it was a symbol of US imperialism. The canal treaty was almost sabotaged by a demand from conservatives giving the US the “right” to invade. Another amendment was put in the treaty, pledging not to invade.
* Peru pledged to support democratic reforms in response to pressures from Carter. But the country's dictatorship had been failing even before Carter came into office. General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew the government back in 1968, but was himself overthrown in 1975 by General Francisco Bermudez. In 1979, Peru returned to democracy. Even this is not a cause entirely to be celebrated, for Peru's democracy was dominated by large landowners, and the dictatorship did achieve some reforms. Peru spent most of the 1980s in civil war. Carter can neither be credited nor blamed for most of what happened in Peru.
* Carter supported the UN boycott against South African apartheid. Reagan overturned the ban and worked with the apartheid regime. Apartheid finally ended when Bush Sr. was president. Most activists point to the anti-apartheid campaign as an example of human rights success in spite of Reagan.
* South Korea became more democratic partly because of pressure from Carter, but far more because of radical student protests. The military dictatorship informed the Carter administration in advance it would use force against demonstrators in Gwangju. Carter urged restraint and support for democracy, and also calm and order. To Carter's shock, the Korean military massacred as many as 2,000.
* Carter condemned the violence and repeated his earlier calls. The South Korean government published Carter's call for order, while repeatedly censoring his calls for peace and liberty. Many Koreans, hearing only the censored version, falsely believed Carter supported the massacre. Some US leftists, either for ideological reasons or simple sloppy research, repeat the lie to this day that Carter was to blame for Gwangju. Protests over the massacre eventually led to South Korean democracy in 1987.
* The Soviet Union allowed the immigration of many more Jews and released political prisoners. Up to 160,000 Jews were given refuge in the US under both Carter and Reagan. The Soviet Union's fall was partly due to Carter, though far more to Gorbachev and dissident protests. Carter and Soviet leaders also signed the SALT II treaty to limit nuclear weapons, in spite of right wing attempts to sabotage it. Congress never ratified the treaty but Carter and the Soviets still agreed to observe it. Reagan, despite quite a bit of bluster in his public statements in 1982 and 1985, decided to also abide by the treaty. (See final entry in this section.)
* In Zimbabwe, Carter successfully pressured a racist white minority into holding free elections, ending a system as evil as apartheid. Carter's actions were in line with what previous Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, as well as several British Prime Ministers, had worked for. A few conservatives blame Carter for the later dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. But this dictatorship did not arise until after Carter was out of office. Mugabe has since been publicly condemned by presidents from Reagan to Obama.
* For Communist China, Carter continued the recognition process begun by Nixon, but cut short because of Nixon's self destruction in the Watergate Scandal. Ideological Communists in China went into decline, replaced by more pragmatic ones favoring trade with the west. This did not immediately make China more democratic. Over 30 years later, China is still not close to being a democracy, but it is not as repressive as it once was. For this, part of the credit goes to both Nixon and Carter.
* A very rough estimate of dissident lives directly saved by Carter as president is at least 50,000. Up to 100,000 lives were possibly saved by the Camp David Accords. Another 125,000 Cubans and perhaps 80,000 Soviet Jews were given refuge from Communism by Carter. At least 25 nations became more democratic in part because of Carter.
* Who Also Gets the Credit:
* Protesters, especially church groups and intellectuals in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, deserve most of the credit for ending the Cold War. These include the labor union Solidarity, the Association of Young Democrats, Charter 77, and Swords Into Plowshares.
* Dissidents in the Third World, church groups, labor unions, socialists, and others who brought democracy back to regions of the world once dominated by dictatorships supported by the US government.
* Human rights and peace groups in the US, western Europe, and elsewhere, who worked with dissidents, publicized their causes, and lobbied for them in the west. Human rights and peace groups ranged from leftist pacifists to conservative anti-Communists to church groups on both the left and right to those lobbying for members of their fellow ethnic groups living under dictatorships.
* Jimmy Carter left office a very unpopular president, but today is consistently the most popular ex president of all time. Yet there remains a dedicated core that truly hates him with a passion usually reserved for, ironically, dictators. In part this group is made up of ideologues who remain convinced that such a man and a belief system cannot possibly be real or work in the real world. For their ideology, sometimes their very masculinity, is tied up in the image of America as strong and unbeatable, and to them Carter threatens that.
* Carter's election in 1976 was an enormous fluke. It is difficult to imagine him winning had he first run in 1972 or 1980. Only in the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal, CIA spying scandals, Vice President Agnew's leaving office under a bribery scandal, and over a decade of turmoil over the US-Vietnam War could an almost unknown governor become president. Carter was from outside of Washington, and the public wanted that. He was resolutely honest and sincere, and the public truly needed that after Nixon.
* Carter was also the most humane man to ever be US President. He bragged in his last State of the Union address that his biggest achievement was that no US soldier died in battle overseas while he was president. It is difficult to imagine any other president making such a statement. For the key to understanding Carter is that he is a man utterly dedicated to his faith. Except for Martin Luther King, there is no larger US figure of the twentieth century so devoted to his faith publicly, and using that faith to guide his actions.
* When Carter came into office, the US supported military dictatorships around the world in the name of fighting Communism. Most Latin American nations were under military rule, many of them put there by US coups, in some cases US troops. The US government also supported dictatorships in the Mideast and Asia with money, weapons, and often military and intelligence training. Outside of North America and Europe, democracies were outnumbered. One US president after another, in both parties, had been indifferent to human rights, as long as other nation's leaders were anti-Communist.
* Carter's human rights policy received enormous attention in the field of international affairs, both by those opposing it who want to insist in spite of all the evidence it could not possibly have worked, and by those favoring it who wished it worked even better. To the minds of “realists,” it could not possibly work, and those who even try are extremely naive. Yet the evidence is clear: It did work, in fact worked better than supposed realism.
* Even within his own administration, there was that tension between idealists and supposed realists. Cyrus Vance, Carter's Secretary of State and formerly of the Johnson administration, was seen as the idealist. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's National Security Adviser and a Colombia University professor, was the self proclaimed realist. Formerly from Poland, Brzezinski was a strong anti-Communist. For him, a focus on human rights was mostly a tool to embarrass, harass, and weaken Communist states.
* From the start, dedicated anti-Communists worried the focus on human rights would lead to defeats in the Cold War. No one said that criticism more loudly than Reagan, backed up by his later Ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick was one of the first neo conservatives in government. Like most neo conservatives, ironically she began her career trained as a Marxist. The more cynical observers argue neo conservatives were and are so eager to gain power they completely reverse or betray their previous views. One can find obvious Communist influence on neo conservatives, especially their propaganda techniques, willingness to use deception, and celebration of amorality in the name of winning long term goals.
* Kirkpatrick argued that right wing and military dictatorships were fine as long as they were anti-Communist since they would eventually become democratic, while Communist countries would never become democratic and always remain fanatic dictatorships. In fact this is the opposite of reality, and even when Kirkpatrick wrote that, anyone but the most blinded by propaganda could see this was wrong. Military dictatorships tend to only give up power by being forced out, and they often still insist on both veto power over what the public decides in elections and immunity from being punished for their atrocities. In contrast, except for North Korea, every other Communist country without exception allowed reforms, often became at least partly democratic or at least less oppressive. (See Section Three.) Just to take the most obvious examples that Kirkpatrick chose to ignore or lie about, the USSR became far less tyrannical after Stalin died, as did China after Mao died.
* Within Carter's administration, Vance and Brzezinski often clashed, with Brzezinski arguing, much like many conservatives, that human rights were less important than anti Communism. The invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR brought a more conservative approach by Carter. Carter was also challenged in his own party's primary by Ted Kennedy, the leading liberal, and also by John Anderson, one of the last liberal Republicans, running in 1980 as an independent. When Carter gave up on diplomacy to rescue US hostages in Iran and tried a military rescue, Vance resigned in protest. By this time, April 1980, the human rights focus had been almost abandoned even by Carter himself.
* Many tend to forget that, except for the most ideological conservatives, most of the anger or derision aimed at Carter came late in his presidency. He was a popular president for the first three years in office. The one defining event for those who dislike him was the Iran hostage crisis. Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran and held 50 officials hostage for over a year and half. Had the rescue mission in Iran succeeded, Carter likely would have been re elected. If so, it is hard to say if he would have governed somewhat like Reagan, or would have returned to his earlier reform efforts. Ending Communism ultimately rose or fell based on its own failures or successes, or reform efforts from within.
* Carter was not the only US President brought down by a hostage crisis. Other US citizens were held hostage in the Mideast under both Reagan and Bush Sr. Reagan became so frustrated over their fate he was willing to trade over 800 US missiles plus aircraft fighter parts to Iran for these hostages. The effort backfired disastrously. No hostages were ever released, and the ensuing scandal, Iran-Contra, caused Reagan to leave office in disgrace and even more unpopular than Carter had been.
* It would not be until a third US president, George Bush Sr., faced yet another hostage crisis that the solution to such terrorism became clear. During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein threatened that over 800 Americans and other westerners would be used as hostages against US and Allied bombing. This was a crisis with over fifteen times as many potential victims. But Bush pointedly ignored Hussein's threats, saying publicly he would continue the war undeterred. Hussein never carried out his threats, backed down, and allowed all hostages to leave.
* Bush's success at ending this hostage taking was stunning. Who would have imagined the way to free hostages was to almost ignore the threats against them? Yet it is difficult to imagine either Carter or Reagan doing what Bush did without suffering greatly politically. Carter had the bad luck to have the hostage crisis begin when there was a slow news cycle and a media, in the years after Watergate, dedicated to proving how critical they could be of presidents. A similar hostage crisis under Lyndon Johnson, the seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea, had little effect on public opinion of him.
* Carter is today the most admired ex president of all time, and his humanitarian endeavors make him the greatest of all former presidents. (See Appendix.) The core of his critics are too ideologically fanatic to be convinced, no matter what the evidence, and indeed take pride in their ignorance. It would be a shame were Carter's great humane endeavors as an ex president to ironically overshadow equally great deeds as president.
* In 1980, Henry Forde, the foreign minister of Barbados, speaking at the Organization of American States, summed up the view of Carter held by much of the world:
* "It is our view that it [the human rights policy] has been the single most creative act of policy in the hemisphere in many a long year. It has raised the consciousness and stirred the consciences of many a leader in this region. It has given hope to many an oppressed citizen. It has helped, perhaps more than any other element of policy, to correct the image of the United States as an unfeeling giant, casting its shadow over its neighbors."