CARTER AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Policy Ideas
  • Carter was a more left wing president than many previous US presidents
  • Asked the US public to “put aside their inordinate fear of Communism”- this marked a departure in traditional US Cold War presidents
  • He promised to reduce the US military presence overseas and encourage NATO members to pay more for their own defence, reduce arm sales (this had reached $10 billion per annum under Nixon) and introduce a new round of nuclear weapons talks in order to slow down the global arms race
  • Instead he wanted to focus on environmental and human rights issues but he found it difficult to shift US public opinion
Problems
  • Divided Administration: National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeshinski was an anti-Communist hardliner and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was in favour “quiet diplomacy”.
  • External Problems: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (led to deterioration of détente and US boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympics) and Islamic Revolution in Iran (deposed a key Middle Eastern ally in the Shah and led to the Tehran US Embassy Hostage Crisis). Partially as a result of these problems, Defence budget rose to over $15 billion per annum.
Success
  • Camp David Peace Accords of 1979: Egypt became the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel and agreed to a roadmap for peace.
  • Panama Canal: The US had signed an agreement with Panama in 1903 that gave the right to build a canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Additionally, they agreed to lease the land from Panama for $250,000 per year plus $10 million and had the right to take military action if necessary to protect the canal. In 1977, Carter signed two treaties with Panamanian president Omar Torrijos that returned the canal (and the land) to Panama, who formally took control on the last day of December 1999.  The second treaty guaranteed the neutrality of the canal at all times and could not be shut to any vessel.
  • Carter also saw to it that military and economic assistance could be denied to governments with a poor human rights record. Guatemala, Argentina and Chile all lost their US funding under this law. Carter also withdrew support for the Somoza regime in Nicaragua as the left-wing Sandinistas began to gain control.
However…
  • Events in Afghanistan reversed these more progressive developments in Latin America
  • Even though Carter recognized the newly-formed Sandinista government in Nicaragua in 1979, gave them $8 million in emergency relief and promised another $75 million, a coup in El Salvador later that year prompted more US fears that dominoes were falling Central America, as had done earlier in Southeast Asia.
  • In El Salvador, after initially supporting a progressive Junta, Carter withdrew his support and began to fund a more right-wing group- in spite of pleas from Archbishop Oscar Romero not to fund them. This group formed a government and were responsible for many political murders. In 1980, they assassinated Romero and committed 10,000 other murders. He also eventually withdrew support for the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
  • The situation in El Salvador was emblematic of the Carter Administration’s policy in Latin America. After promising to take US Foreign Policy in a more progressive direction, Carter reverted to traditional policies of containment and anti-communist paranoia- largely because of a divide cabinet and a panicked reaction to external events.
Significance of Carter’s policies
  • The success of the Camp David Accords was built on by the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993 (Under the presidency of Bill Clinton). By this time, Jordan became the second Arab state to formally recognize Israel. In Oslo, Israel formally recognized the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and promised to begin withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from Palestinian territory (Gaza Strip and West Bank).
  • President Ronald Reagan (1980-88) funded the Contra rebels against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
  • Reagan supported El Salvador’s Napoleon Duarte with financial and military aid to prevent loss of power to left-wing groups with strong Cuban links while encouraging him to implement democratic and humanitarian reforms.
  • The USSR got revenge for the US Olympic boycott by boycotting the games in Los Angeles in 1984.
  • The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan became their “Vietnam” and contributed the USSR’s eventual collapse in 1991.
  • The US launched economic sanctions against Iran which have only recently been temporarily relaxed. The US also funded Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88.
  • Carter’s human rights policies helped put pressure on the Soviet Union and galvanized opposition in their satellite states in Eastern Europe.