1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814891403321

Autore

Schmidli William Michael <1979->

Titolo

The fate of freedom elsewhere [[electronic resource] ] : human rights and U.S. Cold War policy toward Argentina / / William Michael Schmidli

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, NY, : Cornell University Press, 2013

ISBN

0-8014-6962-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (273 p.)

Disciplina

327.73082

Soggetti

Human rights - Argentina

Human rights - Government policy - United States

United States Foreign relations Argentina

Argentina Foreign relations United States

United States Foreign relations 1945-1989

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Human Rights and the Cold War -- 1. From Counterinsurgency to State-Sanctioned Terror: Waging the Cold War in Latin America -- 2. The "Third World War": U.S.-Argentine Relations, 1960-1976 -- 3. "Human Rights Is Suddenly Chic": The Rise of The Movement, 1970-1976 -- 4. "Total Immersion in All the Horrors of the World": The Carter Administration and Human Rights, 1977-1978 -- 5. On the Offensive: Human Rights in U.S.-Argentine Relations, 1978-1979 -- 6. "Tilting against Gray-Flannel Windmills": U.S.-Argentine Relations, 1979-1980 -- Conclusion: Carter, Reagan, and the Human Rights Revolution -- Abbreviations Used in the Notes -- Notes -- Primary Sources -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

During the first quarter-century of the Cold War, upholding human rights was rarely a priority in U.S. policy toward Latin America. Seeking to protect U.S. national security, American policymakers quietly cultivated relations with politically ambitious Latin American militaries-a strategy clearly evident in the Ford administration's tacit support of state-sanctioned terror in Argentina following the 1976 military coup d'état. By the mid-1970's, however, the blossoming human rights



movement in the United States posed a serious threat to the maintenance of close U.S. ties to anticommunist, right-wing military regimes. The competition between cold warriors and human rights advocates culminated in a fierce struggle to define U.S. policy during the Jimmy Carter presidency. In The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere, William Michael Schmidli argues that Argentina emerged as the defining test case of Carter's promise to bring human rights to the center of his administration's foreign policy. Entering the Oval Office at the height of the kidnapping, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of Argentines by the military government, Carter set out to dramatically shift U.S. policy from subtle support to public condemnation of human rights violation. But could the administration elicit human rights improvements in the face of a zealous military dictatorship, rising Cold War tension, and domestic political opposition? By grappling with the disparate actors engaged in the struggle over human rights, including civil rights activists, second-wave feminists, Chicano/a activists, religious progressives, members of the New Right, conservative cold warriors, and business leaders, Schmidli utilizes unique interviews with U.S. and Argentine actors as well as newly declassified archives to offer a telling analysis of the rise, efficacy, and limits of human rights in shaping U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War.