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William Michael Schmidli , The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere: Human Rights and U.S. Cold War Policy Towards Argentina , Ithaca and London : Cornell University Press , 2013. Pp. 256. $39.95 (ISBN 978-0-8014-5196-6 ).
Book Reviews
Today, fighting terrorism is the central focus of United States foreign policy. However, in the late 1970s, President Carter's administration promoted human rights as the focal point of its diplomatic efforts. Schmidli's carefully researched and well-written book explores the Carter administration's adoption of human rights policies and the attendant tensions, conflicts, failures, and successes this decision generated. To do so, the author focuses on United States government relations with Argentina, because they offer a compelling example of the multiple issues that incorporating human rights into United States foreign policy entailed and engendered.
In 1976, the Argentine military overthrew the government of Isabel Perón and installed itself in power. It then proceeded to brazenly and brutally torture, murder, and "disappear" thousands of people (30,000 is the most commonly accepted number). Human rights movements, inspired by the protests of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, denounced the savagery, and demanded its cessation.
Carter, elected president in 1976, promised to make human rights central to United States foreign policy, a decision that appealed to the American public, much of which had been shocked and repulsed...