Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

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anti-American leftist extreme. Visa refusals, he wrote, played into the hands of Communist governments, giving them the opportunity to label the U.S. as “reactionary.” 23 Denying a visa was also a missed chance to favorably influence an extremist’s political views. As part of his efforts to reform U.S. visa policy, Lister prepared several airgrams for ARA embassies in the early to mid-1960s encouraging posts to be open to granting visas to some political extremists. 24 Additionally, during a three-year period in the mid-1960s, he intervened personally in approximately 100 visa cases. 25 Lister took special care to intervene in cases regarding high-profile Latin American intellectuals. In February 1966, Lister intervened to assist Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet but also a Socialist politician, in obtaining a visa to attend an international writer’s conference in New York City. 26 In 1971, he helped assure that leftist Colombian novelist Gabriel García Marquez had no difficulties obtaining a visa to receive an honorary degree at Columbia University. 27 In Marquez’s case, Lister flew to Kennedy airport in New York to greet Marquez and his wife personally, assist them through customs, and bring them to their hotel. 28 Lister apparently helped to convince the Department to craft a visa policy to his liking. “After considerable difficulty and hard plugging it has been possible to develop a very liberal and politically sophisticated visa policy for Latin America,” Lister wrote in 1967. 29 Lister observed that the U.S.’s reformed visa policy was noticed by Communist governments, which began issuing public statements “warning 35
Latin Americans to watch out for [the U.S.’s] ‘new’ visa policy and the ‘new Yankee offensive on the cultural front.’” 30 Lister found the response by Communist governments to be “reassuring and [a] heart warming sign that our tactics are sound.” 31 Daily Propaganda Battles On a day-to-day basis, Lister was alert to potential opportunities to embarrass Communist supporters and sympathizers. For instance, in 1964, when Salvador Allende, leader of the Socialist Party in Chile, was running for President, Lister drew attention to an interview Allende had given to an Italian newspaper. In the interview, Allende reportedly had said that “we will make Socialism [in Chile] like the Cubans” and that he hoped to achieve the “same result” as in Cuba but “by an electoral method.” 32 Lister argued that the Department should “find appropriate ways to have [Allende] hit quickly, hard and often on this one.” 33 Some of Lister’s suggestions for advancing U.S. interests were particularly sly. In May 1967, looking beyond his immediate focus on Latin America, Lister suggested to Harriman that the U.S. “arrange for skillful, unattributed propaganda exploitation of available material” showing that the Hanoi government in North Vietnam was aligned with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt. 34 Lister argued that showing a North Vietnamese-Egyptian alignment could weaken the resolve of Jewish leaders in the anti-war movement. 35 It is unclear how far Lister’s 36
Page 1 and 2: Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007
Page 3 and 4: Impacting Foreign Policy as a Mid-L
Page 5 and 6: Impacting Foreign Policy as a Mid-L
Page 7 and 8: Chile..............................
Page 9 and 10: contributions to U.S. foreign polic
Page 11 and 12: etween personalities and more as a
Page 13 and 14: duties but not jeopardize his caree
Page 15 and 16: 21 Morton H. Halperin and Patricia
Page 17 and 18: younger sister. As Lister’s long-
Page 19 and 20: as an ideological battle that the U
Page 21 and 22: February 1955, Lister received a le
Page 23 and 24: wanted to bring the entire Socialis
Page 25 and 26: Schlesinger soon began working toge
Page 27 and 28: espects Saragat more than vice-vers
Page 29 and 30: Socialist Party that this office ha
Page 31 and 32: First, his contacts with Italian So
Page 33 and 34: eceptive to the Italian Socialists
Page 35 and 36: 64 George Lister, “Political Less
Page 37 and 38: As he frequently did though, Lister
Page 39 and 40: Impact in the Bureau of Inter-Ameri
Page 41: leaders,” Lister wrote in 1971. 1
Page 45 and 46: Lister’s facility with explaining
Page 47 and 48: away from the Communists, much as h
Page 49 and 50: Domingo as part of an inter-departm
Page 51 and 52: the crisis was “interesting and i
Page 53 and 54: War effort. Besides his propaganda
Page 55 and 56: Affairs to ask that the U.S. press
Page 57 and 58: win the ideological battle against
Page 59 and 60: 31 Ibid. 32 Memo, George Lister to
Page 61 and 62: 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Ibid. 107 C
Page 63 and 64: ights suddenly became a major U.S.
Page 65 and 66: international human rights experts
Page 67 and 68: Rights, Carter reiterated that U.S.
Page 69 and 70: Reagan’s human rights policy was,
Page 71 and 72: When, as a result of the hearings,
Page 73 and 74: Human rights were rhetorically usef
Page 75 and 76: substantial,” Shlaudeman said.
Page 77 and 78: a reporter as “Mr. Human Rights.
Page 79 and 80: encourage improvement. As if to und
Page 81 and 82: Lister won plaudits from Patricia D
Page 83 and 84: ut the hearings were the starting p
Page 85 and 86: moment. The bureau had already been
Page 87 and 88: democratic opposition leaders. List
Page 89 and 90: greater attention to human rights v
Page 91 and 92: occurred. Lister’s own toughness
Page 93 and 94:
ability to update the State Departm
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a wide open society, essentially de
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wing regimes, you had to be against
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convinced that clear, reliable info
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he had reduced mistrust, Lister hel
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49 Telephone interview by Gregory K
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117 Ibid., p. 13. 118 Report, Georg
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Chapter 5. Human Rights Case Studie
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The Carter administration had campa
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the Sandinista government became in
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the Sandinistas, but he did not cha
Page 115 and 116:
of the 1980s. Lister’s relationsh
Page 117 and 118:
opinion of the text. Lister suggest
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Lister wrote to Assistant Secretary
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that the USG is pro-Pinochet, you a
Page 123 and 124:
concern about Chile, the Reagan adm
Page 125 and 126:
violations by the Pinochet governme
Page 127 and 128:
luncheons with the Chilean Congress
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how Lister managed to have such a l
Page 131 and 132:
62 Letter, Kim Dae Jung to George L
Page 133 and 134:
129 Library of Congress, Authoritar
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movement—in particular, by insist
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Lister’s other political base was
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State Department as well as human r
Page 141 and 142:
open a political conversation with
Page 143 and 144:
Archival Documents Bibliography Abr
Page 145 and 146:
Lister, George. Memo to Mr. William
Page 147 and 148:
Lister, George. Memo to ARA Office
Page 149 and 150:
Lister, George. Memo to Elliott Abr
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U.S. State Department. Career Histo
Page 153 and 154:
Library of Congress, Chile: The Con
Page 155 and 156:
Shlaudeman, Harry. Former Assistant
Page 157 and 158:
Memorial Service for George Lister.
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