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

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Chapter 1. “Mr. Human Rights” Early in 1941, months before the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent U.S. entry into WWII, a recent graduate of The City College of New York named George Lister moved to Bogotá, Colombia in search of adventure and employment opportunities. 1 Soon after arriving, by chance he met an officer from the U.S. Embassy. 2 Lister had previous experience working at a bank, and so the Embassy hired him to work in its commercial section. 3 Lister eventually took and passed the Foreign Service exam, beginning his diplomatic career in December 1945. 4 Lister’s service to the State Department would not be short-lived. Until 2002, Lister maintained an office in the State Department. 5 In total, his State Department career spanned 61 years and 12 Presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. The history of U.S. foreign policy is often written from the perspective of Presidents, cabinet members, and other high-ranking foreign policy officials. Those individuals explicitly entrusted with the authority to make major foreign policy decisions are thought to be the ones with the most influence and impact. Over the course of his lengthy career, George Lister never served as Secretary of State or as an Assistant Secretary with responsibility for a State Department bureau. He was never selected for an Ambassadorship—the position most coveted by career Foreign Service officers. Yet, those who knew him thought that he made fundamental 1
contributions to U.S. foreign policy, especially in giving a higher priority to human rights. Lister spent most of the early part of his career working abroad at U.S. embassies. In addition to Colombia, Lister’s assignments included Poland, the U.S.S.R., and Germany. 6 Between 1957 and 1961, Lister served as the First Secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. 7 For the remainder of his career, Lister was based in Washington, D.C. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Lister served in the Department’s Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, his work centering on the promotion of democracy in Latin America. 8 Human rights legislation passed in the 1970s led, among other consequences, to the designation of human rights officers in every bureau. In 1974, Lister became the first human rights officer for Latin American. 9 In 1981, he joined the State Department’s new human rights bureau, then called the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. 10 Lister officially retired in 1982, but he continued to work in the human rights bureau as an unpaid policy advisor until 2002. 11 He passed away in 2004. 12 In the last decade of his career, Lister received plenty of accolades. Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a friend of Lister’s, described Lister to a reporter as “Mr. Human Rights.” 13 In 1992, the Government of Chile invited Lister to Chile to receive an award for his role in restoring Chilean democracy. 14 In 1997, Lister was nominated, but not chosen, for the Warren M. Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs. 15 In 1998, Kim Dae Jung invited Lister to his 2
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Page 7: Chile..............................
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 and 42: leaders,” Lister wrote in 1971. 1
Page 43 and 44: Latin Americans to watch out for [t
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
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31 Ibid. 32 Memo, George Lister to
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104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Ibid. 107 C
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ights suddenly became a major U.S.
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international human rights experts
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Rights, Carter reiterated that U.S.
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Reagan’s human rights policy was,
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When, as a result of the hearings,
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Human rights were rhetorically usef
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substantial,” Shlaudeman said.
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a reporter as “Mr. Human Rights.
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encourage improvement. As if to und
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Lister won plaudits from Patricia D
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ut the hearings were the starting p
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moment. The bureau had already been
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democratic opposition leaders. List
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greater attention to human rights v
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occurred. Lister’s own toughness
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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
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of the 1980s. Lister’s relationsh
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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
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concern about Chile, the Reagan adm
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violations by the Pinochet governme
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luncheons with the Chilean Congress
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how Lister managed to have such a l
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62 Letter, Kim Dae Jung to George L
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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
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open a political conversation with
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Archival Documents Bibliography Abr
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Lister, George. Memo to Mr. William
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Lister, George. Memo to ARA Office
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Lister, George. Memo to Elliott Abr
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U.S. State Department. Career Histo
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Library of Congress, Chile: The Con
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Shlaudeman, Harry. Former Assistant
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Memorial Service for George Lister.
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Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

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