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

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Paul Wolfowitz agreed to a meeting. 126 The choice for regional bureaus was thus either to allow the human rights bureau to manage relationships with opposition leaders, or to engage the leaders themselves. If the former, the human rights bureau controlled an important aspect of diplomacy; if the regional bureau agreed to a meeting, then the human rights bureau won a policy victory. Either way, the human rights bureau gained. Another of Lister’s contributions, also furthered by his contacts with opposition leaders, was to help maintain the Carter administration’s focus on individual instances of human rights abuses. 127 The Reagan administration made a show of shifting away from dealing with individual human rights problems to the development of democratic institutions. As part of this approach, in December 1983, the administration created the National Endowment for Democracy, a privately funded corporation with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions worldwide. 128 Nevertheless, according to Abrams, Lister kept the policy balanced, reminding Reagan officials that “no one will believe you mean it if you don’t actually protect the people and work with the people who are trying to achieve these things.” 129 Abrams expressed early in his tenure that there was more continuity between the Carter and Reagan human rights policy than critics believed. 130 To the extent that this turned out to be true, Lister may deserve some of the credit. Lister kept the bureau as honest as possible—focused on human rights abuses wherever they 83
occurred. Lister’s own toughness and dedication to human rights would have made it difficult for Abrams, inside or outside the bureau, to treat human rights lightly, so long as Lister remained on staff. Contrary to perceptions that Abrams only considered human rights as a wedge against Communism, Abrams did care about victims of right-wing oppression. “It’s going to be a terrific place when these guys throw Pinochet out,” Abrams scribbled on one of Lister’s memorandums after one fruitful dialogue with Chilean dissidents in November 1983. 131 In July 1985, Abrams left the human rights bureau to become Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Lister continued a close working relationship with Abrams’ successor, Richard Schifter. Lister’s work, though, was less critical to the bureau as he grew older—mainly because the process he had furthered of institutionalizing human rights had been successful. Lister continued many of the same activities, but he also began to act as something of a bureau historian. “George was as much as anyone the institutional memory of the Human Rights Bureau,” said Harold Koh, leader of the bureau from 1998 to 2001. 132 “There is a lot of stuff that is not written down anywhere and he knew it. That was very valuable in making sure that we were staying on course.” 133 Impact on Human Rights Movement Both human rights country reports and the State Department’s human rights bureau were critical pieces of the institutional architecture that helped to create a 84
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Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007
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Impacting Foreign Policy as a Mid-L
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Impacting Foreign Policy as a Mid-L
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Chile..............................
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contributions to U.S. foreign polic
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etween personalities and more as a
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duties but not jeopardize his caree
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21 Morton H. Halperin and Patricia
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younger sister. As Lister’s long-
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as an ideological battle that the U
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February 1955, Lister received a le
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wanted to bring the entire Socialis
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Schlesinger soon began working toge
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espects Saragat more than vice-vers
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Socialist Party that this office ha
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First, his contacts with Italian So
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eceptive to the Italian Socialists
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64 George Lister, “Political Less
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As he frequently did though, Lister
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Page 41 and 42: leaders,” Lister wrote in 1971. 1
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Page 47 and 48: away from the Communists, much as h
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Page 53 and 54: War effort. Besides his propaganda
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Page 61 and 62: 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Ibid. 107 C
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Page 75 and 76: substantial,” Shlaudeman said.
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Page 79 and 80: encourage improvement. As if to und
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Page 131 and 132: 62 Letter, Kim Dae Jung to George L
Page 133 and 134: 129 Library of Congress, Authoritar
Page 135 and 136: movement—in particular, by insist
Page 137 and 138: Lister’s other political base was
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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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