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

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One of Lister’s significant accomplishments was to make communication with the State Department a regular activity for both U.S. and foreign human rights activists. Lister’s first step was often to demystify the State Department; his own slightly awkward presence at human rights events helped to accomplish this. Another common practice was to invite activists to have lunch with him at the State Department. In 1974, Lister made his first such lunch invitation to Eldridge, who remembers entering the State Department with “a little apprehension, fear and trembling.” Eldridge had lived in Chile at the time of the coup, and he held the State Department and Kissinger partly responsible. 139 Lister gave Eldridge the State Department tour, taking him to the 7 th floor, where they walked by Kissinger’s office, and then stopped with him to look out over the Washington Monument and the Mall. 140 When they entered the cafeteria, where hundreds of State Department employees were having lunch, Lister turned to Eldridge and said, “Now look at all those people, they don’t all look like fascists, do they?” 141 In trying to persuade activists that it was worth lobbying the State Department or the U.S. government, Lister could be quite direct. In September 1983, he met with Sergio Bitar, part of the democratic opposition to Pinochet and the former Minister of Mines under Allende. 142 Dialogue between the U.S. government and the democratic opposition to Pinochet to that point was almost non-existent. 143 Lister told Bitar that Chilean democratic opposition leaders were wrong to assume that the U.S. government could not be convinced to take a harder line against Pinochet. 144 “This is 87
a wide open society, essentially democratic, and there are many legitimate opportunities for influencing USG policy,” he reported telling Bitar. 145 Lister urged Bitar to begin dialogues with the human rights bureau and to start lobbying the Congress. “I promise to help,” he added. 146 Helping Activists Make an Objective Case Once Lister had succeeded in opening a conversation between the U.S. government and human rights activists, he helped activists to make their case. (Lister, for example, was true to his word in helping Bitar and the Chilean democratic opposition. More about Lister’s assistance to the Chilean opposition is discussed in Chapter 5.) Lister, Eldridge said, would often say that to change U.S. foreign policy, human rights activists had to be smart. The key, Lister believed, was information. “We have to have good facts, good information, good analysis and then move forth, and that’s the way to do it,” Lister would say, according to Eldridge. 147 If activists had good, credible information and analysis, Lister was more than willing to help them spread it. Lister not only provided activists with access to the State Department, but he also helped them get their information to Congress. Sometimes, Lister would arrange meetings, especially for foreign dissidents, with Members of Congress. 148 In other circumstances, he would simply send along documentation. Mihajlo Mihajlov, a Yugoslav dissident who came to the U.S. in 1978, wrote a New York Times op-ed in April 1978. Lister made sure the op-ed got 88
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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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Impact in the Bureau of Inter-Ameri
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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 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
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Page 135 and 136: movement—in particular, by insist
Page 137 and 138: Lister’s other political base was
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Page 143 and 144: 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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