Carter took office during the
Cold War, a sustained period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the
Soviet Union. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, relations between the two
superpowers had improved through a policy known as
detente. In a reflection of the waning importance of the Cold War, some of Carter's contemporaries labeled him as the first post-Cold War president, but relations with the Soviet Union would continue to be an important factor in American foreign policy in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Many of the leading officials in the Carter administration, including Carter himself, were members of the Trilateral Commission, which de-emphasized the Cold War. The
Trilateral Commission instead advocated a foreign policy focused on aid to
Third World countries and improved relations with Western Europe and Japan. The central tension of the Carter administration's foreign policy was reflected in the division between Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who sought improved relations with the Soviet Union and the Third World, and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who favored confrontation with the Soviet Union on a range of issues.
Human rights , in Washington, D.C., September 6, 1977 Carter believed that previous administrations had erred in allowing the Cold War concerns and
realpolitik to dominate foreign policy. His administration placed a new emphasis on
human rights,
democratic values,
nuclear proliferation, and global poverty. The Carter administration's human rights emphasis was part of a broader, worldwide focus on human rights in the 1970s, as
non-governmental organizations such as
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch became increasingly prominent. Carter nominated
civil rights activist
Patricia M. Derian as Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and in August 1977, had the post elevated to that of
Assistant Secretary of State. Derian established the
United States' Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, published annually since 1977.
Latin America was central to Carter's new focus on human rights. The Carter administration ended support to the historically U.S.-backed
Somoza regime in Nicaragua and directed aid to the new
Sandinista National Liberation Front government that assumed power after Somoza's overthrow. Carter also cut back or terminated military aid to
Augusto Pinochet of
Chile,
Ernesto Geisel of Brazil, and
Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina, all of whom he criticized for human rights violations. Carter's ambassador to the
United Nations,
Andrew Young, was the first African-American to hold a high-level diplomatic post. Along with Carter, he sought to change U.S. policy towards Africa, emphasizing human rights concerns over Cold War issues. In 1978, Carter became the
first sitting president to make an official state visit to
Sub-Saharan Africa, a reflection of the region's new importance under the Carter administration's foreign policy. Unlike his predecessors, Carter took a strong stance against white minority rule in
Rhodesia and South Africa. With Carter's support, the United Nations passed
Resolution 418, which placed an arms embargo on South Africa. Carter won the repeal of the
Byrd Amendment, which had undercut international sanctions on the Rhodesian government of
Ian Smith. He also pressured Smith to hold elections, leading to the
1979 Rhodesia elections and the eventual creation of
Zimbabwe. The more assertive human rights policy championed by Derian and State Department Policy Planning Director
Anthony Lake was somewhat blunted by the opposition of Brzezinski. Policy disputes reached their most contentious point during the 1979 fall of
Pol Pot's genocidal regime of
Democratic Kampuchea following the
Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, when Brzezinski prevailed in having the administration refuse to recognize the new Cambodian government due to its support by the Soviet Union. Despite human rights concerns, Carter continued U.S. support for
Joseph Mobutu of
Zaire, who defeated
Angolan-backed insurgents in conflicts known as
Shaba I and
Shaba II. His administration also generally refrained from criticizing human rights abuses in the
Philippines,
Indonesia,
South Korea,
Iran,
Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, and
North Yemen.
Defense policy and missiles sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) treaty, June 18, 1979, in
Vienna Although his campaign platform in 1976 called for a reduction in defense spending, Carter called for a 3 percent increase in the defense budget. He sought a sturdier defense posture by stationing medium range nuclear missiles in Europe aimed at the Soviet Union. Carter and Brown worked to keep the balance with the Soviets in strategic weapons by improving land-based ICBMs, by equipping strategic bombers with cruise missiles and by deploying far more submarine-launched missiles tipped with MIRVs, or multiple warheads that could hit multiple targets. They continued development of the MX missile and modernization of NATO's Long-Range Theater Nuclear Force. In March 1976, the Soviet Union first deployed the
SS-20 Saber (also known as the RSD-10) in its European territories, a mobile, concealable
intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a
multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) containing three nuclear 150-kiloton warheads. The SS-20 replaced aging Soviet systems of the
SS-4 Sandal and
SS-5 Skean, which were seen to pose a limited threat to Western Europe due to their poor accuracy, limited payload (one warhead), lengthy preparation time, difficulty in being concealed, and immobility (thus exposing them to
pre-emptive NATO strikes ahead of a planned attack). Whereas the SS-4 and SS-5 were seen as defensive weapons, the SS-20 was seen as a potential offensive system. Washington initially considered its
strategic nuclear weapons and nuclear-capable aircraft to be adequate counters to the SS-20 and a sufficient deterrent against Soviet aggression. In 1977, however, Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt of
West Germany argued in a speech that a Western response to the SS-20 deployment should be explored, a call which was echoed by NATO, given a perceived Western disadvantage in European nuclear forces. On 12 December 1979, following European pressure for a response to the SS-20, Western foreign and defense ministers made the
NATO Double-Track Decision. In describing this "aggravated" situation, the ministers made direct reference to the SS-20 featuring "significant improvements over previous systems in providing greater accuracy, more mobility, and greater range, as well as having multiple warheads". The ministers also attributed the altered situation to the deployment of the Soviet
Tupolev Tu-22M strategic bomber, which they believed to display "much greater performance" than its predecessors. Furthermore, the ministers expressed concern that the Soviet Union had gained an advantage over NATO in "Long-Range Theater Nuclear Forces" (LRTNF), and also significantly increased short-range theater nuclear capacity. To address these developments, the ministers adopted two policy "tracks". One thousand theater nuclear warheads, out of 7,400 such warheads, would be removed from Europe and the US would pursue bilateral negotiations with the Soviet Union intended to limit theater nuclear forces. Should these negotiations fail, NATO would modernize its own LRTNF, or intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF), by replacing US
Pershing 1a missiles with 108
Pershing II launchers in West Germany and deploying 464
BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) to Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom beginning in December 1983. Ford and Nixon had sought to reach agreement on a second round of the
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), which had set upper limits on the number of
nuclear weapons possessed by both the United States and the
Soviet Union. Carter hoped to extend these talks by reaching an agreement to reduce, rather than merely set upper limits on, the nuclear arsenals of both countries. At the same time, he criticized the Soviet Union's record with regard to human rights, partly because he believed the public would not support negotiations with the Soviets if the president seemed too willing to accommodate the Soviets. Carter and Soviet Leader
Leonid Brezhnev reached an agreement in June 1979 in the form of SALT II, but Carter's waning popularity and the opposition of Republicans and
neoconservative Democrats made ratification difficult.
Afghanistan Afghanistan had been non-aligned during the early stages of the Cold War. In 1978, Communists under the leadership of
Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power. The new regime—which was divided between Taraki's extremist
Khalq faction and the more moderate
Parcham—signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in December 1978. Taraki's efforts to improve secular education and redistribute land were accompanied by mass executions and political oppression unprecedented in Afghan history, igniting a revolt by
Afghan mujahideen rebels. Historian George C. Herring states Carter and Brzezinski both saw Afghanistan as a potential "trap" that could expend Soviet resources in a fruitless war, and the U.S. began sending aid to the mujahideen rebels in mid-1979. However, a 2020 review of declassified U.S. documents by Conor Tobin in the journal
Diplomatic History found that "a Soviet military intervention was neither sought nor desired by the Carter administration ... The small-scale covert program that developed
in response to the increasing Soviet influence was part of a contingency plan
if the Soviets did intervene militarily, as Washington would be in a better position to make it difficult for them to consolidate their position, but not designed to induce an intervention." By December, Amin's government had lost control of much of the country, prompting the Soviet Union to
invade Afghanistan, execute Amin, and install Parcham leader
Babrak Karmal as president. CIA officials had tracked the deployment of Soviet soldiers to the Afghan border, but they had not expected the Soviets to launch a full-fledged invasion. Carter believed that the Soviet conquest of Afghanistan would present a grave threat to the
Persian Gulf region, and he vigorously responded to what he considered a dangerous provocation. In a televised speech, Carter announced sanctions on the Soviet Union, promised renewed aid to
Pakistan, and articulated the
Carter doctrine, which stated that the U.S. would repel any attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf. Carter also later announced a U.S. boycott of the
1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and imposed an embargo on shipping American wheat to the Soviet Union. The embargo ultimately hurt American farmers more than it did the Soviet economy, and the United States lifted the embargo after Carter left office. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought a significant change in Carter's foreign policy and ended the period of detente that had begun in the mid-1960s. Returning to a policy of
containment, the United States reconciled with Cold War allies and increased the defense budget, leading to a new arms race with the Soviet Union. U.S. support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan would continue until the
Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. ==Middle East==