Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Assistance from Nixon to Carter

Abstract

This paper reports some preliminary findings on the relationships between United States policies towards human rights as it is expressed in Presidential policy and U.S. military and economic assistance to nations which have a substantial record of human rights threats and abuses. It examines these relationships from the start of the Nixon presidency through the end of the Carter administration. The statistical findings indicate that under Presidents Nixon and Ford foreign assistance was directly related to levels of human rights violations, i.e. more aid flowed to regimes with higher levels of violation, while under President Carter no clear statistical pattern emerged. It is concluded, therefore, that the Carter administration did not implement a policy of human rights which actually guided the disposition of military and economic assistance.