How did the 1980 Olympic boycott happen?

[DKW]

This recent thread got me thinking about the infamous 1980 boycott of the Summer Olympics.

Leaving aside the issue of Jimmy Carter’s questionable judgment in using a sports event to criticize a matter of military policy, how was he even able to enforce this? He was president, not king. He had absolutely no jurisdiction over a privately run, privately funded, privately marketed organization. As there was no declaration of war agains the USSR (that’s why it was called the Cold War), there was no grounds for even prohibiting travel there.

The most I could see would be pressuring the Olympic Committee to comply with the decision, but without any actual leverage, I don’t see how that would have worked.

Wikipedia’s been fruitless.

[hajario]

Interesting question. I found this.

Carter asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the games, preferably to Greece. Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) supported the move, but the IOC rejected the request. Afterward, the USOC voted to boycott the games.

Though the boycott has often been attributed to the president, Carter’s 1996 statement emphasizes that he did not order it alone.

“It should be remembered that in the United States and other free countries, the national Olympic committees were independent of government control,” Carter said. “In a few countries, including Great Britain, governments supported the boycott, but Olympic committees made the final decision about whether to send athletes to Moscow.”

But Carter pledged to revoke the passports of U.S. athletes who went to the games, backing the boycott with the force of law.

[kellner]

But Carter pledged to revoke the passports of U.S. athletes who went to the games, backing the boycott with the force of law.

What would have been the legal basis for that? Or can a US president just take away your passport because it crossed his mind that you should stay home?

[Saint_Cad]

@kellner

What would have been the legal basis for that? Or can a US president just take away your passport because it crossed his mind that you should stay home?

Why not? They did it to Paul Robeson.

[ftg]

Linus Pauling’s passport was also taken away in 1952 and restored in 1954 so he could get his first Nobel prize.

You have no inherent right to a passport.

Nowadays they just put you on the various lists such as the no-fly list.

[bordelond]

Semi-related question about revoking of passports, and how it affects travel.

Let’s say the USOC was hell-bent on sending the U.S. team to Moscow in 1980. Carter gets the U.S. athletes’ passports revoked.

Would that revocation necessarily have prevented the U.S. team from making it to Moscow if the U.S.S.R. was willing to let the lack of passports slide? Perhaps the Soviet Union could have (hypothetically) agreed to make a few hundred exceptions for the U.S. team, and could have agreed to vet the U.S. athletes in some other ad hoc fashion.

[Chez_Guevara]

I imagine travellers must show their passports to officials at the point of departure in addition to the point of arrival.

No passport, no departure.

[slaphead]

@bordelond

Would that revocation necessarily have prevented the U.S. team from making it to Moscow if the U.S.S.R. was willing to let the lack of passports slide? Perhaps the Soviet Union could have (hypothetically) agreed to make a few hundred exceptions for the U.S. team, and could have agreed to vet the U.S. athletes in some other ad hoc fashion.

No, of course not. Countries (especially authoritarian ones) are free to choose who they let across their borders. Conversely, the US athletes might have had hypothetical difficulties crossing the US border without passports, either when leaving or returning. Would you like to e.g. explain to immigration at JFK how you are actually a US citizen and entitled to enter the country, it’s just that the government unfairly tore up your passport and put you on the Do Not Want list?

[Giles]

@Chez Guevara

I imagine travellers must show their passports to officials at the point of departure in addition to the point of arrival.

No passport, no departure.

They don’t show them to officials in the US, but they do show them to agents of the airline, who need to satisfy themselves that the travellers will not be turned back at their destination.

One problem that a US athlete without a passport would have is a difficulty in travelling to other countries to attend international competitions.

[bordelond]

@slaphead

Would you like to e.g. explain to immigration at JFK how you are actually a US citizen and entitled to enter the country, it’s just that the government unfairly tore up your passport and put you on the Do Not Want list?

Wow. I’ve not travelled internationally … so it never occured to me that upon landing in the U.S., I’d have to use a passport – and only a passport – to prove I was a citizen. I’d have assumed going in that a valid state driver’s license would’ve gotten me 99% of the way home, with perhaps an SSN card/voter registration/having an American accent, etc. getting me the rest of the way with no problem.

Especially in 1980 … thinking things may have been less restrictive 21 years before 9/11. Of course, at that time, the Iran hostage crisis was ongoing … so I dunno.

[Giles]

@bordelond

Wow. I’ve not travelled internationally … so it never occured to me that upon landing in the U.S., I’d have to use a passport – and only a passport – to prove I was a citizen. I’d have assumed going in that a valid state driver’s license would’ve gotten me 99% of the way home, with perhaps an SSN card/voter registration/having an American accent, etc. getting me the rest of the way with no problem.

A state driver’s license does not prove citizenship – I have one from Ohio, and I’m not a US citizen. You’d also need either birth certificate or naturalisation papers.

[Chez_Guevara]

@Giles

They don’t show them to officials in the US, but they do show them to agents of the airline, who need to satisfy themselves that the travellers will not be turned back at their destination.

You’re right, of course.

The procedure here is to show passports at check-in and again at boarding, on both occasions to airline staff.

[Zebra]

I thought this was interesting.

@from the article Haj linked to

In the end, some 60 teams boycotted the Moscow Games. Among U.S. allies, Great Britain, France, Italy and Sweden attended; some countries did not officially send teams but took no action against athletes who attended. If they won medals, those athletes were greeted on the medal stand by the Olympic hymn and flag, rather than their national anthem and flag.

I didn’t know about the threat of having your passport being taken away. I thought the US boycott was voluntary. Ever since they announced China as hosting, I’ve felt that problems would arise.