While looking up info on North Korea I keep coming across the idea of following the Helsinki accords with the USSR and using them in deals with the North koreans to improve their human rights. What were the Helsinki accords, and did they work?
The Helsinki Accords were a treaty signed in Helsinki by the US, Canada, USSR, and most of Europe which set up the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
OK, here’s the deal. The Soviet Union wanted the West to recognize the Eastern European post-war boundaries. They got this at Helsinki, and in exchange got a lot of pretty words about human rights.
The American Right went bonkers. They claimed that the Russians got what they wanted and traded nothing in return. (IIRC, this was during the Carter Administration.) The Russians certainly thought this was the case.
Until the Americans and the Rest of the West started to express interest in all those do-nothing human rights things. Human rights behind the Iron Curtain, now part of an international agreement, became a legitimate international concern. Helsinki Groups and Helsinki Reports were used to embarrass the Soviets.
Now did this have a practical effect? I would argue yes, but it is open to argument. But in fact the West simply recognized the post-war facts on the ground and in exchange got a stick to beat up the Soviets.
Well for once I think I’m in a unique position to answer a question.
I just had dinner last weekend with a former deputy US ambassador who participated in the drafting of the Hesinki Accords.
In his words, it was the first treaty ever where the concept of human rights superceded sovereignty. The key however was the inclusion of rights for minorities. That apparently was the source of power for dissent from within the Soviet Union.
Brezhnev, fixated by the concession of recognition for Soviet sovereignty over the baltic states was essentially hoodwinked.
Ironically, in his attempt to secure the Baltic states, the Accords eventually resulted in a popular non violent uprising in the Baltics and elsewhere which spelled the end for the Soviets.
We got into this discussion as a result of the stupidity of American arrogance in thinking that freedom and democracy can be imposed such as in Iraq. Most oppressed people want freedom and democracy, but they are not willing to die for it. However if they have an avenue for dissent with a reasonable degree of safety to voice it then they are empowered.
J.C. never gets the credit he deserves for some of this stuff.
Helsinki happened during the Nixon and Ford administrations.
I swear my memory is getting worse.
I swear that Ford never gets thew credit he deserves.