Accounting for the Disappeared: Carter's Human Rights Policy in Argentina

Argentina is widely regarded as one of the most rigorous applications of the Carter administration's human rights diplomacy, and was certainly one of the most visible. In Argentina, the Carter administration broke with long patterns of supporting right-wing dictatorships in the name of anti-communism. Instead, Carter's policies mobilized support for human rights to challenge Cold War paradigms of national security that lead to US support for abusive regimes. Yet even with its rigorous bilateral diplomacy and the success of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights mission to Argentina, many argue that Carter allowed his human rights agenda to be subsumed by Cold War geopolitics in the final year of his administration. Tracing the Carter administration's human rights diplomacy through its campaign to hold the Argentine regime accountable for the disappeared, this article will show that although its public attention to the issue of human rights quieted in its last year in office, the Carter administration remained committed to the core of its human rights policy. Although the junta remained intransigent on the issue of the disappeared, the military leadership in Buenos Aires responded to the Carter administration's human rights diplomacy with concessions that ultimately opened spaces for Argentines to challenge their repressive government.