Story highlights
- The documents highlight efforts to curb the ruling Argentine junta's human rights abuses
- They also show a top White House aide concerned that punitive action would hurt the administration
Washington (CNN)Even
as US diplomats were strongly urging Argentina's military to improve
its human rights record during the country's so-called Dirty War, a top
White House official argued against strongly punishing the junta for its
crackdown on dissidents.
President
Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, cited
concerns that any punitive action would hinder the administration's
efforts to secure the support of American conservatives and moderates on
other issues, according to newly declassified documents.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence published Monday a trove of over 1,000 documents that detail America's relationship with Argentina during the 1970s and '80s,
highlighting US efforts to curb the ruling Argentine junta's human
rights abuses during that time. It was a period of political strife and
violent government crackdowns known as the Dirty War" in which thousands
of perceived enemies of the state were "disappeared," the whereabouts
of some still unknown to this day.
"I
think to take steps now, which could be interpreted as punitive, would
be to invite criticism from moderate and conservative sectors in the
U.S. at a time when we need their support on other issues. Moreover, I
don't think it would be effective," Brzezinski wrote in a 1979 memo on
what action should be taken in response to the junta's abuses to
then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.
While
Brzezinski called for continued efforts to pressure Argentina on its
human rights efforts he argued against punishing Argentina with actions
like cutting back on export-import bank credits.
Brzezinski,
a celebrated expert in foreign policy circles, was an early backer of
Barack Obama's bid for the presidency and served as an informal adviser
to the then-senator.
During a visit to Argentina in March, Obama admitted that the US did not do enough to condemn the crackdowns and pledged to declassify additional US documents related to the "Dirty War."
"Democracies
have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don't live up to the
ideals that we stand for. We've been slow to speak out for human rights,
and that was the case here," Obama said after viewing a memorial park
for victims of the repression that took place following a 1976
right-wing military coup.
The
documents detail US efforts to get its ally in the Cold War fight
against communism to end its practice of "disappearing" dissidents, an
act that included the detention and execution of regime opponents
without any notification of their families.
One
1979 communique from the US Embassy in Buenos Aires describes how the
then-President of Argentina, Army Gen. Roberto Viola, railed about New
York Times and Washington Post coverage of Argentina's policies and
actions. Viola told the US ambassador that he was concerned such
coverage would convince the US government to take "a capricious posture"
toward his government.
In the same
cable, Viola was portrayed as bragging to the ambassador that the
number of disappeared per month had decreased from 50 in 1978 to 22 that
year.
"You must admit there is a major improvement," Viola was reported to have told the ambassador.
Eduardo
Elena, a professor of Argentine history at the University of Miami,
told CNN that the declassification of the documents coincided with a
renewed effort to bolster US-Argentina relations.
Elena
said that Obama's March visit, which took place on the 40th anniversary
of the coup, "provided a general show of support to recently-elected
President Mauricio Macri, who espouses a more pro-US government and
pro-Wall Street line than his predecessor President Cristina Fernández
de Kirchner."
"State-to-state
relations are relatively smooth for the moment," he assessed. "Barring
any dramatic revelations in the latest batch of documents, my sense is
that this declassification won't alter radically US-Argentine relations
in the present."
According to the
statement accompanying the documents' release, the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence said "the U.S. government will release
additional declassified documents over the next 18 months as part of a
comprehensive effort by over 14 government agencies and departments to
search their records and declassify them for public access, consistent
with the need to protect national security."
Other documents pertaining to the "dirty war" have been released in previous years, with
one Memorandum of Conversation concerning of a 1976 meeting between
then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Adm. Guzzetti in
Santiago, Chile, showing Kissinger saying, "If there are things that
have to be done, you should do them quickly. But you should get back
quickly to normal procedures," in reference to the Argentine coup.
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