Office of the Historian

260. Memorandum of Conversation1 2

Mexico City, June 11, 1976, 8:30–9:55 a.m.

PARTICIPANTS:

  • The United States
  • The Secretary
  • Under Secretary Rogers
  • Ambassador Jova
  • Luigi Einaudi, S/P Notetaker
  • Harry Iceland—US Embassy Mexico
  • Anthony Hervas, Interpreter
  • Mexico
  • Jorge Bustamante
  • Samuel del Villar
  • Victor Urquidi
  • Cesar Sepulveda
  • Oscar Sepulveda
  • Jose Vargas
  • Hector Cuadra
  • Juan Ayarza

The Secretary

I have just read a briefing book that says the Mexican press will use my visit to prove its manhood by criticizing me.

Cuadra

Well, the human rights issue is getting prominent treatment. Your statement in Bolivia, I thought, was particularly interesting.

The Secretary

I don’t know what was reported. I said in Santiago that human rights are needed for moral reasons. They are essential to protect the fundamental values of mankind.

Cuadra

I wonder whether they are not more practical.

There is a general idea in our countries that the absence of human rights puts into danger stability and international peace.

[Page 2]

The Secretary

I would take a different position. The Roman Empire lasted a thousand years. It had no human rights. The essential necessity is moral: to affirm human rights for their own sake.

Cuadra

The press reported your statement from Bolivia as saying human rights were irrelevant to world peace.

The Secretary

They are not irrelevant, but I asked for their strengthening on the basis of their intrinsic merit. There is a balance to strike. But, I think, morally, the argument is strongest if human rights are defended for their own sake.

[Omitted here is material unrelated to human rights policy.]

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Records of Henry Kissinger, Entry 54–03, Box 17, NODIS Memcons, June 1976. Confidential; Nodis. The meeting took place in the Secretary’s Suite. Human rights activist Hector Cuadra was a political scientist specializing in international law and the first President of the Mexican Branch of Amnesty International.↩
  2. During a general discussion of foreign policy issues, Kissinger clarified his position concerning Human Rights.↩