At the height of the Cold War, successive administrations struggled with the balance between national security and desire to criticize human rights abuses. Congress inserted itself into this debate with passage of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, signed into law by President Gerald Ford on January 3, 1975, which denied most-favored-nation status to countries that restricted emigration.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment was furious. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger saw the amendment as an impediment to further detente.  But with the end of the Cold War, historians generally credit the amendment with stripping the Soviet Union of legitimacy and emboldening internal dissident. IND:  Realpolitik politicians were wrong then as they are wrong now!

…As Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov explained, “A country that does not respect the rights of its own people will not respect the rights of its neighbors.” Forcing the Islamic republic to be accountable to its people can catalyze diplomacy’s success.