Office of the Historian

3. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs-Designate (Brzezinski) to Jessica Tuchman of the National Security Council Staff1

Washington, January 17, 1977

SUBJECT

  • Human Rights

Please start giving some thought to how we might inject, in a realistic fashion, greater concern for human rights into our foreign policy initiatives. I do not want human rights to become merely a slogan or a contentious issue between the Executive and Legislative branches.

Accordingly, you might give some thought both to substantive proposals as well as to procedural initiatives within the government.

You might review the existing state of affairs regarding the above, as well as develop some initial thoughts, and be back to me by Monday next week.2

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Global Issues—Mathews Subject File, Box 7, Human Rights (HR): 12/75–1/77. No classification marking.↩
  2. January 24.↩