Enhancing respect for human rights and human dignity is a fundamental objective of U.S. foreign policy. It is an objective based on our laws, our international obligations, and on the strong personal commitment of President Carter. The human rights policy, after a year, already has changed the way this country is seen by others, placing us more and more frequently, as President Carter has said, “with the tortured and the unjustifiably imprisoned, and with those that have been silenced.”

We have done that, and more. No government today doubts that this nation stands for the same ideals and values abroad that we assert at home. We freely acknowledge our own internal flaws and readily admit that there is much to do to assure full equality with economic opportunity for all our citizens.