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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly fi’om the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in ^ew riter fiic^ while others may be fi’omany type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing fiom left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional chaige. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Aon Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 A MOST INCERTAIN CRUSADE: TSE USZ'ZED STAINS, HOMftS RIGHTS AHD THE UNI'ra> NATICMIS, 1941-1954 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Pulfillinent o f the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Rowlêœd M. Bracken, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 199P Dissertation Coomitt^ee: roved by Professor Michael J. Hogan, Advisor Professor Peter Ifeihn I Professor David Stebenne Historyl GraouâCë UMI Number: 9919845 UMI Microform 9919845 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes American human rights policy during World War II and in United Nations debates over the drafting of an international bill of rights. By endorsing the Atlantic Charter and the Declaration by the United Nations, the Roosevelt administration proclaimed that the world-wide protection of political and economic rights was a central war aim. Only if nations followed a humane code of conduct toward their citizens, Roosevelt believed, could peace and stability return to a war-torn world. British and Soviet objections and Roosevelt's own changing postwar vision, though, caused the State Department to drop plans to grant humain rights responsibilities to an international peacekeeping body. Only pressure by American non-governmental organizations and Latin American states forced Roosevelt to retreat. The United Nations Charter called upon member nations to "promote universal respect for, and observance of human rights" and to create a Human Rights Commission (UNCHR)that would draft the world's first bill of rights. The Truman administration supported a conservative human rights agenda at the United Nations. By December 1948, the UN u had completed a non-binding human rights declaration and a cautiously-worded Genocide Convention. The UNCHR, under Eleanor Roosevelt's leadership, began to draft a binding covenant of civil and political rights. In all three endeavors, the State Department sought to incorporate American legal norms and weak enforcement mechanisms to protect domestic laws that enforced racial segregation, disenfranchisement, and legal inequality. By 1950, this narrowly-conceived policy had generated an international and domestic backlash. A growing bloc of underdeveloped nations, over U.S. objections, attached economic guarantees and the right of self-determination to the covenant. Domestically, isolationist-oriented senators, led by John Bricker (R-OH) and joined by the American Bar Association, charged that the Genocide Convention and the covenant would overturn parts of the U.S. Constitution and spread socialism. They proposed a constitutional amendment to limit the legal impact of human rights treaties. Though the amendment failed to pass, Bricker's supporters forced President Dwight Eisenhower to stop work on the covenant. Eisenhower subsequently began a short-lived propaganda campaign to highlight Soviet human rights abuses. U.S. human rights policy now returned to its WWII focus on vague, politicized rhetoric that girded the nation for war. ui Dedicated to Elizabeth IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to many people who have helped me academically, personally, and spiritually during the five years it took to research and write this dissertation. My academic advisors. Dr. Michael Hogan and Dr. Peter Hahn, read chapter drafts and offered much constructive criticism. Dr. Carol Anderson helped me to place events in broader perspective and sharpened my critique. Other scholars who have offered suggestions and insights include Michael Cren, Cathal Nolan, Richard Falk, Bryan Young, Jim Lyle, Andrew Moravcsik, Gary Woodard, William Schabas, Diane Hill, and Richard Wiggers. I am also grateful to archivists at the Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower presidential libraries and at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. This dissertation was possible also due to travel grants from the Truman and Eisenhower libraries and from a Ruth Higgins Memorial Fellowship. To Amy Staples and Bruce Karhoff, graduate school colleagues at Ohio State, I owe a very personal debt: the discovery of how scholars can push each other to excel. I am truly grateful for the inspiration and perspective provided by Kentucky's human rights activist community led by Father Pat Delahanty, Everett Hoffman, Scott Wegenast, Jane Chiles, Senator Gerald Neal, and Representatives Jim Wayne and Eleanor Jordan. The story of their remarkable dedication, energy, and political acumen in the struggle to abolish capital punishment and to eliminate appalling prison conditions will, I hope and expect, one day be told. My parents, Robert and Lois Brucken, have guided and supported me in surprising, emerging ways. In addition to their love and encouragement, my mother's extensive volunteer activities and my father's legal practice inspired me at an early age to think about the world outside of my suburban childhood home. My father- and mother-in-law. Cliff and Diane Kirkpatrick, through their skillful and empowering leadership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Habitat for Humanity, provide examples of how individuals can powerfully combine religious faith with selfless service to others. And finally, I must recognize the late Alan Paton, whose lyrically profound novel of human suffering. Cry, the Beloved Country, first pointed me toward the study of human rights. It is to my wife and best friend, Elizabeth Kirkpatrick- Brucken, that I dedicate this project. Her love, patience, and encouragement made the completion of this project possible. VI VITA September 12, 1968......... Born-Shaker Heights, Ohio 1993....................... M.A. History, Ohio State University 1993-1997.................. Small Section Leader The Ohio State University 1997-199 8 .................. Adjunct Professor of History Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, Kentucky 1998-presen t ............... Lecturer of History Northern Kentucky University 1999-present ............... Independent Consultant Criminal Justice Program Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) PUBLICATIONS Research Publication 1. Rowland Brucken, book review of Stewart Burns, Daybreak of Freedom. History Reviews On-Line.(1997) 2. Rowland Brucken, Michael J. Hogan, and Peter Hahn, "The Spanish-American War," Retrieving the American Past (Boston: Ginn Press, 1995). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History vu TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication............................................. iv Acknowledgments......................................... v Vita.................................................. vii Chapters : 1. Introduction: The Origins of a Crusade................ 1 2. Defining a Crusade, 1941-1943....................... 23 3. Implementing a Vision, 1943-1945.................... 76 4. A Conservative Revolution Begins, 1945-1948........ 130 5. Opposition at Home and at the U.N., 1948-1951...... 204 6. Ü.N. Success Breeds Failure at Home, 1945-1950..... 271 7. The End of a Crusade, 1951-1953.................... 334 8. Conclusion: The Impact of a Crusade, 1953-1998......398 Bibliography.......................................... 413 vm CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE ORIGINS OF A CRUSADE The brilliant human rights scholar Louis Henkin subtitled the twentieth century, "The Age of Rights." The growing number of newspaper stories, television programs, and internet sites that report on human rights violations and attempts to punish their perpetrators attest to the validity of Henkin's claim. From the revolutionary use of international courts to try those accused of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to the debate over General Augusto Pinochet's extradition to Spain to face charges of crimes against humanity, to the Chinese government's suppression of political dissent, human rights-related stories dominate today's headlines. The proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the grassroots-based Amnesty International, the research-oriented Human