27 Dec Gerald Ford and the Helsinki Accords
Whatever one may think about the presidency of Gerald Ford, he lived up to his self-description as a committed internationalist. And if one were to name his most significant international achievement, the Helsinki Accords would be high on the list. Indeed, Daniel Thomas in his book The Helsinki Effect argues that the Helsinki Accords contributed directly to the demise of communism by transforming the agenda of East-West relations and providing a common platform around which opposition forces could mobilize.
Here is an excerpt of Gerald Ford’s speech in Helsinki in August 1975 discussing the significance of the accords:
The documents produced here represent compromises, like all international negotiations, but these principles we have agreed upon are more than the lowest common denominator of governmental positions.
They affirm the most fundamental human rights: liberty of thought, conscience, and faith; the exercise of civil and political rights; the rights of minorities.
They call for a freer flow of information, ideas, and people; greater scope for the press, cultural and educational exchange, family reunification, the right to travel and to marriage between nationals of different states; and for the protection of the priceless heritage of our diverse cultures.
They offer wide areas for greater cooperation: trade, industrial production, science and technology, the environment, transportation, health, space, and the oceans.
They reaffirm the basic principles of relations between states: nonintervention, sovereign equality, self-determination, territorial integrity, inviolability of frontiers, and the possibility of change by peaceful means.
The United States gladly subscribes to this document because we subscribe to every one of these principles.
Almost 200 years ago, the United States of America was born as a free and independent nation. The descendants of Europeans who proclaimed their independence in America expressed in that declaration a decent respect for the opinions of mankind and asserted not only that all men are created equal but they are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The founders of my country did not merely say that all Americans should have these rights but all men everywhere should have these rights. And these principles have guided the United States of America throughout its two centuries of nationhood. They have given hopes to millions in Europe and on every continent.
I have been asked why I am here today.
I am here because I believe, and my countrymen believe, in the interdependence of Europe and North America — indeed in the interdependence of the entire family of man.
I am here because the leaders of 34 other governments are here — the states of Europe and of our good neighbor, Canada, with whom we share an open border of 5,526 miles, along which there stands not a single armed soldier and across which our two peoples have moved in friendship and mutual respect for 160 years.
I can say without fear of contradiction that there is not a single people represented here whose blood does not flow in the veins of Americans and whose culture and traditions have not enriched the heritage which. we Americans prize so highly.
When two centuries ago the United States of America issued a declaration of high principles, the cynics and doubters of that day jeered and scoffed. Yet 11 long years later, our independence was won and the stability of our Republic was really achieved through the incorporation of the same principles in our Constitution.
But those principles, though they are still being perfected, remain the guiding lights of an American policy. And the American people are still dedicated, as they were then, to a decent respect for the opinions of mankind and to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all peoples everywhere.
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