Preview

MGIMO Review of International Relations

Advanced search

Jackson–Vanik Amendment and Development of Soviet-American Relations in 1972-1975

https://doi.org/10.24833/2071-8160-2020-2-71-7-39

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the key subjects of the detente period – the history of development and adoption of Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act of 1974. The significance of the human rights problem in the USSR, in particular – the right to emigrate, for the development of American-Soviet relations at the peak of detente is shown. Special attention was paid to trilateral negotiations between the Soviet leadership, Nixon and Ford administrations and the legislators headed by Senator Henry Jackson. The Amendment, adopted in December 1974, created serious obstacles for the development of trade and economic relations between the superpowers, and it had a number of negative political consequences also. The Amendment constituted the issue of human rights in the USSR as one of the important components of the U.S. foreign policy, created a negative background for the American-Soviet dialogue, which significantly complicated the outlined convergence of superpowers and contributed to the curtailment of detente.

The political struggle around the Jackson-Vanik Amendment became the quintessence of detente. Each of the parties involved regarded the Amendment differently: Soviet leaders saw it as a rude interference in the internal affairs of the USSR; Kissinger saw it as an untimely and too radical in form and methods attempt to transform the Soviet system; Jackson saw it as a good way to increase his popularity by exploiting a popular in the post-Vietnam era theme that was naturally consistent with American national values and traditions. Both the Kremlin and Jackson had a fairly clear set of concessions that they could make. However, in the context of the systemic crisis of power caused by Watergate, the US administration did not have enough resources to bring them to a common denominator. The Soviet leadership soon also faced new economic and political challenges, and the problem of restoring trade relations with the United States ceased to be a priority.

The Jackson-Vanik Amendment of 1974 became the watershed separating the “high détente” from its downward phase. Its real significance far exceeded its immediate meaning embedded in the arguments of its creators. It was not an accident that the Amendment was not canceled in 1987 after the USSR liberated its emigration policy. After the collapse of the USSR American leadership used it as a political leverage against Russian Federation. Boris Yeltsin appealed to Bill Clinton multiple times in 1993-1994 requesting removal of discrimination measures in trade and economic relations inherited from the soviet times. The Amendment was not cancelled it was only temporarily suspended. It was officially canceled only in 2012, but only in order to give way to a law that allows the United States, at its discre tion, to impose sanctions on individuals allegedly responsible for human rights violations in Russia (the so-called Magnitsky Act) and remains an obstacle to the development of equal Russian-American economic ties.

About the Authors

V. Yungblyud
Vyatka State University
Russian Federation

Valery T. Yungblud – Doctor of History, Professor, President

Moskovskaya str., 36, 610000, Kirov



D. Ilyin
Vyatka State University
Russian Federation

Dmitriy V. Ilyin – PhD in Historical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Chair of History and Political Sciences

Moskovskaya str., 36, 610000, Kirov



References

1. Abbott K.W. 1981. Linking Trade to Political Goals: Foreign Policy Export Controls in the 1970s and 1980s. Minnesota Law Review. Vol. 65. No. 5. P. 739-889 .

2. Allen D. 2015. Realism and Malarkey: Henry Kissinger’s State Department, Détente and Domestic Consensus. Journal of Cold War Studies. Vol. 17. No 3. P. 184-219. DOI: 10.1162/JCWS_a_00548

3. Barber J. 1979. Economic Sanctions as a Policy Instrument. International Affairs. Vol. 55. No. 3. P. 367-384. DOI: 10.2307/2615145

4. Bowker M., Williams Ph. 1988. Superpower Detente: A Reappraisal. London, Sage. 277 p.

5. Cahn A.H. 1998. Killing Detente: the Right Attacks the CIA. Univ. Park, the Pennsylvania State Univ. Press. 232 p.

6. Cmiel K. 1999. The Emergence of Human Rights Politics in the United States. The Journal of American History. P.1231-1250. DOI: 10.2307/2568613

7. Garthoff R. 1985. Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. XVI, 1147 p.

8. Hanhimäki J. 2004. Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy. N.Y.: Oxford University Press. XXII, 554 p.

9. Hanson Ph. 2003. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: an Economic History of the USSR from 1945. London, Longman. 279 p.

10. Hufbauer G.C., J. Schott J.J., Elliott K.A., Oegg B. 2007. Economic Sanctions Reconsidered. Washington, Institute for International economics. 233 p.

11. Kaufman R.G. Henry M. 2000. Jackson. A Life in Politics. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 548 p.

12. Kissinger H. 1982. Years of Upheaval. Boston: Little Brown & Co. 1283 p.

13. Kissinger H. 1994. Diplomacy. New York, Simon & Schuster. 912 p.

14. Kochavi N. 2005. Insights Abandoned, Flexibility Lost: Kissinger, Soviet Jewish Emigration, and the Demise of Détente. Diplomatic History. Vol. 29. No 3. P. 503-530. DOI: 10.1111/j.14677709.2005.00501.x

15. Morgan M.C. 2010. The Seventieth and the Rebirth of Human Rights. In The Shock of the Global: the 1970’s in Perspective. Ed. by N. Ferguson, Ch. Maier, E. Manela, D.J. Sargent. Cambridge (Mass.), The Belknap Press, Harvard Univ. Press. P. 237-250

16. Peretz P. 2015. Let My People Go: The Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration during Cold War. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. 365 p.

17. Peterson Ch. 2009. Wielding the Human Rights Weapon: The United States, and private citizens, 1975-1989. Ph. D. diss., the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University. 592 p.

18. Probert T.J. 2011. The Innovation of Jackson-Vanik Amendment. In Humanitarian Intervention. A History. Ed. by D.Simms, D.J.B. Trim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 323-342.

19. Sargent D.J. 2015. A Superpower Transformed: the Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s. N.Y., Oxford University Press. 432 р.

20. Schulsinger R.D. 2010. Détente in the Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-1976. In The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Ed. by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad. Vol. 2. Crisis and détente. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press. P. 323-342.

21. Stern P. 1979. Water's Edge: Domestic Politics and the Making of American Foreign Policy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. XIX, 265 p.

22. Suri J. 2007. Henry Kissinger and the American Century. Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press. 358 p.

23. The Kissinger Transcripts: the Top Secret Talks with Beijing and Moscow. 1998. Ed. by W. Burr. N.Y., Diane Pub Co. 515 p.

24. Tulli U. 2012. “Whose rights are human rights?” The ambiguous emergence of human rights and the demise of Kissingerism. Cold War History. Vol. 12. No. 4. P. 573-593. DOI: 10.1080/14682745.2012.654491

25. Zelizer J. 2009. Detente and Domestic Politics. Diplomatic History. Vol. 33. No. 4. P. 653-670. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00805.x

26. Adamishin A.L. 2016. V raznyye gody. Vneshnepoliticheskiye ocherki [In Different Years. Foreign Policy Essays]. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo «Ves' Mir». 448 p. (In Russian)

27. Dobrynin A.F. 1996. Sugubo doveritel'no. Posol v Vashingtone pri shesti prezidentakh SSHA (1962-1986 gg.) [Confidential. Ambassador to Washington with Six US Presidents (1962-1986)]. Moscow. 688 p. (In Russian)

28. Dyonnigkhaus V., Savin А. 2013. «Kak by ukaz o evreyakh ne otmenyat', a de faktom ne primenyat'»: L.I.Brezhnev, razryadka i evrejskaya ehmigratsiya iz SSSR [”As if the Decree on the Jews is not Canceled, and de facto not Applied ”: Leonid Brezhnev, Detente and Jewish Emigration from the USSR]. Rossiya XXI. No 1. P. 130-159. (In Russian)

29. Dyonningkhaus V., Savin А. 2012. «Evrejskij» nalog: Brezhnev i evrejskaya ehmigratsiya iz SSSR v 1972-1973 gg. [“Jewish” tax: Brezhnev and Jewish Emigration from the USSR in 19721973]. Rodina. No. 5. P. 105-110. (In Russian)

30. Istoriya vneshnej politiki SSSR. 1981. [History of Soviet Foreign Policy]. Vol. 2. 1945-1980. Ed. by A.А. Gromyko, B.N.Ponomaryov. Moscow, Nauka Publ. 757 p. (In Russian)

31. Pechatnov V.O., Manykin А.S. 2012. Istoriya vneshnej politiki SSHА. [History of the U.S. Foreign Policy]. Moscow, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. 670 p. (In Russian)

32. Rabochiye i dnevnikovyye zapisi. Brezhnev L.I. [Work and Diary Entries. Brezhnev L.I.] 2016. V 3-kh tomakh. T.1. Leonid Brezhnev. Rabochiye i dnevnikovyye zapisi. 1964-1982 gg. M. 1264 p. (In Russian)

33. Sakharov A. 2016. Vospominaniya 1971-1989: Zhizn' prodolzhayetsya [Memoirs 19711989: Life Goes on]. Moscow: KoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus. 509 p. (In Russian)

34. Timofeev I.N. 2019. Ekonomicheskie sanktsii kak politicheskoe ponyatie [Economic Sanctions as a Concept of Power Politics]. Vestnik MGIMO-Universiteta. No. 2 (59). P. 26-42. DOI 10.24833/2071-8160-2018-2-59-26-42 (In Russian)

35. Troitsky M.А. 2013. Kongress i politika SShА v otnoshenii Rossii [The Congress and U.S. Policy Towards Russia]. SShА i Kanada: ekonomika, politika, kul'tura. No 2. P. 57-70. (In Russian)

36. Vakhrameev А.V. 1979. Bor'ba sotsialisticheskogo sodruzhestva za razryadku mezhdunarodnoj napryazhennosti. [The Struggle of the Socialist Community for Detente] Mosсow, Nauka Publ. 286 p. (In Russian)

37. Zubok V. 2011. Neudavshayasya imperiya: Sovetskij soyuz v kholodnoj vojne ot Stalina do Gorbacheva [A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev]. Moscow: ROSSPEN, Fond “Prezidentskij tsentr B.N. El'tsina”. 669 p. (In Russian)


Review

For citations:


Yungblyud V., Ilyin D. Jackson–Vanik Amendment and Development of Soviet-American Relations in 1972-1975. MGIMO Review of International Relations. 2020;13(2):7-39. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2071-8160-2020-2-71-7-39

Views: 1274


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2071-8160 (Print)
ISSN 2541-9099 (Online)