Historian Barbara Keys has called Jimmy Carter’s speech at the University of Notre Dame on May 22 1977, both “one of Carter’s major foreign policy addresses, and one of his most controversial.” Just four months into his presidency, Carter used the commencement address in South Bend, Indiana to lay out the major five tenets of his foreign policy. First, and perhaps most remembered, he affirmed his administration’s commitment to human rights, stating that “human rights [is] a fundamental tenet of our foreign policy.” He then proceeded to reassert the U.S.’s ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other democracies, as well as lay out his desire to decrease tensions with the Soviet Union, work for Middle East peace, and reduce the danger of nuclear war. These five priorities highlighted an expansive agenda that sought to invigorate a moral sensibility in foreign policy that was inextricably connected to his long-term strategy of shaping a new, wider international system that involved more countries, a greater degree of collaboration, and less reliance on Cold War bipolarity. Little did he know, this speech would serve to further split Democrats around his agenda of human rights and solidify conservative opposition to his attempts to move beyond a focus on countering Soviet style Communism.
Context
Carter ran for the presidency in a unique, post-Vietnam War and post-Watergate moment where his lofty human rights rhetoric held particular appeal. In part due to an increasing domestic and transnational movement for human rights and in part due to his personal belief about the importance of imbuing a moral sensibility into foreign relations, Carter campaigned on the topic. He crisscrossed the United States explaining how human rights, as the foundation of his foreign policy, would restore the U.S. to a position of global leadership and strength if he was elected. After the American public did elect him in November 1976, Carter used his inaugural address to reaffirm this idea, explaining that “our commitment to human rights must be absolute.” Soon after taking office, Carter began to define what a human rights approach would look like in foreign policy and where these strategies could be most effective. The speech at Notre Dame was one of his first major attempts to outline these ideas.