Jackson–Vanik amendment

It was the lack of ability of the United States of America to slowly and step by step, but to relieve the sanctions that had been put in place.

through the Cold War years, and particularly the Jackson-Vanik sanctions that famously were put in place in the 1970s to aid and abet the departure of Soviet Jewry from the USSR.

They'd been under severe pressure, under severe conditions, and they were permitted finally to leave And many of them went to Israel, as we know, or came to the United States and to other places.

So the Jackson-Vanik sanctions objective had been achieved even, one could argue, by the time the USSR fell apart in the early 1990s.

But the Congress and others among the political actors in the United States saw it as an opportunity to try to condition Russia's move toward democracy and move toward a market economy.

And so it dragged on and on and on.

at the time, and he was working on human rights-related issues and corruption-related issues.

So these stresses and strains, I think, built up through that first decade of this century.

Um, you know, it was very difficult for the Soviets to, to want to see Jews who they spent a fortune educating, especially if they're in the, you know, scientific fields, to go to Israel, hence the US, and then, you know, use Soviet education there.

And actually, that was the issue that caused the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

Um, uh, because the Soviets had a, um, fee essentially getting some of the money back for their education that they had paid for.

That was the issue.

Um, and it seemed that the mighty Soviet colossus was unable to stop it.

You know, even when they tried to...

We talked about it last time, I think it was last time, the, the tax that they charged people on leaving for their education, and that's where the Jackson-Vanik Amendment came from in, uh, in, like, 1974, and, uh, that's where, you know, they, they went orbital over that.

What happens? The Soviets back down.

That's right.

And the Jackson-Vanik Amendment is a Cold War relic.

Correct.

And the countries that are still subject to that sanctions are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

I guess I'll start off with it.

And it starts, as we heard, a cornerstone of today's conversation was Kazakhstan or the Central Asian states.

And yes, then in order to get into them at removing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

As most of you know, I would imagine if you're here, you at least have a sense of it, that Jackson-Vanik Amendment is an antiquated, outdated relic of, like you said, of the Soviet era, understandably putting it into effect in order to basically enhance human rights in the Soviet states, especially when it came to the emigration of Jews from Kazakhstan.

Well, I would just point out, though, and you mentioned, say, Scoop Jackson, right? Scoop Jackson, in my view, makes his name for two things.

One is the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which was absolutely heroic.

And he takes on Henry Kissinger at the time to try to have sanctions on the Soviet Union connected on whether or not they let particularly Jewish Soviets leave the country.

So the question of immigration matters.

Yeah.

I got into the lobbying business on the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which was a, a, a legislation that Senator Henry Jackson carried to tie most favored nation status with the Soviet Union to free emigration.

And I really got the bug on, on lobbying in Washington in 1973 and '74.

The bill passed in '70, late '74, early '75, and Gerald Ford had to sign it.

... understand things.

So, uh, uh, you know, we've been talking for a long time, and I still feel like we've barely scratched the surface, but, uh, I always ask people before I go into my lightning round, my last question for people is always this, which is, um, what advice would the Zev Yaroslavsky of today give the Zev Yaroslavsky in 1975? Uh, basically the classic knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself then?

You know, I, I got a piece of advice from Senator Henry Jackson, who authored the Jackson-Vanik amendment that we talked about earlier.

Uh, and I got to know him during the human rights episode of my life, and, uh, when I got elected, he was running for president in 1975.