Voices: Warren Christopher, 1925 -- 2011

Warren M. Christopher, who died Friday, was an occasional contributor to The Times. I’m posting two pieces from 1977, when he was deputy secretary of State. One essay, adapted from a commencement speech, deals with  the actions of a Foreign Service officer evacuating the U.S. diplomatic post in Ethiopia. The other essay takes a look at the Carter administration’s campaign for human rights: "When human beings are forcibly abducted from their homes, interrogated incessantly at the pleasure of their captors and prodded with electrodes or held under water to the point of drowning -- when such things are happening around the world, as they are, all who truly value human rights must speak out."