The Trump administration has threatened to close the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Founded in 1983 at President Ronald Reagan’s behest, NED stands accused by the head of DOGE as “evil” and “rife with corruption.” The U.S. State Department sought to starve NED of funds, forcing it to sue for Congressionally appropriated money. NED, unlike so many other defunded bodies, has won a temporary reprieve through the courts.
The allegations against NED are more than wrong. They are the opposite of the truth. As this writer learned first hand, NED is America at its best.
In the summer of 2009, NED was one of the few organizations that assisted democracy and human rights activists in Iran. It was a season of promise because Iranians demonstrated in vast numbers against the regime. It was also a time of betrayal because the Obama administration ignored pleas for assistance from Iranian dissidents.
NED was one of the first organizations to help Iranians. Along with my program at Freedom House, NED enabled them to mobilize, advocate for their rights, and document human rights abuses.
Millions of Iranians protested against the rigged election, defying regime violence. The demonstrations turned into the Green Movement, the best chance in living memory for non-violent change in Iran. Many Iranians called for U.S. support.
The Obama administration rebuffed these pleas. Obama’s aim, which he achieved in 2015, was an agreement to delay Iran’s nuclear weapons program. For Obama, supporting human rights activists was a potential irritant to starting negotiations with the Iranian regime. Keen to appease Tehran, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs stopped funding Iran human rights programs after the June 2009 election.
The funding cut was dangerous. Stopping work would isolate human rights defenders in Iran, brave people under constant regime pressure. It also meant discarding the exiled activists whose unique skills and contacts sustained the Iranian dissident movement. NED saved these programs. NED provided grants that allowed Iran programs to survive long enough for the State Department to change its mind. The Obama administration later realized, but didn’t admit, that it made a strategic error in the summer of 2009.
That NED support for the cause of freedom in Iran was American generosity at its best. It was consistent with NED’s record of assisting dissidents in Eastern Europe during the final years of Communism.
Despite these achievements, there were always people who opposed NED’s mission of democracy promotion. For years, NED’s main enemies were on the conspiracy-theorist left. They accused NED of encouraging regime change, of being a CIA front. They echoed Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, and Russian government resentment of NED’s assistance to democracy and human rights activists. The outlandish claims by repressive regimes appealed to the so-called progressives who believe that the highest ethics are to allow the wretched of the world to live under a dictator.
That previously fringe propaganda has now reached the U.S. government. The suspension of NED’s funding could lead to its demise. The end of NED would be a victory for tyrants like Putin, Ali Khamenei, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un.
Contrary to these accusations, NED holds America to its principles. In his last speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. evoked Moses, who saw the promised land but knew that he wouldn’t enter it. Many of those NED has supported haven’t experienced democracy or human rights in their countries. Nonetheless, NED kept their movements for human dignity alive. When King challenged America to “be true to what you said on paper” he added, “If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions.”
That’s what NED has done since 1983—keep America true to its principles, keep America different to oppressive regimes. As America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence, the best way to renew the promise of those words is to keep NED open.
—Andrew Apostolou directed the Freedom House Iran program from 2008 to 2012.
