Foreign Assistance Act of 1974

The Act effectively eliminated aid and military funding for South Vietnam. Direct US involvement in Vietnam was already prohibited under the Case–Church Amendment, and the termination of US funding and indirect support for South Vietnam was a significant factor leading to the Fall of Saigon.

The Act also included the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, which required the President to report all covert operations of the CIA to Congress within a set time limit, and placed limits on the funding of such operations.

The Act also included other amendments, including, among others, appropriation of funds to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, and the suspension of funds to Turkey due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.[1][2][3]

Section 502B of the Act (now codified as Title 22 United States Code Section 2304(a)(2), sometimes abbreviated in legal texts as 22 USC §2304(a)(2)) prohibits the U.S. government from selling weapons or providing security assistance and even law enforcement assistance to countries that engage in a persistent pattern of human rights violations. It provides, in part, that, unless specific exceptions apply:

"...no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Security assistance may not be provided to the police, domestic intelligence, or similar law enforcement forces of a country, and licenses may not be issued under the Export Administration Act of 1979 [50 U.S.C. 4601 et seq.] for the export of crime control and detection instruments and equipment to a country, the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights...[4]

The Act goes on define the term “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” as including:

"...torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, and other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of person." (Codified at Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2304(d)(1), sometimes abbreviated as 22 USC § 2304(d)(1).)[5]

• Hughes–Ryan Amendment
• Case–Church Amendment