Has Obama turned his back on dissidents?

President Obama has been careful not to inject himself into the turmoil of Iranian politics. But there are times when an American president must stand up for human rights.

Soon after coming to office in 1981, President Reagan issued an order. At every meeting with Soviet officials, American officials were to begin by posing a question: "How is Natan Sharansky's health?"

Sharansky was the brilliant mathematician whose fluent English had made him the spokesman for the Soviet dissident group, Helsinki Watch. Arrested in 1978 on treason charges, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. At first, his Soviet captors confined him under brutal conditions. Under the pressure of constant attention from the world, however, the Soviet dictatorship gradually relented. At the first Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in 1985, the new Soviet leader agreed to release Sharansky.

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David Frum is editor of FrumForum.com and the author of six books, including most recently COMEBACK: Conservatism That Can Win Again. In 2001 and 2002, he served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. In 2007, he served as senior foreign policy adviser to the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign.