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."