'Iowa's Senator from Africa': Senator Dick
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Western Illinois Historical Review © 2017 Volume VIII, Spring 2017 ISSN 2153-1714 ‘Iowa’s Senator from Africa’: Senator Dick Clark in Southern Africa Ricky Newcomb Western Illinois University “The dogma of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew, and act anew.”1 Quoting President Abraham Lincoln in a 1976 speech to the African Studies Association in Boston, Senator Richard “Dick” Clark invoked the gathering’s theme of “reassessment” on the eve of Carter’s election to the Presidency of the United States. Elected in a 1972 upset, Clark found himself as chair of the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1975. With the results of the 1976 election, the junior senator from Iowa connected the reflective words of Lincoln to the need for a reassessment of U.S. policy in southern Africa. A Democrat who had fought against covert intervention in Angola by the Ford administration, Clark hoped that such a reassessment could ultimately change U.S. policy toward the apartheid government of South Africa. Clark believed that it was time for America to rise to the occasion. This paper will examine the extent to which Clark’s transnational exchanges and advocacy affected congressional action with regards to South Africa. Although he was not alone in the congressional anti-apartheid movement and other events were leading to shifting opinion, Clark played an influential role in moving congressional opinion, thereby leading to subsequent congressional action. This research paper will explore the role of Clark in the anti-apartheid movement in the United States Congress during his term as a senator representing Iowa from 1973 to 1979. While the research does not begin or cease at these dates, the bulk of the discussion focuses on this period. The congressional actions to be analyzed include the Clark Amendment to the U.S. Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on U.S. Corporate Interests in South Africa of 1978. 1“Speech to African Studies Association” (Boston, MA, November 3, 1976), Box 131, Dick Clark Papers, University of Iowa Special Collections, Iowa City (hereafter "African Studies Association"). 56 The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and events such as the Soweto uprising also played major roles in changing opinions of South Africa. The CBC, with leaders such as Congressman Charles Diggs, played a major role in changing opinions by opposing the white minority regimes of southern Africa. Clark differed from many other vocal congressional opponents of apartheid in his status as a senator and Chair of the Subcommittee on African Affairs on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a less radical reputation, having only served one term, and not being African American himself. Literature Review With the decline of the anti-colonialist movement and concern for self-determination, human rights came to its ascendency. Samuel Moyn explores, in The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, the history of the human rights movement and the shifting attitudes towards human rights in the mid-to-late 1970s. Included in this study is some examination of how Carter’s election affected U.S. foreign policy towards human rights. Also explored is the impact of these changing attitudes on the anti-apartheid movement within South Africa and abroad. Moyn suggests that it was around this time that the movement in South Africa replaced an anti- colonialist narrative with more of a human rights one. Clark was not alone in his efforts to promote congressional action opposed to apartheid. George W. Shepherd Jr.’s Anti-Apartheid: Transnational Conflict and Western Policy in the Liberation of South Africa specifically mentions Clark with regards to his work on African affairs with Diggs and the CBC.2 Janice Love’s The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement: Local Activism in Global Politics also mentions the congressional work of Clark and Diggs in the fight 2 George W. Shepherd Jr., Anti-Apartheid: Transnational Conflict and Western Policy in the Liberation of South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1977), 67. 57 against apartheid, particularly with regard to U.S. business relations.3 Love describes how the early 1980s became a difficult time for government action against apartheid with reliable congressional allies such as Clark, Diggs, and George McGovern gone and Ronald Reagan entering the White House.4 Love also points out that the role of Congress in the anti-apartheid movement often fluctuated based on events in South Africa and the dedication of individual congressmen, particularly those on the African Affairs subcommittees.5 In addition to political action, the anti-apartheid movement also used economic action. Desaix Myers III’s Labor Practices of U.S. Corporations in South Africa includes an introduction by Clark in which he expressed hope that the then newly-elected Carter administration would bring change in how the United States dealt with South Africa, particularly in business connections.6 Clark noted in this introduction that Myers shows that U.S. corporations could be doing much more to align their practices in South Africa with U.S. policy goals. Should these corporations not be willing and able to reexamine their practices and change to align these practices more with U.S. policy goals, Clark suggested that action may be taken to force them to do so.7 Any study of anti-apartheid action in the United States must also consider South African opposition to apartheid. Anthony W. Marx’s Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990 indicates that the Black Consciousness Movement, including Neville Alexander in South Africa, was divided regarding activist Steve Biko’s communication with 3 Janice Love, The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement: Local Activism in Global Politics (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1985), 82. 4 Love, 83. 5 Love, 82-83. 6 Dick Clark, “Introduction,” in Labor Practices of U.S. Corporations in South Africa, by Desaix Myers III (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977), xii (hereafter "Introduction"). 7 “Introduction,” xiii. 58 Clark, or as Alexander called it “consorting with Senator Clark.”8 The divisions in the movement over Biko’s meeting with Clark are particularly interesting in light of Clark’s prior meeting with black South Africans in Soweto, where there was also disagreement among the South Africans about what the United States could do to best help their situation.9 This disagreement carried into debates in the U.S. involving sanctions eventually as well. Ronald V. Dellum’s Lying Down with the Lions: A Public Life from the Streets of Oakland to the Halls of Power provides a view of the anti-apartheid movement in Congress from someone involved in the CBC.10 Dellums shows the U.S. side of this debate about how best to advance the cause of ending apartheid and moving toward black majority rule in South Africa. Policy essays provide context for some of the ideas regarding U.S. relations with South Africa. These essays include the work of Larry Bowman, Robert Fatton, and Ronald Libby, which appraise the strategic interests of the U.S. in South Africa. William Raiford provides an economic view that is helpful in appraising U.S. corporate interests. The collections of policy papers edited by F. McA. Clifford-Vaughan, Michael Clough, and Rene Lemarchand include both Cold War strategic considerations as well as economic ones. Primary source evidence including diplomatic cables, speeches, letters, and personal notes support the argument that Clark played a unique role in bringing about later congressional action against apartheid. Clark is a rare subject, with regards to the anti-apartheid movement in the United States; typically, he only is briefly mentioned in regards to the Biko letter, Muldergate, the Clark Amendment, and the report on U.S. corporate interests in South Africa. 8 Anthony W. Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 83-84. 9 U.S. Department of State, “Codel Clark in South Africa” (August 29, 1975). WikiLeaks.org, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1975PRETOR03303_b.html (accessed April 13, 2017). 10 Ronald V. Dellums and H. Lee Halterman, Lying Down with the Lions: A Public Life from the Streets of Oakland to the Halls of Power (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000). 59 This essay uses policy papers to give context to the actions of Clark and others with regards to U.S. relations with South Africa. There do not seem to be any studies pertaining to the effect of congressional travel, education, or exchange on the anti-apartheid movement either. Therefore, this paper relies heavily on primary sources, both directly related to the argument such as the documents around which this paper is organized, and the collection of Clark’s papers at the University of Iowa archives. Introduction Born in 1928, near Central City, Iowa, Clark grew up in rural Iowa during the Great Depression.11 After having graduated high school in 1947 and working a year, Clark followed his older brother to Upper Iowa University, a small liberal arts college.12 Clark’s undergraduate study was interrupted by the Korean War when he was drafted into the army and sent to Europe.13 While stationed in Europe, Clark traveled to Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, and Ireland, developing an interest in history and politics.14 Clark continued his education through a University of Maryland program in Germany where he took courses in history, political science, and international relations.15 After his assignment in Germany, Clark returned to Upper Iowa University where he graduated in 1953.16 Clark also proved successful in oratorical contests after his return to Upper Iowa University, where he gained knowledge on effective public speaking.17 Clark went into graduate school at the University of Iowa initially studying seventeenth 11“Carnegie Corporation Oral History Project; Dick Clark,” interview by Sharon Zane, June 10, 1999, Aspen Institute Addendum Box 1, 2, Dick Clark Papers, University of Iowa Special Collections, Iowa City (hereafter "Oral History").