U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994 9781403972279ts01.indd i 10/17/2008 8:46:29 PM This page intentionally left blank U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994 conflict of interests Alex Thomson 9781403972279ts01.indd iii 10/17/2008 8:46:29 PM U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA, 1948–1994 Copyright © Alex Thomson, 2008. All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–7227–9 ISBN-10: 1–4039–7227–3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomson, Alex, 1966– U.S. foreign policy towards apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994 : conflict of interests / Alex Thomson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–7227–3 1. United States—Foreign relations—South Africa. 2. South Africa—Foreign relations—United States. 3. Apartheid—South Africa—History. 4. South Africa—Politics and government—1948–1994. 5. United States—Foreign relations—1945–1989. 6. United States— Foreign relations—1989–1993. I. Title. II. Title: US foreign policy towards apartheid South Africa. E183.8.S6T485 2008 327.73068—dc22 2008017979 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. 9781403972279ts01.indd iv 10/17/2008 8:46:29 PM CONTENTS List of Tables vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. A Balancing Act: Key U.S. Interests and Apartheid South Africa 5 2. “Mutual Cooperation” and “Serious Concern”: The Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, 1948–1961 17 3. “The Best of Both Worlds”: The Kennedy Administration, 1961–1963 31 4. “A Frustratingly Difficult Set of Policy Considerations to Juggle”: The Johnson Administration, 1963–1969 47 5. “The Whites Are Here to Stay . .”: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, 1969–1977 63 6. “Andy Young Is Not a Policy”: The Carter Administration, 1977–1981 89 7. “Neither the Clandestine Embrace nor the Polecat Treatment”: The Reagan Administration, 1981–1984 111 8. “There Are Occasions When Quiet Diplomacy Is Not Enough”: The Reagan Administration, 1984–1986 129 9. “Sanctions by Themselves Do Not Represent a Policy”: The Reagan, Bush, and Clinton Administrations, 1986–1994 149 Conclusion 169 Notes 175 Index 239 9781403972279ts01.indd v 10/17/2008 8:46:30 PM This page intentionally left blank TABLES 1.1 Percentage share of world chromium, manganese, platinum group metals, and vanadium production and reserves, by country, 1979 9 1.2 U.S. economic relations with South Africa (exports, imports, and direct investment), 1950–1990 11 5.1 U.S. Export-Import Bank exposure in South Africa (US$ millions), June 1971–June 1976 79 5.2 U.S. aircraft exports to South Africa, 1967–1972 82 6.1 U.S. Export-Import Bank exposure in South Africa (US$ millions), June 1971–March 1980 103 6.2 Statement of Principles of U.S. firms with affiliates in the Republic of South Africa (The Sullivan Principles), 1 March 1977 104 6.3 Number of Sullivan Principles signatories, and U.S. corporate welfare programs in South Africa, 1977–1988 105 7.1 USAID funding allocations to the Republic of South Africa (US$ thousands), 1981–1988 120 8.1 Political violence, detentions, and strikes in South Africa, 1982–1988 132 8.2 U.S. state and city governments, and colleges and universities divesting their funds of South Africa associated investments, 1977–1988 133 8.3 U.S. transnational corporations disinvesting from the South African market, 1984–1988 134 8.4 U.S. punitive sanctions imposed by Executive Order 12532 of 1985 and the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 137 9781403972279ts01.indd vii 10/17/2008 8:46:30 PM This page intentionally left blank PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS his book has been in the making for over two decades. United States foreign Tpolicy toward apartheid South Africa has been a theme that I have returned to many times. My interest has been sustained by systematically working through dif- ferent archives, and by concentrating on the ebb and flow of policies practiced by individual administrations. It has been a rewarding journey. Every library I have worked in seems to have revealed another nuance or twist in this particular portion of history. U.S. policy toward South Africa, although often confined to the back- woods of the decision making in Washington DC, was never dull. I hope that this book will convey to the reader some of the enjoyment that this research has given me over the years. During this time I have accrued many debts. Without the assistance of staff in the archives visited, I would have been lost. I have found these archivists to be, collectively, some of the most helpful and informative professionals I have come across during my career. I thank them all. Similarly, I need to acknowledge the support of the U.K.’s Economic and Social Research Council which supported my early studies in this area, and my current employers, Coventry University, for funding more recent work in the presidential libraries. And then there are the regulars who help me each time to get a manuscript into shape. I would be strug- gling without the spell-check button, but even more embarrassed without my gallant proofreaders. Thank you. Given that this is a theme that I have returned to several times, I should mention previous items I have published on this subject. These earlier stepping-stones have brought me to the point where I am now able to write the current survey covering the whole apartheid period. Those particularly interested in the Reagan period may wish to look at my more detailed book on this era Incomplete Engagement, and the accompanying article carried in The Journal of Modern African Studies.1 Similarly an earlier sketch of chapter one of the present work was published in the journal Politikon, while my first attempt to put my disparate work into some kind of his- torical context can be found in Studia Diplomatica.2 The last task of this preface is to say something about the language I use in this book. In December 1976, South African black consciousness leader Steve Biko wrote the following words to Dick Clark, the chair of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Africa: “We are looking forward to a non-racial, just and egalitarian society in which color, creed and race shall form no point of reference.” 3 Unfortunately, no 9781403972279ts01.indd ix 10/17/2008 8:46:30 PM X PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS study of South Africa in the twentieth century can function without such points of reference. One inevitably has to refer to social groups defined by the color of their skin pigmentation. Throughout this book the term “white” refers to those individuals whose predecessors were most commonly European settlers; the phrase “African” relates to those people belonging to the mainly Bantu-speaking ethnic groups of South Africa; “coloreds” are those people in the Republic who were “legally” categorized as being of mixed descent; and “Indian” describes those indi- viduals largely descendant from the Asian indentured laborers and traders who originally arrived in the country during the nineteenth century. These last three categories are collectively termed the Republic’s “black” population. The absence of inverted commas around these words, from this point onward, is for the sake of convenience, and in no way indicates support for this practice of racial categorization. A.R.T Manchester, 2008 9781403972279ts01.indd x 10/17/2008 8:46:30 PM INTRODUCTION frica, during the second half of the twentieth century, was not a priority for AU.S. foreign policy. Senior Cold War strategists concentrated their efforts elsewhere. Whereas the memoirs of past presidents and former secretaries of state contain regular references to the Soviet Union, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, the Middle East, and East-West relations generally, recollections of African issues are few and far between. Relations between United States and this part of the world tended to be managed lower down the foreign policy-making hierarchy. The continent was the preserve of specialist executive officials, and scrutinized by junior subcommittees of the U.S. Congress. Overall, African states were only a minor consideration within Washington DC’s prosecution of the Cold War. From time to time, African concerns did surface within the more lofty institutional planes of the executive. The Algerian war, the Biafran con0 ict, the secessionist struggles in the Congo, Angola’s civil war, the Ethiopian revolution, and Zimbabwe’s independence all drew top-level political interest within the United States. Yet, this interest was only temporar y in nature. Cold Warpriorities determined that these o3 cials soon removed their gaze from the continent, once the particular 4 re concerned had been doused, or had burnt itself out. A partial exception to this reality was South Africa. Of all the African states, this country received the most consistent attention from the United States during the Cold War. The Union, and then later the Republic, rarely troubled principal U.S.