Abstract
The southern Africa strategy of the Nixon and Ford administrations has always courted controversy. Beginning with a 1972 New York Times article, this policy has amassed a range of comment, almost all of it negative in tone.1 Most scholars associate the Nixon and Ford years with at least a “tilt” toward white rule in southern Africa. More radical interpretations suggest this policy resulted in a “full embrace” of the minority rule governments.2 Drawing such conclusions, many critics focus on just one phrase from a leaked 1969 National Security Council report. They home in on policy option two of the Interdepartmental Group for Africa’s response to National Security Study Memorandum number 39 (NSSM39). This option suggested that “the whites are here to stay …” in southern Africa.3 Campaigners saw these words as symbolizing the West’s moral intransigence. The United States and its allies were accused of colluding with an abuse of human rights in order to protect strategic and economic interests.4
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5 The Nixon and Ford Administrations
Terence Smith, U.S. widens ties to African whites. New York Times. 2 April 1972. 1 and 14.
For interpretations of “tilting” or “embracing” see, for example, Jack Anderson, Henry Kissinger’s first big “tilt.”. Washington Post. 11 October 1974. D19; Murrey Marder, Secret memo bares U.S. “tilt” in Africa. Washington Post. 13 October 1974. A1 and A11; Maxine Isaacs Burns, Tilting toward South Africa. Africa Report. 1976, 21(2), 7–11;
William J. Pomeroy, Apartheid, imperialism and African freedom. New York: International Publishers, 1986.
A facsimile of National Security Study Memorandum 39 and the NSC’s report in response to this document can be found in Mohamed A. El-Khawas and Barry Cohen, eds. The Kissinger study of southern Africa: National Security Study Memorandum 39. Westport: Lawrence Hill, 1976 (hereafter abbreviated to NSSM39). 105.
See also Edgar Lockwood, National Security Study Memorandum 39 and the future of United States policy toward southern Africa. Issue. 1974, 4(3), 63–70.
See, for example, C. Gerald Fraser, Nixon denounced on Africa policy. New York Times. 5 November 1972. 51.
Eric J. Morgan, The world is watching: Polaroid and South Africa. Enterprise and Society. 2006, 7(3), 520–549.
See, for example, Donald R. Culverson, The Politics if the Anti-apartheid movement in the United States, 1969–1986. Political Science Quarterly. 1996, 111(1), 127–149.
Rangel attempted to add an amendment to annual NASA authorization bills between 1970 and 1973. In 1973, Edward Kennedy sponsored this measure in the Senate. The proposed amendment was defeated by 104 votes to 294 in the House, and withdrawn by Kennedy in the Senate after an understanding was reached that the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences would hold hearings on the tracking stations later that year. See Robert Gillette, South Africa: NASA inches out of a segregated tracking station. Science. 1973, 181(4097), 331–332, and 380.
Bruce Oudes, Gale McGee’s paper tiger. Africa Report. 1972, 17(5), 10–11.
For examples of conservative lobbying see Les de Villiers, Secret information. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1980;
Burns. Tilting toward South Africa. 8; Robert J. Janosik and Barbara E. Lawrence. Southern African pressure politics in the U.S.. Issue. 1974, 4(3), 76–80;
Jerry Landauer, Congressmen received gifts, job offers, trips from South Africa sugar growers. Wall Street Journal. 23 August 1978. 5.
Policy Planning Council. National Policy Paper: Southern Africa, 20 November 1968. Document 1b. South Africa 1. Files of Edward K. Hamilton: Box 3. NSF-LBJL.
Policy Planning Council. National Policy Paper: Southern Africa, 20 November 1968. ix. Document 1b. South Africa 1. Files of Edward K. Hamilton: Box 3. NSF-LBJL.
See, for example, Clyde Ferguson and William R. Cotter. South Africa: what is to be done? Foreign Affairs. 1977–1978, 56(2), 254; Richard Goldstone, Ambiguity and America: South Africa and U.S. foreign policy. Social Research. 72(4), 815; and Dickson, United States foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa. 76.
Donald B. Easum, United States policy toward South Africa. Issue. 1975, 5(3), 71.
Roger Morris, the head of the interdepartmental group drafting the NSSM39 report, suggests that option two was selected in a modified form, with David Newsom having failed to gain assurances that African states would be informed of the policy change prior to its implementation. Morris, Roger. Uncertain greatness: Henry Kissinger and American foreign policy. New York: Harper, 1977. 113–19. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Clyde Ferguson argued that the NSSM39 report prompted “significant changes” in policy (Ferguson interview by Dickson, 14 January 1983). Assistant Secretary Newsom himself reflected, “it is not the wording of option two which is important. It was what was done as a result of that wording. What was done as a result of that wording was very modest.” Newsom interviewed by Dickson, unspecified date. Both interviews are referred to in Dickson, United States foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa. 77). Looking at the NSSM39 study’s option two operational examples, of those relating to South Africa, three were implemented (gray area military sales, exchange programs, discourage liberation movements), and three were not (sale of common defense equipment, resumption of naval visits, promote exports to the Republic and Namibia). The removal of Ex-Im Bank restrictions was only partially implemented, while it is debatable whether the NASA tracking stations remained for “long as [they were] required.” NSSM39. 104.
President Richard Nixon’s Third annual report to the Congress on United States foreign policy. 9 February 1972. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3736&st=&st1= [Accessed: 20 October 2007].
National Security Study Memorandum 89. United States Policy for South West Africa, 12 February 1970. Study Memorandums (1969–1974): National Security Decision Memorandums. National Security Council Institutional Files: Box H-169. NPMP-NARA.
Kaiser Mantanzima interviewed by Christopher Coker in Washington DC, October 1979 and in Pretoria, July 1978. See Christopher Coker, The United States and South Africa, 1968–1985: constructive engagement and its critics. Durham: Duke University Press, 1986. 74.
Coker. Constructive engagement. 74; Thomas G. Mitchell, Native vs. settler: ethnic conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000. 115; and Thomas G. Karis, Revolution in the making: black politics in South Africa. Foreign Affairs. 1983–1984, 62(378), 400.
Testimony of David D. Newsom before House Subcommittee on Africa, 6 April 1973. U.S. Congress. Implementation of U.S. arms embargo…: hearings… 143 and 144. For charges that the Nixon and Ford administrations broke the 1963 arms embargo, see: Michael Klare and Eric Prokosch, Evading the embargo: how the U.S. arms South Africa and Rhodesia. Issue. 1979, 9(1–2), 42–46; and 111 and 111a: arms embargo (1971–1978). Series VIII: Resource File. Archives of the Washington Office on Africa: Box 51. Special Collections: Record Group 105. Yale Divinity School Library, New Haven.
Zdenek Cervenka and Barbara Rogers. The nuclear axis: secret collaboration between West Germany and South Africa. London: Julian Friedmann, 1978. 150.
See the account of former Chief Executive of the South African Atomic Energy Corporation regarding South Africa’s nuclear program me: Waldo Stumpf, South Africa’s nuclear weapons program. In Kathleen C. Bailey, ed. Weapons of mass destruction: costs versus benefits. New Delhi: Manohar, 1994. 63–81;
Richard E. Bissell, South Africa and the United States: the erosion of an influence relationship. New York: Praeger, 1982. 107–109.
U.S. Department of State. Apartheid and U.S. firms in South Africa. 1971. Cited in Lake. Caution and concern. 120.
President Nixon’s Fourth annual report to the Congress on United States foreign policy. 3 May 1973. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3832&st=south&st1=africa [Accessed: 29 October 2007].
Memo, Eliot to Kissinger, 14 March 1971. Facsimile published in Colin Legum, ed. Africa contemporary record: annual survey and documents 1975–1976. London: Rex Collins, 1976. C101–C103.
U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Annual editions: 1974 and 1985. Washington DC: U.S. GPO, 1974 and 1984. U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Survey of Current Business. 1972, 52(11), 30; 1977, 57(8), 44 and 50; and 1984, 64(11), 24–25;
Ann Seidman and Neva Seidman, South Africa and U.S. multinational corporations. Westport: Lawrence Hill, 1978. 81.
Bruce Oudes, The sacking of the secretary. Africa Report. 1975, 20(1), 17–19.
Memo, Wright to Kissinger, 29 March 1971. Facsimile published in Colin Legum, ed. Africa contemporary record: annual survey and documents 1975–1976. London: Rex Collins, 1976. C106.
See, for example, Goler T. Butcher, Testimony on South Africa. Issue. 1975, 5(3), 39–44.
Policy Planning Council. National Policy Paper: Southern Africa. 20 November 1968. ix. Document 1b. South Africa 1. Files of Edward K. Hamilton: Box 3. NSFLBJL.
Leslie H. Gelb, Loans to South Africa being urged. New York Times. 31 January 1976. 2.
Address by the prime minister of Botswana before the Third Annual Conference of the African-American Institute, Lagos, March 1971. Seretse Khama, Africa and America in the seventies. Gaborone: Government Publishers, 1971.
Basil Davidson, Nixon underwrites Portugal’s empire. New Statesman. 28 January 1972. 103–104;
John Stockwell, In search of enemies: a CIA story. London: Futura, 1979. 48–49.
Stockwell. In search of enemies. 68–69. The CIA’s own assessment identified few ideological differences between the groups. See Gerald Bender, Kissinger in Angola: anatomy of failure. In René Lemarchand, ed. American policy in southern Africa: the stakes and the stance. Washington DC: University Press of America, 1981. 105.
Nathaniel Davis, The Angolan decision of 1975: a personal memoir. Foreign Affairs. 1978, 57(1), 109–124.
Gleijeses’ research shows the Cubans were acting independently of USSR instructions. Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
See comments at First Extraordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, 10–13 January 1976; and John A. Marcum, Lessons of Angola. Foreign Affairs. 1976, 54(3), 418–420.
Stephen S. Rosenfeld, Henry Kissinger on the U.S. and Rhodesia. Washington Post. 3 July 1979. A17.
Jonathan Steele, Kissinger not out to deal with Vorster at Bavarian meeting. The Guardian (London). 18 June 1976. 2.
Ian Smith quoted in David Martin and Phyllis Johnson. The struggle for Zimbabwe: the Chimurenga war. London: Faber and Faber, 1981. 235.
John F. Burns, High South Africa aide bars military role in Rhodesia. New York Times. 14 May 1976. A4.
R.W. Johnson, How long will South Africa survive? London: Macmillan, 1977. 234–242.
United Nations. Centre against Apartheid. Conference paper 7. 1977. Cited in Coker. Constructive engagement. 107. The United States was the only country to abstain in the vote on U.N. General Assembly resolution 31/6/A, of 26 October 1976, which “rejected” the Transkei’s “independence.”
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© 2008 Alex Thomson
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Thomson, A. (2008). “The Whites are Here to Stay …”: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, 1969–1977. In: U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617285_6
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