MR. BOTHA'S POODLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820012-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: July 24, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820012-4
ARTICLE AP :,~R~p~ NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE __L_3~ 24 July 1986
ABROAD AT HOME
Anthony Lewis
Mr.
Botha, is
Poodle
WASHINGTON
After President Reagan's
speech, the hope for a negoti-
ated transition to democracy in
South Attica is at the vanishing point.
The prospect is for years of repres-
sion and violence, eroding a great
country's future.
Here was a moment In history, a
chance to use America's influence to
advance Western values, American
values, in a highly important place.
Instead the President
Af-
rica a tragic push in the wrong direc-
In Washington, reaction to the
speech focuses on economic sanctions
and whether Congress will override
Mr. Reagan's opposition to them. But
sanctions are only means to an end.
The larger question is: Which side
are we on?
Mr. Reagan is on the side of P.W.
Botha and the National Party rulers
of South Africa. That was the real
message of his speech. Indeed, the
speech could have been written by
Mr. Botha, so perfectly did it echo the
justifications he gives for governing
by force and refusing to negotiate
with the leaders of his country's black
majority.
"The South African Government is
under no obligation to negotiate the
future of the country," Mr. Reagan
said, "with any organization that prow
claims a goal of creating a Commu-
nist state...."
But no one is urging Pretoria to ne.
gotiate with such an organization.
The Issue is negotiation with the coun-
try's black leadership and especially
with the preeminent anti-apartheid
movement, the African National Can-
grow.
The A.N.C. was born 74 years ago,
and its goal ever since has been a non-
racist South Africa. In contrast to
black power organizations, the -
A.N.C. is open to people of all races.
Its basic policy document is the 1955
Freedom Charter, which calls for a
multiracial democracy.
There are Communists on the
A.N.C. executive. Anyone who cares.
for South Africa must be aware of
that fact and concerned about it. But
the question is how to deal with it.
Mr. Botha and his Government
deliberately paint the A.N.C. as a
mere instrument of the Soviet Union,
using that as a reason for refusing to
negotiate. President Reagan in his
speech referred to the A.N.C. in simi-
larly hostile terms. For Mr. Botha,
that was crucial support.
The devil theory of the A.N.C. can-
not be reconciled with a sincere belief
in negotiation. For the theory would
exclude from the process the group
that embodies the hopes of more
South Africans than any other.
The leader of the A.N.C.; Nelson
Mandela, has been in prison for 24
years. Yet a poll of urban blacks in
1988 showed that 31 percent supported
him and the A.N.C., and a further 14
percent said they were for groups
with similar objectives. The next
largest support was 8 percent for the
Zulu leader, Gatsha Buthelezi, and
his organization.
The Commonwealth mission that
completed an intensive study of the
South African situation last month
said: "There can be no negotiated
settlement in South Africa without
the A.N.C. The breadth of its support
is incontestable, and this support is
growing. I.
Secretary of State Shultz tried to
take the hard edge off the President's
comments on the A.N.C., saying he
was ready to meet Its president in
exile, Oliver Tambo. But it is becom-
ing ever clearer that, whatever Mr.
Shultz thinks, the hard men of the
Reagan Administration do not want
white minority power to end in South
Africa. Hence the flow of U.S. intelli-
gence on the. . . to Pretoria, as
just detailed Seymour Hersh in
The New or mes.
Only Ronald Reagan can speak
truth to P.W. Botha and make him lis-
ten. That is why the President's fail-
ure was so disastrous. That is why
Bishop Desmond Tutu, who symbol-
izes the frail hope for a peaceful and
der*bcratic solution, reacted to the
speech with such despair. He sees the
men of violence taking over in his
country.
Ronald Reagan knows nothing of
realities on the ground in South Af-
rica. He sees South Africa as he sees
all the world, through the glass of
ideology. The principal draftsman of
his speech, appropriately, was his
House ideologue, Patrick Buchanan.
And so those who decry chaos and
Communism help to bring them on.
South Africa is a test - I think the
most profound now - of map's politi-
cal rationality. What a wonderful
country it would be without racism.
As Secretary Shultz told the Senate
Foreign Relations committee yester-
day, we see there "a vision of what
can be." Could have been. ^
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820012-4