United States containment policy, South Africa and the apartheid dilemma

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, South Africa has become an increasingly important issue within US foreign policy after a long period of benign neglect. For a considerable part of the post-war period, US decision-makers felt it possible to avoid a direct confrontation with the moral and ethical issues involved in the South African government's policy of apartheid; the relative geographical isolation of the country from many central theatres of East–West conflict in central Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia ensured that South Africa was not in the front line of strategically vital states. Furthermore, South Africa's membership of the Commonwealth until 1960 meant that, for many US policy makers, South Africa could be seen as an issue within Commonwealth relations and thus not one for direct US involvement.

Apartheid drone: Infrastructures of militarism and the hidden genealogies of the South African Seeker

“…These aircraft, not just the drones flown in Bekaa Valley, presage targeted killings by the US. The report also is a reminder of secret US support for the South African Defence Force in their wars against anti-colonial revolutionaries who were allied with the Soviet Union during the 1980s (see Davies, 2007; Rich, 1988).…”

“… 4. Reflections on the South African Border Wars formed part of the anti-apartheid struggle and were central to discussions of international relations in Africa, as well as analyses of US foreign policy in Southern Africa during the period (see, e.g. Campbell, 1984; Davies and O’Meara, 1985; Mandaza, 1986; Rich, 1988). More recent works outline the history of the war (Scholtz, 2015) and the role of conscription and memory with which it is associated (Baines, 2014), in addition to using the conflicts to reconsider global relations during the Cold War (Baines and Vale, 2008; Westad, 2005).…”

8 - The Western Super-Powers and the Liberation Struggle in Africa: The Politics of Imperialism, Domination and Resistance, 1948-1980s

“…There is no substitute for manganese in the manufacture of wrought steel, and the platinum group metals, of which South Africa had about 73.2 per cent of the world's reserves, are vital for many industrial applications (Davies 2007:57;Coker 1990;Bowman 1990;Rich 1990).…”