Press enter after choosing selection

Kissinger In Africa

Kissinger In Africa image
Parent Issue
Day
8
Month
October
Year
1976
OCR Text

Kissinger In Africa

By David Olsen, Pacific News Service

In his campaign to head off race war in Southern Africa, Henry Kissinger has left his biggest weapons -U.S. economic sanctions - at home.

Kissinger's strategy is now based on getting South African Prime Minister John Vorster's cooperation on three all-important fronts: economic pressure to force Rhodesia's white minority government to transfer power to black moderates; ending South African rule of Namibia (South West Africa) in favor of a moderate black government ; and reducing the injustices of apartheid in South Africa itself.

But so far Kissinger has been unwilling to use his most powerful options to force Vorster's hand in these areas.

According to State Department sources, Kissinger will not threaten to:

*Enforce UN economic sanctions proscribing trade with South Africa - cutting off the $1.2 billion in annual U.S. exports to that nation and seriously crippling its economy.

Stop further U.S. private investment in South Africa - now $2 billion-thus ending its major hope for economic expansion.

Cut off all U.S. relations with South Africa - putting the country into near-total cultural and political isolation

Strictly enforce the UN-imposed embargo on all arms sales to South Africa shaking South Africa's confidence in its ability to supply its military machine.

While precedents for such sanctions exist in U.S. policy toward other countries - and are, in fact, United Nations policy toward South Africa - none are under consideration in Kissinger's African shuttle diplomacy, according to State Department sources.

Given the urgency in his current mission to southern Africa, Kissinger apparently is unwilling to threaten South Africa with any of the sterner sanctions he could impose. There are several probable reasons:

First, Kissinger sees South Africa as a valuable strategic ally.

Second, over 400 U.S. firms have branches or subsidiaries, in South Africa, and U.S. opposition to white South African policies could jeopardize these investments. Total U.S. investment there - roughly $2 billion - now surpasses U.S. investment in all black Africa combined.

The U.S. also experts more than twice what it imports from South Africa, thus accumulating a large ($600 million annually) and important trade surplus that would be lost if Kissinger were to shut off U.S. trade with that country.