Page 43 - Shahrvand BC No. 1269
P. 43
English Section
43 The truth about America’s Mandela policy but as a full-blooded man whose metamorphosis
from rebel to hero came during his more than 2 1/2
decades in prison.
Official US policy toward the now-revered freedom fighter makes for some uncomfortable reflections. But as Mandela broke rocks and mined salt on
Robben Island, the United States government
Jean MacKenzie apparently thought he was right where he should
be.
December 11, 2013 01:19 President Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill to impose
Globalpost-- sanctions on the South African government, even
as world powers applied pressure on Pretoria’s
1392 رذآ22 جمعه- 1269 شماره/ سال مکیو تسیب A sculpture of Nelson Mandela. white rulers and the “Free Mandela” cause swept
(Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images) the globe.
A bipartisan group of congressmen overrode the
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — As State Department waiver to enter the United States veto.
the world mourns Nelson Mandela, — his name was on a terrorist watch list. The Republicans in Washington who broke
international leaders, including US
President Barack Obama, gathered Much ink has been devoted to Mandela’s with Reagan included former House Speaker
in Johannesburg to honor the legacy revolutionary past since his death on Dec. 5, at age Newt Gingrich and Senate Minority Leader Mitch
of the South African freedom fighter 95. Many want him remembered not as a saint, McConnell. They defied a president of their own
and reconciliation icon. party so they could be, in the words of Republican
Obama eulogized Mandela as “the last great Sen. Richard Lugar, “on the right side of history.”
liberator of the 20th century.”
At the time, apparently to some, it still was
But Washington has not always praised South unclear on which side of history Mandela would
Africa’s first black president in this way. lie.
As recently as 2008, Mandela required a special The rhetoric against the anti-apartheid leader
and his African National Congress (ANC) came
straight from the Cold War playbook. Mandela’s
ANC was seen as being dangerously
close to the Soviet Union, and Mandela
himself had been a member of South
Africa’s Communist Party.
Mandela also embraced Fidel Castro
and his Cuban Revolution, which
served as inspiration for the ANC’s
own aims. This alone would have
put him beyond the pale for many
Americans.
When Mandela was finally let
In touch with Iranian diversity out of prison in 1990, conservative
commentator William F. Buckley
ominously warned, “the release of
Mandela, for all we know, may one
day be likened to the arrival of Lenin
at the Finland Station in 1917.”
Today, the outpouring of praise for
the man might say otherwise.
Instead, just months after Mandela’s
release and before his planned US
tour, reports emerged that the CIA had
played a key role in his 1962 capture.
Many had suspected that much all
along.
Whatever did Americans see in
Vol. 21 / No. 1269 - Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 South Africa’s oppressive state?
The country was a valuable trading
partner, a source of gold and other
minerals vital to the economies and
lifestyles of the developed world.
Most important, its defenders said, it
was a bulwark against communism.
The policy of supporting the apartheid
regime was called “constructive
engagement,” which, while it may
sound a bit hypocritical today, does not
have quite the sanctimonious ring of
some other US foreign ventures.
When the CIA intervened in
Guatemala in 1954 to topple the
democratically elected president,
Jacobo Arbenz, it did so in the name
of saving civilization. Arbenz was
directing land reforms that threatened
the fortunes of the United Fruit
Company, a corporation in which
many Washington power brokers
were heavily vested, including the spy
4 3 agency’s director, Allen Dulles.
This and other escapades are outlined
in detail in Stephen Kinzer’s recent
43 The truth about America’s Mandela policy but as a full-blooded man whose metamorphosis
from rebel to hero came during his more than 2 1/2
decades in prison.
Official US policy toward the now-revered freedom fighter makes for some uncomfortable reflections. But as Mandela broke rocks and mined salt on
Robben Island, the United States government
Jean MacKenzie apparently thought he was right where he should
be.
December 11, 2013 01:19 President Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill to impose
Globalpost-- sanctions on the South African government, even
as world powers applied pressure on Pretoria’s
1392 رذآ22 جمعه- 1269 شماره/ سال مکیو تسیب A sculpture of Nelson Mandela. white rulers and the “Free Mandela” cause swept
(Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images) the globe.
A bipartisan group of congressmen overrode the
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — As State Department waiver to enter the United States veto.
the world mourns Nelson Mandela, — his name was on a terrorist watch list. The Republicans in Washington who broke
international leaders, including US
President Barack Obama, gathered Much ink has been devoted to Mandela’s with Reagan included former House Speaker
in Johannesburg to honor the legacy revolutionary past since his death on Dec. 5, at age Newt Gingrich and Senate Minority Leader Mitch
of the South African freedom fighter 95. Many want him remembered not as a saint, McConnell. They defied a president of their own
and reconciliation icon. party so they could be, in the words of Republican
Obama eulogized Mandela as “the last great Sen. Richard Lugar, “on the right side of history.”
liberator of the 20th century.”
At the time, apparently to some, it still was
But Washington has not always praised South unclear on which side of history Mandela would
Africa’s first black president in this way. lie.
As recently as 2008, Mandela required a special The rhetoric against the anti-apartheid leader
and his African National Congress (ANC) came
straight from the Cold War playbook. Mandela’s
ANC was seen as being dangerously
close to the Soviet Union, and Mandela
himself had been a member of South
Africa’s Communist Party.
Mandela also embraced Fidel Castro
and his Cuban Revolution, which
served as inspiration for the ANC’s
own aims. This alone would have
put him beyond the pale for many
Americans.
When Mandela was finally let
In touch with Iranian diversity out of prison in 1990, conservative
commentator William F. Buckley
ominously warned, “the release of
Mandela, for all we know, may one
day be likened to the arrival of Lenin
at the Finland Station in 1917.”
Today, the outpouring of praise for
the man might say otherwise.
Instead, just months after Mandela’s
release and before his planned US
tour, reports emerged that the CIA had
played a key role in his 1962 capture.
Many had suspected that much all
along.
Whatever did Americans see in
Vol. 21 / No. 1269 - Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 South Africa’s oppressive state?
The country was a valuable trading
partner, a source of gold and other
minerals vital to the economies and
lifestyles of the developed world.
Most important, its defenders said, it
was a bulwark against communism.
The policy of supporting the apartheid
regime was called “constructive
engagement,” which, while it may
sound a bit hypocritical today, does not
have quite the sanctimonious ring of
some other US foreign ventures.
When the CIA intervened in
Guatemala in 1954 to topple the
democratically elected president,
Jacobo Arbenz, it did so in the name
of saving civilization. Arbenz was
directing land reforms that threatened
the fortunes of the United Fruit
Company, a corporation in which
many Washington power brokers
were heavily vested, including the spy
4 3 agency’s director, Allen Dulles.
This and other escapades are outlined
in detail in Stephen Kinzer’s recent
