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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 14, 1984
largely unheeded by the U.S. press. Nevertheless, the editors of the WASH
INGTON POST did reprint his warning in their October 30 issue:
Outsiders need to be aware of the danger of supporting only pro
test politics, which arouse anger but do not direct it toward
achievable goals•••• If change is ever achieved in South Africa
through violence,� will find that the foundations of the future
will have been destroyed in the course of liberating the country.
We have the choice whether or not to employ that degree of vio
lence. There are, in fact, many who have made this choice and who
believe that the country must be reduced to ashes so that a new
start can one day be made. I understand the anger that leads to
this kind of desperation, but I reject it, and the vast majority
of South Africans reject it. I do not believe we have to destroy
the foundations of the future to bring about radical change. I
believe ways and means can be found to build up black bargaining
power to force whites to negotiate.
There is something strange about the intensification of the pressure
against South Africa. There are not a few who believe that the orchestra
tion of the anti-apartheid drive is traceable to Moscow. And for good rea
son. The Kremlin has taken two severe prestige beatings in African af
fairs. Most recently, it was embarrassed about how little it could aid its
own client state, Ethiopia, in its famine situation. The hated capitalist
western world came to the rescue instead.
Even more than this, Moscow was red-faced when Marxist Mozambique, wracked
by famine, civil war and a shattered economy, was forced by reality to make
peace with South Africa last March 16. The two states signed the Nkomati
accord. (Note too that South Africa's President P.W. Botha and Mozambique
President Samora Machel did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their
efforts!)
Other states in the region are also aligning themselves more
with Pretoria, turning away from Moscow's siren calls. Marxist Angola just
might send its 30,000 troops home in a three-way deal with South Africa and
the United States to engineer independence with Southwest Africa or
Namibia. Everywhere in the region Moscow is on the run. The U.S. policy of
"constructive engagement," so villified by Bishop Tutu, ha� been working.
But now, because of political heat inside the
u.s�,
President Reagan has
felt pressured to go public with strong criticisms of South Africa's
policies.
In short, until very recently, Moscow has been losing and the West has been
winning. This is how the May 17 issue of the British newsletter, SPECIAL
OFFICE BRIEF, put it:
It should not be forgotten that the Soviet Union has never de
viated from its stated objective of world domination. To achieve
this it will have to gain control of mineral-rich Southern
Africa, and its strategy in gaining this control is to aggravate
tensions and hamper the search for peaceful solutions. This is
underlined by the Kremlin's deafening silence on the current
peace initiatives and rapproachement between governments in
Southern Africa. It is the last thing Moscow wishes to see.
More on this rapidly building and incredibly misunderstood issue in the
future.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau