Foreign support for Apartheid?

In Pakistan's case we had extensive ties with SA dating from the Raj. This was especially true in the military sephere, we did not have dip relations, but there was a sharing of intel and other military links,.. As I said the Angloshepere and the Commonwealth were still allied with the SA in all but name.

Originally posted by elenos The official "apartheid regime" did not start until 1948. What you say about "political support" seems defensive. Because of the trade between the two countries the Netherlands was reluctant to cut trading ties and considered South Africans (not South Africa) as Dutch up until about the 1980's.

I'm not terribily knowledgeable on this subject, but I do know that (at least from the 1970's onwards) the South African govenment because of Dutch condemnation of apartheid called the Netherlands a Soviet proxy, and those are not really things countries say to good allies.

A Portuguese friend of mine also told me that the SA government received funding from Protugal to fight its war in Angola. How true this is, i don't know...

Originally posted by Beylerbeyi Here we go again on an AE morality guilt trip.     My aim is not to make you feel guilty, but to counter your lies and propaganda.   The world watches your Rambos and Private Ryans and CNNs, but you start whining when someone writes a short text account of your support for racist scum.   When foreign countries interfere in an independent country's internal affairs, they are supposed to be guilty of imperialism or evil subversion or worse.  When foreign countries don't interfere, they are guilty of racism, exploitation of the natives, etc.   I think it depends on the intent of the interference. US's interference was not to help the people of SA, USSR's was.   Therefore the solution to your dilemma is not to blame the USSR for your support for apartheid:   Once that presence had removed itself, apartheid collpased.   because once American support removed itself, apartheid collapsed, not because the Soviets removed themselves.   There's no USSR today, but US still supports apartheid in Palestine.

Fact is that nation states are by defination, amoral in their outlook. every country looks out for its interests, moral and humaitarian concerns are fine as long as they don't interfere with interests. Few examples if any exist where a nation went againts its interests or where it had none, the most oft cited (by anti-Clinton GOPs) in the Balkens, IMO the Balkens is one of the most strategic areas in Europe, no way was the US going to let that fish get away when they saw the oppurtunity.

The US interest in the Balkens was different from its interest in the Med, in the latter the Suez is more or less under control, and there is no Naval power that can seriously dispute the sea. For the Balkens, well you have Europe S Flank secured (and securing Europe has been and still is a US policy sine 42') no to mention put one up on Russia. So US definatly had interests there.

SA still is not a an unimportant state, it still has some of the largest diamond mines in the world. Where these massive  profits are going now days god only knows. During the time of ethnic troubles De Beers the major owner of the mines had an each way bet on which way the cards would fall and lost very little. The US with all its usual lack of subtlety in internal affairs of other countries, was by and large trying to wreck the European economy with the Apartheid question because of the money attached to diamonds which the Americans had no part. They almost succeeded in wrecking their own. 


Edited by elenos - 02-Aug-2007 at 18:55

The question of apartheid. It was not so much an intellectual question but an excuse to riot that invaded every city in the West. Thousands of rather scruffy looking young white people bearing placards marched down the streets, chanting, jeering, gesticulating and insulting their government to the music of breaking glass as windows were smashed and public utilities vandalized. They all knew how well that works.

Why so much mob support a cause that was not their own? Because the issue was black and white so to speak. Everybody knew the elusive promise of a world utopia would finally arrive once the black man was freed to rule himself, for that was part of us somehow. Frankly none of that happened but it was a great PR job from the shadowy left leaning figures that arranged it all.