Balancing acts: John Kennedy, The Cold War and the African National Congress

Abstract

The prevailing conception of John Kennedy's presidency has been that of a liberal administration unable to take a stronger stand on apartheid, not out of its own doubts about the desirability of black self-rule, but because of South Africa's Cold War geopolitical value. This paper, however, argues that Kennedy's presidency, while representing an important break with previous administrations over the sort of contact the United States should maintain with African nationalist movements, failed to engage with the African National Congress, seeing it instead as little more than a communist proxy. Through a careful examination of debates occurring within the Departments of State and Defense, as well as those in Pretoria, this article demonstrates that Kennedy's administration, while far from monolithic, ultimately chose to align itself with the Nationalist Party's depiction of apartheid as a policy ‘in the interest of both sides’.

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Drs. Sue Onslow and John Daniel, as well as two anonymous reviewers, for providing valuable comments in the writing of this article.

Notes

1. On Kennedy and civil rights, see Giglio (1991) and Dallek (2003). On the international dimensions of race relations, see Borstelmann (2000, pp. 435–63).

2. Whereas earlier scholars have characterized Kennedy's foreign relations with South Africa as reflective of his liberal stance on racial equality, but hampered by the Cold War's geo-political imperatives, revisionist scholarship has challenged this interpretation, arguing that Kennedy's stance was either consistent with Truman and Eisenhower's dismissive approach towards apartheid or driven by the desire to contain racial conflict as much as possible. Of the earlier scholarship, see Giglio (1991) and Schlesinger (1976). On the later interpretation, see Noer (1985), Massie (1997), and Borstelmann (2001). An excellent illustration of this debate can also be found in Giglio and Rabe (2003).

3. Department of State National Strategy Series: South Africa (Intermediate Draft), 28 October 1963, National Security File (NSF), Box 3, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts (hereafter JFKL).

4. This was South African Foreign Minister Louw's characterization of apartheid in Memorandum of Conversation, 17 July 1963, FRUS, pp. 639–43.

5. CIA, ‘The Addis Ababa Conference and its Aftermath’, 11 July 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

6. Telegram from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 25 May 1961, FRUS, p. 593.

7. Letter to G.P. Jooste (Head of UN Delegation and Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs) from ‘Willem’ of South African Embassy, 16 March 1962, Box 1/33/3, Department of Foreign Affairs of South Africa, Pretoria (hereafter SADFA).

8. Hearings on ‘Foreign Assistance Act of 1963’, p. 1089, Box 1/33/3, SADFA.

9. Letter from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 18 December 1962, enclosing Country Internal Defense Plan A-278, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

10. Department of State, Guidelines for Policy and Operations: Republic of South Africa, May 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

11. ‘Guidelines for US Policy Toward the Republic of South Africa’, enclosed in letter from Samuel Belk to Walt Rostow (Chairman of the Department of State Policy Planning Council), 3 August 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

12. Letter from Bowles to Bundy, 21 September 1961, FRUS, pp. 603–605; Memorandum from Jerry Wiesner (President's Special Assistant) to Bundy, 18 October 1961, Ibid., pp. 607–08. See also Memorandum from Bundy to Kennedy, 13 July 1963, FRUS, p. 636, where referring to US missile tracking, Bundy notes that ‘nothing we have there is vital’.

13. The State Department's bureaucratic battles were characterized as such in a memo from Samuel Belk to McGeorge Bundy, 17 July 1962, NSF, Box 2 (‘Africa, General 6/62–7/62’ Folder), JFKL.

14. CIA, ‘Special Report: Subversive Movements in South Africa’, 10 May 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

15. Airgram from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 18 December 1962, enclosing Country Internal Defense Plan A-278, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.; ‘Guidelines for US Policy Toward the Republic of South Africa’, enclosed in letter from Belk to Rostow, 3 August 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

18. National Security Action Memorandum No. 33, Rusk to Bundy, 22 March 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

19. Telegram from Department of State (Rusk) to Embassy in South Africa, 25 August 1961, FRUS, pp. 598–601.

20. Ibid.

21. Memorandum from Williams to Gilpatric, 16 September 1961, FRUS, pp. 601–02; Telegram from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 7 September 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

22. Memorandum from Lucius Battle (Executive Secretary, Department of State) to Bundy, 26 October 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL. See also Memo from Battle to Bundy, reprinted in FRUS, pp. 612–13.

23. Letter from Belk to Bundy, enclosing appeal from Williams to Kennedy, 3 November 1961, NSF, Box 2, JFKL. After Kennedy's initial refusal, the State Department reissued its recommendation (originally sent 26 October 1961) on 13 November, ten days after Williams' appeal.

24. Priority Telegram (No. 141) from Naude to Louw, 11 December 1961, Box 1/33/3, SADFA. Tambo's presence in the US was nevertheless remarkable, as the Eisenhower administration had prevented him from travelling to the country for a conference sponsored by the American Committee on Africa only three years earlier. See Houser (1989).

25. Telegram from Rusk to Department of State, 6 October 1962, FRUS, pp. 620–22.

26. Telegram from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 5 December 1962, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

27. Naudé to Louw, ‘Amzac Conference at Howard University’, 5 April 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADF.

28. Ibid.; Naude to Louw, ‘Minister Louw's Speech at Kimberley’, 24 April, 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADF.

29. A.G. Dunn to Louw, ‘Conference of the American Society of African Culture (AMSAC): Washington, April 1963’, 25 April 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADF.

30. Naudé to Louw, ‘Leadership Institute of the Collegiate Council for the United Nations (CCUN)’, 16 May 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADF; Telegram from Rusk to Embassy in South Africa, 23 April 1963, FRUS, p. 630.

31. See Letter from Belk to Bromley Smith (Executive Secretary, National Security Council), enclosing a report of the first meeting of the Advisory Council on African Affairs from J. Wayne Fredericks, 6 August 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

32. Memorandum from Williams to Rusk, ‘US Policy Towards South Africa’, 12 June 1963, enclosed in Memorandum from Carl Kaysen (Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs) to Kennedy, 4 July 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

33. Memorandum from Rusk to Harriman, 15 June 1963, FRUS, pp. 633–35. On Rusk's description of apartheid as a ‘major moral issue’, see Telegram from Rusk to the Embassy in South Africa, 25 October 1961, FRUS, pp. 610–611.

34. Letter from Stevenson to Kennedy, 26 June 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Rusk to Kennedy, FRUS, p. 656.

35. Telegram from Rusk to Stevenson, 2 August 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

36. Memorandum of Conversation, 17 July 1963, FRUS, pp. 639–43.

37. Detailed notes of Rusk and Naudé meetings can be found in: Naudé to Louw, ‘United States/South Africa Relations’, 24 July 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADFA; Memorandum of Conversation, ‘South Africa and the Security Council Meeting’, 17 July 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Memorandum of Conversation, ‘The South African Programme of Grouping Independent Bantu States’, 20 July 1963, Ibid.; Memorandum of Conversation, ‘Current South African Problems’, 26 August 1963, Ibid.

38. Memorandum of Conversation, 17 July 1963, FRUS, pp. 639–43.

39. Ibid.

40. Naudé to Louw, ‘United States/South Africa Relations’, 24 July 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADFA.

41. CIA Special Report, ‘New South African Bid for Western Support’, 13 September 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Telegram from US Embassy to Rusk, 28 August 1963, Ibid.

42. Memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, 1 November 1963, FRUS, pp. 654–56. See also Department of State National Strategy Series: South Africa (Intermediate Draft), 28 October 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

43. Ibid.

44. Telegram 126 from Satterthwaite to Rusk, 7 May 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Telegram 416 from Satterthwaite to Rusk, 1 October 1963, Ibid.

45. Telegram 455 from Satterthwaite to Rusk, 9 October 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

46. Memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, 29 October 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

47. Department of State, Guidelines for Policy and Operations: Africa, March 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

48. Department of State, Guidelines for Policy and Operations: Republic of South Africa, May 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

49. Department of State, Guidelines for Policy and Operations: Africa, March 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL.

50. See Read to Bundy, ‘African Reactions to UN Security Council Debates on Portuguese Territories and South Africa’, 13 August 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, 23 October 1963, enclosing CIA Memo ‘African Reactions to US Positions in Security Council Debates on Portuguese Territories and South Africa’, Ibid.; and Dudziak (2003, pp.181–99).

51. Letter from Stevenson to Kennedy, 26 June 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

52. Memorandum, ‘Meeting with the President on African Problems’, 15 July 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

53. Alexis Johnson, Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs and Jeffrey Kitchen, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs characterized themselves as ‘deeply distressed’ in their meeting with Ambassador Naudé regarding the proposed arms embargo. Notes of Meeting, ‘United States Embargo of Arms to South Africa’, 24 July 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

54. Naudé to Louw, ‘United States/South Africa Relations’, 24 July 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADFA.

55. Compare letter from State Department Policy Planning Council, 6 July 1962, enclosing draft paper ‘The White Redoubt’ of 28 June 1962, NSF, Box 2, JFKL to ‘Basic National Security Policy Planning Task-II (previously referred to as ‘The White Redoubt’), circulated 6 May 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

56. Telegram 522 from Stevenson to Rusk, 21 August 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

57. Memorandum of Conversation, 3 June 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL; Telegram from Naudé to Louw, 6 June 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADFA.

58. On the complex relationship between the ANC and communism, see Johns (1973), Kempton (1989), Ellis and Sechaba (1992), Thomas (1996), and Pfister (2003). An insightful memoir is Turok (2003).

59. Memorandum from Naudé to Louw, 26 June 1963, Box 1/33/3, SADFA.

60. Attwood, p. 26. On the compelling evidence linking the CIA to Mandela's arrest, see Borstelmann (2001, pp. 156–57) and Albright and Kunstel (1990).

61. Airgram from Satterthwaite to Department of State, 18 December 1962, enclosing Country Internal Defense Plan A-278, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

62. Telegram 126 from Satterthwaite to Rusk, 7 May 1963, NSF, Box 3, JFKL.

63. See Memorandum from Bundy to President Kennedy, 13 July 1963, FRUS, p. 636.

64. See Letter from Bowles to Bundy, 21 September 1961, FRUS, pp. 603–605; Memorandum of Conversation: US/UK Talks South Africa, 20 November 1961, Ibid., pp. 613–616; Memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, 5 December 1963, Ibid., p. 660. For further discussion of how ‘the US almost broke relations with South Africa during the Kennedy administration’, see Rusk (1990, pp. 523–25).

65. Memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, 1 November 1963, FRUS, pp. 654–56.

66. On the longitudinal effect that early US suspicion of communist influence in the ANC had on American foreign policy towards the liberation struggle, see Karis (1986).

67. Renee Romano, ‘No Diplomatic Immunity: African Diplomats, the State Department, and Civil Rights, 1961–1964’, The Journal of American History (September 2000), p. 546.