OTHER COMMENTARY / EXCERPTS : Can South Africa Get Off the Tiger Without Being Eaten?

At this point the Reagan Administration has tried all approaches on all parties and failed every time. It has tried to appease Botha and failed. It has tried to threaten Botha and failed. It has tried to support the blacks and failed. It is now blaming the blacks (National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane sharply criticized the black South African, Bishop Desmond Tutu, for not joining a group of clerics who visited President Pieter W. Botha)--and failing once again.

Botha now knows that American policy in Southern Africa is largely anti-communist bluster. Blacks know it, too. Neither side has any reason to pay heed to Washington, and the catastrophe that has been so long and noisily announced seems closer than ever.

At no time did this country have a strong hand to play. The United States is not prepared to fight for justice in South Africa, nor to make economic sacrifice. But why pretend otherwise?

The answer lies deep in the national psyche. Fed up with years of trouble, the country seeks reassurance. The Reagan Administration provides it in a buoyant President with a genuine talent for retreating from failed policies as if nothing had gone wrong. But later the storms gather--in the economy, in the Middle East and even in distant South Africa.