Todman Says U.S. Apartheid Position Lacks Credibility

Ambassador Terence A. Todman, who has been mentioned as a possible new U.S. envoy to South Africa, said today the Reagan Administration’s opposition to apartheid lacks credibility worldwide.

Todman played down reports that he might be called on to succeed Herman Nickel as ambassador in Pretoria, but he did not rule out the possibility. He said he believed no new envoy should be named until U.S. policy gains more credibility.

Todman, who is black, commented at a press conference he called at the U.S. Embassy in the Danish capital, where he has been ambassador since 1983.

Position Not Believed

“There isn’t any doubt about the firm opposition to apartheid that exists in the United States,” he said. But he said official expressions of American opposition “somehow are not believed by the South African people or the rulers in South Africa or by people anywhere else in the world.

“I think once we have a policy that finds credibility with the South Africans, with the people of southern Africa and with the rest of the world, then we can start thinking of who is the very best person to go to South Africa to implement that policy,” he said. “I don’t think we are at that stage yet.”

On the reports of his candidacy, Todman, 60, said news media had “managed to take some words they attributed to White House sources and blow it up to unbelievable proportions.”

Reporters Chided

Asked if his remarks meant he would refuse the posting, Todman said, “I don’t see how what I said could mean that at all.

“It means that once we have evolved a policy that is credible, then it is a matter for discussion on who is the best person, what is the policy, what will the person have to work with in order to be sure that an effective job will be done for the country.”

“My interest is in serving the United States government, it’s what I’ve done all my life. I’m not afraid of any assignment, but I want to be sure that when I get into an assignment that I know what it is I’m working with,” he said.

The career diplomat, the highest-ranking black in the U.S. Foreign Service, described apartheid as “morally wrong and politically unacceptable” and pointed out that “it has been said that the United States can never have cordial relations with a government which bases its presence on the denial of rights to the majority of its citizens based on race.”

White House Denial

At the White House, deputy press secretary Albert R. Brashear said, “We have never stated that we were in fact considering Todman.”

“I’m not going to comment on the selection process,” he said.

Reagan Administration officials have said the President wants to name a black to become the next ambassador to South Africa.

Todman previously held ambassadorships in Chad, Guinea, Costa Rica and Spain.

He was born in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, and began his diplomatic career in 1952 in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.