Reagan Names Black as Envoy for S. Africa

President Reagan, attempting to recover from a House override of his veto of South African sanctions, announced Tuesday that he is naming career diplomat Edward J. Perkins, who is black, to be the American ambassador to the white-ruled government in Pretoria.

The nomination of Perkins, which had been expected for more than a month, is seen as part of the Administration’s strategy to seek support for its South African policy, which is under siege on Capitol Hill.

Administration officials hope that the combination of Reagan’s offer to unilaterally stiffen sanctions against South Africa plus the historic appointment of the first black ambassador to that nation will persuade the Republican-controlled Senate to sustain his veto when it votes today.

However, the initial reaction from Congress is that Perkins’ appointment will have no impact as election-conscious senators cast their votes.

Perkins, 58, is a Foreign Service officer who has held several ambassadorial posts and is now serving as the U.S. envoy to Liberia. His appointment is regarded as an attempt by the Administration to symbolically underscore American opposition to the apartheid system of racial segregation without a significant overhaul of U.S. policy.

Expect Easy Confirmation

White House officials expect Perkins to be easily confirmed by the Senate. His prospective appointment already has been cleared by the Pretoria government, which did not object to him on racial or any other grounds.

Meanwhile, Herman Nickel, the departing U.S. ambassador to South Africa, gave the Reagan Administration’s most pessimistic assessment yet of the prospect for peaceful change in the strife-torn country. Neither the white-led minority government nor the opponents of apartheid believe that the time is right for political accommodation, Nickel said in his final speech after 4 1/2 years as ambassador.

This could condemn the country to a “truly terrifying scenario” of increasing violence “in a vicious downward spiral” leading to a civil war there that could also spill across South Africa’s borders, Nickel said.

“By the time the antagonists have concluded that they must come to terms with each other and stagger to the negotiating table, that table will stand in a wasteland with countless victims of a self-destructive struggle littering the ground,” he predicted.

Assails Botha Regime

Nickel, one of the architects of the Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement,” which seeks change through diplomacy rather than confrontation, sharply criticized President Pieter W. Botha’s government.

The ambassador accused the Pretoria regime of squandering the time that the U.S. policy had bought it and instead indulging itself in cosmetic reforms of apartheid and various “schemes” for sharing power with the country’s black majority without yielding real control.

But Nickel urged the United States not to give up and to maintain contacts with all factions. “We must be in a position to talk to all the players,” he said, insisting that the United States is still in a position to act as a catalyst for change and perhaps even become a mediator in talks between the government and the opposition.

Critics have assailed Reagan for attempting to substitute symbolism for substance in naming a black ambassador. The Administration initially wanted to make such a gesture the centerpiece of Reagan’s July policy address on South Africa. When the prospective nominee, North Carolina businessman Robert Brown, declined after questions about his past business dealings arose, Reagan was left without a focal point to his speech.

The charge that Reagan wanted only to change the messenger and not the message gained credence as Reagan clung to his go-slow policy toward South Africa and remained steadfastly opposed to further sanctions, despite considerable pressure from congressional leaders.

Reagan next turned to Terence A. Todman, the ambassador to Denmark, to fill Nickel’s post. But Todman called a widely publicized news conference after which his remarks were characterized as criticism of U.S. policy toward South Africa. Although Todman said later that his remarks were taken out of context, the Administration nonetheless suffered another public embarrassment.

Administration Moves Slowly

After the collapse of the Brown and Todman candidacies, the Administration moved slowly on Perkins’ nomination.

Reagan is unlikely to get the political mileage from this historic appointment that his advisers predicted when they first raised the prospect of a black ambassador last spring.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said some weeks ago that he did not believe Perkins’ appointment would alter the equation for Reagan either in South Africa or on Capitol Hill. He called it “a small step,” at a time when a deteriorating situation in South Africa demands a great deal more.

Eleanor Clift reported from Washington and Michael Parks from Johannesburg.