Sanctions Against South Africa

The President’s veto of congressional sanctions against the South African government places at issue the difference between moral sophistry and meaningful action.

In his veto message, the President expressed his sympathy to the subjugated blacks and his abhorence of the apartheid system, yet his lack of action belies any real moral character.

Even the wording of his veto message gives the reader a clear picture of the President’s lack of moral vision. When the President asks the simplistic question, “Are we truly helping the black people of South Africa . . . when we throw them out of work and leave them and their families jobless and hungry in those segregated townships?”, he fails to understand that the responsibility for the harm and disruption that will affect both black and white, innocent and guilty, rests with the government in Pretoria and not with “we” Americans.

Certainly, the South African government can change the course of American sanctions by changing its actions. All of the President’s talk, both soft and hard, has failed to yield any meaningful change in the conduct of one of the most immoral governments in the world.

When the South African government knows that the President’s talk will never be followed by action, why should it change its policies?

JAMES P. HERZOG

Encino