U.S. Plans Cookout Minus Polemics : In Zimbabwe, There’ll Be No 4th of July Speeches

The American Embassy here will celebrate the Fourth of July this year with a big cookout in the ambassador’s backyard. In a bit of preventive diplomacy, however, the ambassador says no speeches will be allowed, though toasts will be encouraged.

One party planner suggested that the public address system should have a cutoff switch, just in case. He was joking--sort of.

At last year’s Independence Day reception, a Zimbabwe Cabinet minister shattered the convivial atmosphere with a 25-minute attack on U.S. policy toward South Africa.

Former President Jimmy Carter, the guest of honor, stalked out, and U.S. and other Western diplomats followed.

A week later, the United States, complaining of the Zimbabwe government’s lack of civility and its gratuitous criticism, suspended all new aid to the country.

Now Zimbabwe, the most economically developed and politically influential nation in black-ruled southern Africa, and the United States, its most generous foreign aid donor, are slowly patching up their damaged relationship. But they still have a long way to go.

The issues dividing Zimbabwe and the United States have not changed much since last year. U.S. military support for rebels fighting the government of Angola destabilizes the region and helps South Africa, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe believes.

He and his Cabinet have been the most vocal critics of the U.S. policy of keeping open lines of communication with South Africa.

“There are some basic clash points in our politics that you cannot sweep under the rug,” said U.S. Ambassador James Rawlings, who has known Mugabe since he was a guerrilla leader fighting white minority rule here in the 1970s. “But we’ve had some good discussions on very tough subjects.”

In the past, Zimbabwe’s strident public criticism of the United States often precluded the possibility of discussion. Its disagreements with Washington over policy matters often turned angry and personal in whatever forum was available.

Yet careful observers of the political rhetoric say that Zimbabwe officials have stopped picking on the United States as often as they used to, and now, although they may not be the best of friends, Zimbabwe and the United States are at least talking to each other.

Government officials as well as foreign diplomats say that Ambassador Rawlings’ relationship with Mugabe has helped mend fences. Rawlings, 57, was chairman and president of Union Carbide Southern Africa before his appointment late last year.

But without a “sustained improvement” in the relationship, it is doubtful, political analysts here say, that the United States will consider resuming full aid.

Still, Rawlings, citing “general improvement,” has urged Washington to reinstate the commodity import program, which encourages free-enterprise economies by allowing local businessmen and farmers to buy American-made equipment with local currency. Revenue from the program goes to development projects.

Since Zimbabwe came under black majority rule in 1980, the United States has provided $370 million in assistance, but the annual aid package has been shrinking since 1983, when Zimbabwe’s votes in the United Nations prompted Washington to slash assistance from $75 million to $40 million.

Zimbabwe kept beating the anti-American drum, and by last year the annual aid package had fallen to $20 million.

Then at the U.S. Independence Day celebration, the minister of youth, sport and culture, reading a speech on behalf of the foreign minister, delivered what former President Carter described as “a vituperative attack” that was “entirely inappropriate.”

Although Mugabe apologized for embarrassing Carter, he added, “We have no apologies to make to the Reagan Administration.”

The United States, tired of “getting slapped in the face with these personal attacks,” as one U.S. diplomat put it, decided to halt the aid.