The Nuclear Arming Of South Africa

Abstract

devastating rebellions which recently occurred in South Africa, leaving untold numbers of blacks either dead or wounded are a painful and tragic, yet necessary reminder of the human stakes in the Southern African situation. As the tempo of the southward movement of the revolution heightens and the issues in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Azania come clearly into focus, it should be underlined once again, that both in terms of the classic dimensions of political analysis and the specific conditions of these African peoples, the southern African situation is a revolutionary situation. The fresh rebellions inside South Africa are evidence of the existence of revolutionary activity. If the level of struggle against white repression were left at this crude stage we could not understand the relationship between the rebellions and a continuing revolution. However, the existence of African political parties, and African military forces in the contested areas illustrates that the activity we witness is not based on mere reformist opposition to the practices of the regimes, but upon the fact that blacks have raised up African nationalism to combat white settler nationalism with the ultimate objective being the replacement of one for another. The resort to violent revolution as a means to achieve African self-determination is a legitimate strategy, but perhaps has been most necessary where colonialism from a European country was administered through a significant white settler community such as in Algeria, Kenya, Angola, Rhodesia and South Africa. In all of these places, a repressive colonialism, combined with an intransigent and ruthless local settler community has fostered nationalism expressed by a revolutionary movement. The fact which concerns us, however, is that although on the one hand, the white settlers of Rhodesia and South Africa fear the use of revolutionary tactics by blacks, they are also bolstered in their opposition and intransigence by powerful third party states such as the United States. U.S. policy is, therefore, critical to understand as an element in the response of white settler regimes to the revolutionary situation in Southern Africa.