FILE In thi s J an. 16, 1984, fi l e photo, Pr es i dent Ronal d Reagan di s pl ays r epor ts gi ves to hi m by J .

y J . Peter Gr ace, r i ght, of the

Pr i vate Sector Sur vey on Was te and Cos t Contr ol i n Gover nment, i n Was hi ngton at the Whi te Hous e. AP Photo/Ir a Schwar z
Why Nelson Mandela was on a terrorism watch list in 2008
washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-f ix/wp/2013/12/07/why-nelson-mandela-was-on-a-terrorism-watch-
list-in-2008
Nelson Mandela is being remembered across the world (and political spectrum) for his heroic, life- long battle
against apartheid and injustice in South Africa. But with all the accolades being thrown around, its easy to forget that
the U.S., in particular, hasnt always had such a friendly relationship with Mandela and that in fact, as late as 2008,
the Nobel Prize winner and former president was still on the U.S. terrorism watch list.
The
sticking
point
was, in
Mandelas case, ideological. In the mid- 80s, as activists in South Africa and around the world began to agitate in
earnest for Mandelas release, the Reagan administration still saw communism as one of its primary enemies and
defeating communism as one of its foremost foreign policy goals. That complicated the administrations take on
South Africa.
The apartheid regime, it turns out, had supported the U.S. during the Cold War and had worked closely with both the
Reagan and Nixon administrations to limit Soviet influence in the region, as Sam Kleiner chronicled in Foreign Policy
last July.
Meanwhile, the African National Congress, which Mandela chaired, was peppered with members of the South African
Communist Party. Even worse in the eyes of the Reagan Administration was the ANCs apparent friendliness toward
Moscow: The ANCs secretary general, Alfred Nzo, bore greetings to the Soviet communist party congress in 1986.
That was enough to inspire Reagan to accuse the ANC of encouraging communism in a 1986 policy speech, and to
rule that South Africa had no obligation to negotiate with a group bent on creating a communist state.
The Reagan administration wasnt alone in this fear, either Margaret Thatchers conservative regime in Britain
shared Reagans constructive engagement, anti- sanctions views regarding South Africa. (It probably helped that
the U.K., like the U.S., was a major South African trade partner.) Years later, former Canadian prime minister Brian
Mulroney would write a memoir that detailed his attempts to persuade Thatcher and Reagan to take action in South
Africa. All attempts, sometimes famously, failed:
When we spoke on the telephone the night before I left for London, however, it became clear that Ronald
Reagan saw the whole South African issue strictly in East-West Cold War terms. Over the years, he and
Margaret continually raised with me their fears that Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders were
communists. My answer was always the same. How can you or anyone else know that? Id ask again
and again. Hes been in prison for 20 years and nobody knows that, for the simple reason no one has
talked to him including you.
Tragically for South Africa, the cloud of communism prevented the U.S. from acting for several years. While the
Reagan administrations official goal was to end apartheid, and while it consistently called for South Africa to free
Mandela, the U.S. dragged its feet on the crucial issue of economic sanctions. When a United Nations resolution
came up that criticized apartheid, both the U.S. and Britain pushed through amendments to weaken it.
The Reagan administration also followed South Africas lead on characterizing the ANC, naming it a terrorist group in
the 1970s and forcing Mandela to get special State Department clearance to enter the U.S. in 2008. (Its frankly a
rather embarrassing matter, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the time.)
Eventually, of course, the U.S. did pass economic sanctions, which are widely credited for helping topple at least
in part the apartheid regime. Mandela went on to praise Reagan (as well as President Bush and Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev) for his role in ending apartheid.
But it was Mandelas outspoken wife, Winnie, who probably best expressed the frayed relationship between the two
world leaders and, for a time in the 80s, between the anti- apartheid movement and the United States. In 1986,
after Winnies home was firebombed and burned down, the Reagan administration offered her $10,000 to rebuild it.
She refused.
This why our people are angry at the Reagan and Thatcher administrations in particular, Winnie Mandela said.
[They] continue to condone the activities of the South African government. If they had any feeling for the
downtrodden and oppressed majority of our country they would end their policy of gentle persuasion. It appears their
interests in this country far outweighs their so- called abhorrence of apartheid.