ABSTRACT
The prize is worth fighting for. Historically, the strategic importance of southern Africa has focused on the Republic of South Africa because of her role as guarantor of trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic – trade routes which today still carry the bulk of oil from the Middle East to Europe and the United States. Nevertheless, today the importance of southern Africa to the West lies largely in the mineral wealth to be found there. It must be emphasized that the loss of southern Africa’s minerals to the West is an exceedingly remote possibility. Even if there were to be Marxist rule in southern Africa (including South Africa), the West would probably continue to have access to the region’s mineral resources. Marxist governments that have come to power in the region have recognized, sooner or later, that their economic interests (if not their political sympathies) lie with the West. This has been seen in Angola, in Mozambique, and, more recently, in Guinea, to cite three examples. Despite this, it is important to recognize that southern Africa has become a new and important area of competition between the West in general - and the United States in particular - and the Soviet Union. Southern Africa must now be a factor in the geo-political equation facing American policy-makers.
