ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the continuing processes that affected the probability of anti-apartheid mobilization penetrating the policy environment. It examines how the anti-apartheid movement capitalized on the policy visibility resulting from deepening US entanglement in southern Africa, tracing the way this momentum overcame White House and, later, congressional efforts to reduce the public salience of apartheid. The political opportunity structure remained favorable as the intensifying violence in southern Africa penetrated domestic political discourse. The period dating from the termination of US military involvement in Southeast Asia in mid-1975 through Carter’s first year in office represented a period of liberal ascendancy in southern African affairs. A confidential report by the South African Foundation in 1980 added urgency to business recommendations regarding the disruptive potential of foreign capital flight. The reformulation of African strategies consonant with these visions prompted Carter to assemble a team of policymakers experienced in African affairs and sensitive to the issue of majority rule in southern Africa.
