ABSTRACT
As the civil rights movement grew, more groups, including a number of senators and congressmen, began to provide encouragement and even actual support for the nascent antiapartheid movement. By the late 1960s, the antiapartheid movement was still small, but it had developed a cadre of activists anxious to take advantage of the political opportunities created by the civil rights and antiwar movements. The symbolic importance of American subsidies to South Africa had long aggravated the antiapartheid movement, which had tried unsuccessfully in 1969 to revoke South Africa's annual quota of 55,000 short tons. The United States had no formal military ties to South Africa which required congressional appropriation, and no legislation dealing with South Africa was passed during the Nixon administration. In fact, it soon became apparent that the antiapartheid movement would have to concentrate on preventing the administration from moving closer to the government in South Africa.
