During the brief period of time that Kennedy was President of the United States, H.F. Verwoerd was the Prime Minister of South Africa. However, I can’t find any comments from Kennedy that have to do with Verwoerd, or the South African government in general. What did Kennedy think of Verwoerd? What kind of relationship did the two have, and what was Kennedy’s stance on Apartheid?
Given that what each actually did, or tried to do, about race relations in their respective countries was diametrically opposite, it is hard to imagine that Kennedy did not despise Verwoerd. (Sorry, I don’t have any actual evidence about it, though.)
The US was a major supporter of Apartheid and South Africa. It was the CIA which tipped of the SA police ofMandela’s whereabouts. Additional cites.Newsweek.
This happened during the Kennedy administration. So, yeah, whatever JFK thought of South Africa, he supported them.
I seem to recall hearing of an exchange during the two men’s respective leadership of their countries, in which Kennedy made – if only for public consumption – some statement critical of South Africa’s racial policies. Verwoerd is supposed to have riposted: “People who live in White Houses should not throw Little Rocks” – referring to then-recent ugly episodes in Little Rock, Arkansas, pertaining to the civil rights struggle. I can’t help feeling that this was a witty come-back – no matter how repellent its maker may have been.
Thank you. I thought Kennedy would be critical of SA’s racial policies, since he and LBJ both tried to undue segregation in the US and were much more liberal in that regard.
Really, I chose Kennedy and Verwoerd for this question, but the truth is, I don’t what kind of relationship any of the US Presidents had with the South African prime ministers, from William Howard Taft to Jimmy Carter, and from Louis Botha to John Vorster. Obviously, Reagan mentioned State President Botha in a speech, and Bush 41 has called State President De Klerk a good friend. But before that, I have no idea. I would love to know what Truman thought of Malan, what Johnson thought of Vorster, etc.
I think that, in terms of racial politics at least, the comparison between JFK and LBJ is, in some ways, unfair to Johnson.
Whatever his other failings, especially in terms of foreign policy, Johnson was deeply committed to the Civil Rights Act, and to correcting problems of racial injustice and of poverty in the United States, and he made good on his beliefs, knowing that it would likely be the final nail in the coffin of the Democratic South.
Kennedy was, by comparison, a Johnny-come-lately, and spent most of his first two-and-a-half years in office studiously ignoring the civil rights movement. To the extent that he concerned himself with the movement before 1963, it was mainly to support Herbert Hoover’s efforts to root out (alleged) communist sympathizers. JFK’s own brother, as Attorney-General, approved FBI wiretaps on Martin Luther King. Yes, Kennedy stepped up in June of 1963, calling for a national law to ban discrimination, but i wonder whether he would have pushed such a law through Congress with the same commitment that Johnson showed.
I’m not exactly seeing the connection between civil rights and rooting out communism, but I am sure that you mean J. Edgar Hoover, not Herbert.
Yes, J. Edgar, of course. Sorry. I’ve been reading about the Depression and New Deal this week, and had Herbert on the brain!
As for the other bit, i’m not sure what your confusion is. Kennedy was reluctant to weigh in heavily on the side of civil rights during his first couple of years, partly because he recognized that it would alienate many southern Democrats (those who hadn’t already followed Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats out of the party in 1948 and after), and also because Hoover kept whispering in his ear that civil rights leaders were communist sympathizers. While McCarthy might have been in the past at this point, Kennedy himself was still and ardent Cold Warrior, and didn’t want to do anything that might undermine the anti-communist crusade at home and abroad, and that might result in Kennedy himself being portrayed by his political enemies as being soft on communism.
Hoover was dogged in his pursuit of Martin Luther King, and while he was never really able to undermine King’s growing national popularity, it wasn’t for lack of trying, and these efforts were often rooted in extensive FBI reports that linked King to former communists, suspected communists, and other alleged subversive elements. Fifty years ago today, Hoover called King “the most notorious liar in the country” at a Washington press conference, and later that week the FBI sent a letterto King threatening to reveal his sexual activities to the public, and apparently suggesting that he commit suicide.
Kennedy neither did nor tried to do a great deal. He basically only moved on civil rights issues when civil unrest gave him no alternative. He was (rightly) terrified of losing the votes of Southern Democrats who put him in office.
Bobby was far more willing to buck the electorate on civil rights. Similarly, LBJ knew that passing the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act would lose the Democratic Party the South, and did it anyway.
LBJ was probably concerned about how Jim Crow affected overseas perception of the US, especially to the nonaligned countries. The Soviets made a lot of hay about how the “free” US treated its black citizens. Regardless, he actually did something about it, which JFK never seriously attempted (though in fairness it was Kennedy’s death that gave Johnson the necessary political capital to pass the CRA).
LBJ had worked as a schoolmaster in a segregated school as a young man and that had coloured (!) his views on the subject, he was quite pro civil rights. Richard “southern strategy” Nixon actually took quite a lot of heat for his support of civil rights as Ike’s No 2 and later started affirmative action as President. Again, this was his upbringing, his parents would spank their sons for using the word “nigger” and took pride in paying Mexican worker equally. Of all the three, Stephan Amorose points out that JFK was the least forward on Civil Rights outside of cometic statements and when law bs order demands it. He was probably less progressive than Ike was.
I don’t think we’ll get a definitive answer on what Kennedy personally thought of Verwoerd unless someone comes along with a cite from Kennedy’s diary or something, but some Googling reveals that they apparently never met (though Verwoerd met Bobby Kennedy). But SA was strongly pro-American, so if JFK ever gave a thought to Apartheid, I’m guessing he thought of it as a distasteful aspect of a minor ally against Communism.
I also read once–but can’t find a cite now–that upon becoming president Kennedy was asked by a cabinet member what he thought about some issue, and he replied, “I know what I think, but what does the American government think?” The implication was that Kennedy was sensitive to the ongoing imperatives and continuity of US policy. If the quote is not apocryphal, it seems to imply that Kennedy wouldn’t have spent any time opposing the internal politics of an ally, or changing US policy towards it.
Also, what world leaders think of each other personally isn’t usually that important. Thatcher thought Bush I was weak and REALY wanted a divided Germany, but Bush got his way on the unification of Germany anyway. Helmut Schmidt despised Carter, but still went along with him because America was West Germany’s staunch ally against the Soviets. Churchill famously said that Roosevelt had a “second-rate mind,” though he also added “but a first-rate temperament.” And so on.