‘You haven’t been too horrible to us recently’ : Lyndon Johnson and apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This analysis explores the efforts of the Lyndon Johnson Administration, for both moral and pragmatic reasons, to distance itself from apartheid South Africa during the 1960s. By 1964, the bilateral relationship with Pretoria was becoming a diplomatic liability for the White House. The international community, especially newly independent Afro-Asian states, was increasingly vocal in condemning South Africa, and domestically, the United States was seeking to remove the legacy of racial discrimination from its own society. Washington’s close economic and strategic ties to Pretoria, however, made taking a tough line with South Africa and broader disengagement from the apartheid state a difficult balancing act.