646. Memorandum of Conversation1
SUBJECT
- SWAPO’s Views on Current South West African Developments
PARTICIPANTS
- Mr. Sam Nujoma, President of the South West People’s Organization
- Mr. Solomon Mifima, SWAPO Lusaka Representative
- Ambassador Good
- Frank Crump, Second Secretary of Embassy
Nujoma appealed for the support of the United States in the upcoming United Nations consideration of the South West African problem. He said that the Council created by last spring’s Special Session would inform the Assembly of the refusal of the South African government to deal with it. The General Assembly would then have to decide what to do. Nujoma expressed the hope that the issue would be placed before the Security Council for further action, but he did not specify what action he would favor.
The Ambassador responded by reviewing the deep and continuous involvement of the United States in innumerable world problems for the past twenty-five years. He concluded that in view of this, and of serious and burdensome commitments elsewhere at the present time, the American people would be unlikely to support an active United States engagement in the South West African issue in the near future.
Nujoma emphasized the importance of distinguishing between the various problems in Southern Africa. He said that the issues in South West Africa were quite different from those in Mozambique or Rhodesia and so were the responsibilities. In his opinion the United Nations’ obligation to act on the South West African issue was clear and direct. Nujoma thought this distinction should be made very clear, and especially hoped that it would be made clear to President Johnson.
The Ambassador said he thought this was well understood. He asked whether Nujoma thought it would be helpful for other governments to discuss South West Africa with the South African government and urge a change in policy. Nujoma said it would be no use for African or Asian countries to do this, but he would be very pleased if the United States and Britain would do so.
[Page 1089]Nujoma expressed pessimism about the trend of developments in South West Africa. He said that the trials were having the effect of terrorizing the population and that SWAPO, which had active groups in many places in South West Africa as recently as a year ago, now had to go underground. He did not respond directly to the Ambassador’s question about the current effectiveness of SWAPO organizational and propaganda efforts in SWA.
Asked about the prospects of a successful armed struggle, he said that it would take a very long time, and that in the near future SWAPO would have to rely upon guerrilla tactics, in which small bands of men would attack South African installations, and generally hope to keep the South Africans on edge.
Concerning cooperation between SWAPO and other liberation organizations, Nujoma said that each organization would first have to fight its own battles on its own soil. He said that SWAPO tried to be neutral as among the various Angolan liberation organizations but this was not easy. SWAPO sometimes helps Angolan refugees to get to Zambia through Botswana. However when they arrive in Zambia they are given freedom to choose with which organization they would affiliate. He implied that their choices had led some of the Angolan groups to charge that SWAPO was influencing them in one way or another.
Mifima said that one of the problems which UNITA faced in Zambia was that many of its members had been in Zambia before independence and that the Zambian government has issued a general directive to the parties not to organize among such people. Mifima said that Savimbi was now in Cairo.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 13 AFR. Limited Official Use. Drafted by Second Secretary of Embassy Frank Crump on October 11. The source text is an enclosure to airgram A–138 from Lusaka, repeated to Dar-es-Salaam and Pretoria.↩