Controversial Black U.S. Ambassador To Apartheid SOUTH AFRICA Edward Perkins Dies At Age 92 General of the Foreign Service (19891992). He was next tapped by President George H.W. Bush as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations with the rank of Ambassador (1992-1993), and then by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Australia (1993-1996).
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Ambassador (ret.) Edward Per-
kins died on Saturday evening Nov. 7, 2020 at the age of 92. Ambassador Edward Perkins was U.S. ambassador to then-Apartheid South Africa from 1986 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan. Ambassador Perkins was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, retiring in 1996 with the rank of Career Minister. He served as U.S. ambassador to Australia, the United Nations, Liberia, and most notably, as a controvrsial ambassador in the final days of apartheid in South Africa.
“As Director General of the Foreign Service, his commitment to a broadly diverse Foreign Service at all levels of the profession has been a lasting legacy to the quality of American diplomacy. His career represents a deep commitment to global public service and the profession of diplomacy, two values very dear to us at ISD (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy). Ambassador Perkins was, quite simply, a towering figure of American diplomacy. He was a gracious strength and a defender of the best of American diplomacy and young, aspiring diplomats. He will always be honored, and deeply missed”. -Barbara K. Bodine, Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
Edward Perkins – A Black U.S. Ambassador to Apartheid South Africa in his own words: On his role as U.S Ambassador to South Africa:
(credit: berkleycenter.georgetown.edu / Ambassador Edward Perkins (June 8, 1928 – November 7, 2020) was U.S. ambassador to South Africa
A Black Ambassador to Apartheid South Africa Under President Ronald Reagan In 1985, just 13 years after becoming an FSO, Perkins was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as U.S. Ambassador to Liberia. Perkins next took on one of the most controversial diplomatic assignments at the time: U.S. Ambassador to Apartheid South Africa. The South Africa Apartheid regime, under which nonwhites were systematically oppressed and deprived of their rights, is without a doubt one of the worst crimes against humanity of the 20th century. “South Africa was in turmoil during the 1980s. Apartheid was still the law and although whites were just a fraction of the population, they owned 90 percent of the land. The government, led by President P.W. Botha, was on the verge of a bloody civil war with Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Each day brought news of more violence”. – NRP Oct. 24, 2006.
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Ambassador Perkins endured much abuse and criticism and protests from Black Americans for his agreeing to serve in a country where a racist regime brutally protected its system of apartheid, and for allowing President Reagan to “use him” as a Black American face to mask the Reagan administration’s refusal to get tough with racist South Africa. In fact, Reagan even vetoed a bill to impose sanctions on South Africa, only to be overruled by Congress. Reagan, along with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who also opposed sanctions, consistently demonized anti-Apartheid activists led by the African National Congress party of Nelson Mandela as Communists. Civil Rights leaders like Jesse Jackson sharply condemned Perkins, saying his accepting the role of Ambassador to South Africa was “like a Jew carrying messages between a reactionary administration and Hitler.” – NPR After South Africa, he returned state-side and became the first African American appointed as Director
“My job was to make change. The (U.S.) Embassy had to be a giant agent of change. My message to the Afrikaner leaders and the Black leaders was Apartheid was going to go! Because South Africa can not exist with this kind of system in the world. And President Reagan is behind the effort to eradicate Apartheid.”
On Relations With South African Blacks: “The Black leadership in South Africa had taken a vow even before I came that because I was appointed by Ronald Reagan they could not cooperate with me. This included (Archbishop) Desmond Tutu and several others. The Blacks were skeptical as hell about the United States if we were really sincere. But the wife of anti-apartheid activist Walter Sisulu, (Albertina Sisulu) agreed to an invitation to have dinner with me and other officials. After dinner, she told me ‘Mr. Ambassador, welcome to South Africa. I know you are wondering why I am meeting with you, it is because you are a Black man and you can’t be all that bad’. I would say she was one of the most effective leaders in South Africa at the time. The Black leadership finally decided that they would cooperate with me. Desmond Tutu was the last one to come around. He said you’re a Black person. You can’t be all that bad so we will work with you”.
