102. Letter From President Carter to South African Prime Minister Botha1
I have received your letter of December 42, and commend your wise decision to send Pik Botha to the United Nations to discuss implementing Security Council Resolution 435 on Namibia with the Secretary General. I gather that his talks with the Secretary General were useful, particularly in enabling your Government to respond affirmatively to the four questions posed by the Secretary General.
Mr. Botha’s visit also enabled him to hold extended discussions with Secretary Vance, and gave me an opportunity to meet with him.3 I welcomed these discussions and the opportunity they provided your Government to express its willingness to cooperate with the United Nations in implementing Resolution 435. As I know you understand, your full, prompt and good faith implementation of that Resolution will be the central factor in determining whether or not the Security Council decides to take decisive steps under Chapter VII. That same constructive action by your Government also cannot help but improve relations, not only between our two governments, but also between South Africa and the international community generally.
Thus, I urge you quickly to establish with the United Nations an early date for deploying UNTAG, with elections to take place thereafter according to the provisions of the plan outlined in the Contact Group proposal to which your Government has agreed.
As I indicated to the Foreign Minister, I am confident that the important matter of the composition of UNTAG can be worked out in [Page 273] consultation with the Secretary General. I have the highest regard for the Secretary General’s sense of responsibility in this regard. In the past, in areas such as the Middle East and Cyprus, UN forces coming from various countries have acted with impartiality and professionalism. With this record in mind, both Egypt and Israel agreed at Camp David that there had to be a UN Peacekeeping Force stationed in the Sinai after Israeli withdrawal.
I can assure you that the United States, as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, will make every effort to ensure that the United Nations effectively and impartially carries out its mandate under Resolution 435. I know you can count fully on a similar attitude on the part of France and the UK, and of the FRG and Canada for the period remaining to them on the Security Council.
Again, I thank you for sending your Foreign Minister and for your letter.
Sincerely,
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 18, South Africa: Prime Minister Pieter Wilem Botha, 9/78–2/80. No classification marking.↩
- In telegram 7190 from Pretoria, December 4, the Embassy transmitted the text of Botha’s letter to Carter. (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Cables File, Presidential Messages In/Out, Box 103, 12/78)↩
- See Documents 100 and 101.↩