Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T19:34:30.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

South Africa's Propaganda War: A Bibliographic Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Galen Hull
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the wake of revelations concerning the activities of foreign lobbyists in the United States, and especially the Koreagate scandal, increasing attention has been given in the press and on Capitol Hill to the effect on American policy-making. The most explosive instance of foreign influence peddling is the massive campaign of South African officials to improve that country's image in the western world. The most recent phase of South Africa's propaganda war, unleashed in 1972, has not only raised questions about official U.S. relations with South Africa but has provoked the worst political scandal in South African history. For several years there had been assertions by investigative journalists that the South African government was behind a variety of schemes designed to win friends and influence policy among its western allies. By 1979 it had become clear that many of the allegations were true. The South African Department of Information had spent $100 million on unconventional methods for this purpose in a seven year period.

The man at the center of the scandal was Dr. Eschel Rhoodie, former secretary of the Department of Information, who revealed in some detail the secret projects his government had undertaken to buy influence. In an interview with BBC television in March 1979, Rhoodie made no pretense about the ruthlessness of the methods employed by his department to assure South Africa's survival in a world hostile to its apartheid policies. The intellectual underpinnings of the propaganda campaign are found in the book written by Rhoodie in 1969 entitled The Paper Curtain, a kind of Afrikaner version of Mein Kampf. The book has subsequently been withdrawn from circulation. The Paper Curtain told how a curtain of lies and communist propaganda had isolated South Africa from the west and argued the necessity of mounting a counterattack through unorthodox methods. The book attracted the attention of the Minister of Information, Connie Mulder, who appointed Rhoodie to his post and gave him responsibility for telling the country's story abroad. In that capacity Rhoodie was the architect of an ambitious program which ranged from engaging the services of legal and public relations firms to wooing black African heads of state and subsidizing various publications. In all, Rhoodie claimed that his department financed over one hundred secret projects.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , December 1979 , pp. 79 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baltimore Sun. 20 September 1976.Google Scholar
Business Week 21 April 1975.Google Scholar
Cotter, William and Karis, Thomas. (1976) “We Have Nothing to Hide.” Africa Report (November-December).Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly. 30 September 1978: 2657.Google Scholar
D'Oliveira, John. (1974) “Visit to the U.S. to be Probed.” Johannesburg Star, 18 May.Google Scholar
Guardian (The). 7, 24, 29 June 1975; 20 December 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, Rosanne. (1977) “The Club of Ten.” The Great White Hoax: 54–59.Google Scholar
Howe, Russell Warren and Trott, Sarah Hays (1977) The Power Peddlers: How Lobbyists Mold America's Foreign Policy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co.Google Scholar
Janosik, Robert and Lawrence, Barbara. (1975) “Southern African Pressure Politics in the U.S.” Issue: Quarterly of the African Studies Association (spring).Google Scholar
Johannesburg Star. 18 May 1974; 3 April, 13 May, 2 September, and 4 November 1978.Google Scholar
Martin, David. (1974) The Observer (London), 23, 25 June.Google Scholar
McKay, Vernon. (1966) Testimony before the House Africa Subcommittee, reprinted in SAIS Review (spring): 4–17.Google Scholar
Murphy, Caryle. (1979) “South Africa's Scandal at Home.” Washington Post 25 March.Google Scholar
New York Times. 21, 31 March 1965 (advertisements); 15 March 1977 (editorial); 16 March 1977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New York Post 30 November 1976.Google Scholar
Nossiter, Bernard. (1979) “Pretoria Puffery is PR Firm's Plum.” Washington Post, 25 March.Google Scholar
Owen, Ken. (1974) “Is South Africa Hard Up For Friends?” Johannesburg Star, 18 May.Google Scholar
Owen, Ken. “Not Aware of U.S. Agent.” Johannesburg Star, 18 May.Google Scholar
Owen, Ken. “The Dangers in the Lobby.” Johannesburg Star, 18 May.Google Scholar
Pincus, Walter. (1977) “Junket-Nourished Aura May Dissolve for South Africa.” Washington Post, 29 January.Google Scholar
Pringle, Peter. (1977) “How South Africa Pays to Improve Image in the U.S.” Sunday Times (London), 16 January.Google Scholar
Raphael, Adam. (1974) The Guardian, 7, 24, 29 June.Google Scholar
Rogers, Barbara. (1976) “South Africa's Propaganda Machine” Southern Africa (August): a shortened version of Rogers' contribution to The Great White Hoax.Google Scholar
Rogers, Barbara. et al (1977) The Great White Hoax: South Africa's International Propaganda Machine. London: Africa Bureau.Google Scholar
Sampson, Anthony. (1979) “South Africa's Scandal Spreads to the West” Washington Post, 25 March.Google Scholar
Time. (1978) “Lobbyists Swarming All Over Washington.” 7 August: 14–22.Google Scholar
Washington Post 21 and 31 March 1965 (advertisements); 29 January and 15 March 1977; 10 May, 21 June, 8 July, 26 July, 23 August, and 3 November 1978; 22 March, 25 March, and 31 March 1979.Google Scholar
Washington Star. 22 March 1979; 4 April 1979 (New York Times News Service).Google Scholar
Weissman, John. (1978) “Foreign Lobbyists: How They Try to Manipulate U.S. Television.” TV Guide, November 18-24: 6–14.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal, 23 August 1978.Google Scholar
South Africa. Department of Information (1976) Annual Report Google Scholar
South Africa Foundation. (1976–77) Annual Report Google Scholar
U. S. Department of Justice. Registration Statements of foreign agents. Collier, Shannon, Rill, and Edwards, 1974 and 1975: Sydney Baron, 1976.Google Scholar
U. S. House of Representatives. (March 1966 and June 1977) Hearings of the House Subcommittee on Africa.Google Scholar