Changing pattern of Unites States policy in southern Africa and Namibian independence

United States policy towards southern Africa was a major determinant in shaping the future of Namibia. After a brief overview of US policy towards southern Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, this article focuses on the Reagan era, which saw a change in US African policy. President Reagan, who came into office in 1981, followed an aggressive policy of ‘constructive engagement’, whose main aim was to end South Africa’s isolation in world affairs. The new American policy had five components: 1) independence for Namibia, 2) programmes of economic development in all the countries of southern Africa, 3) negotiations for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, 4) detente between South Africa and other southern African States, 5) peaceful change in South Africa away from apartheid. Through quiet diplomacy, the policy was intended to blunt Soviet and Cuban influence in the region. An extension of the policy was the idea of linking South African withdrawal from Namibia to the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola. As a result, the question of Namibian independence did not remain as an issue of self-determination. Negotiations about the linked Namibian and Angolan issues in 1988 eventually led to an agreement in December 1988 and the formal independence of Namibia in February 1990. Notes, ref.