This book charts the evolution of US foreign policy towards South Africa, beginning in 1948 when the architects of apartheid, the Nationalist Party, came to power. Thomson highlights three sets of conflicting Western interests: strategic, economic and human rights.

By tracing U.S. involvement in South African political and economic development since the late 1800s, this book analyzes U.S. corporate and government motives for maintaining the political status quo in South Africa. In recent decades, according to the author, U.S. policy toward South Africa has grown more contradictory: Endeavoring to protect the United States's reputation on the question of race, government officials denounce apartheid, yet Washington remains the main force blocking an international response to South African policies. As the situation in South Africa continues to polarize, the U.S. is increasingly isolated in its position of verbally condemning yet materially supporting South Africa's white minority regime--a regime confronting the distinct possibility of civil war.

A comprehensive two-volume annotated bibliography of books and monographs, journal articles, government documents, documents of nongovernmental organizations, and substantive magazine and newspaper articles published since the late nineteenth century. Annotated entries contain a short abstract, a table of contents, and information on reviews. Each volume contains an author and subject index, and a periodical is included in Volume Two. Topics covered include: US Foreign Policy; Southern Africa in US-South African Relations; Nuclear Technology and Other Sectors of Trade and Economic Relations; Education Scientific and Cultural Exchanges; African Americans and South Africa; Divestment Disinvestment and Sanctions; Divestment, Disinvestment and Sanctions; Comparative Studies. This two-volume work is part of a larger project that included publication of a nearly 700-page book titled “United States Relations with South Africa: A Critical Overview from the Colonial Period to the Present” which is a critical overview of relations between the United States and South Africa going nearly as far back as the very beginning of their inception as permanent European colonial intrusions and it not only gives attention to the importance of contributions from nonofficial actors in shaping official relations, but also considers the impact of the geopolitical location of South Africa within southern Africa, where the presence of other nations - particularly Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe - looms large.