Andrea Mitchell: Mandela’s Legacy Is Getting the GOP to Stand Up to Reagan

‘That was the first veto overridden in a century, actually, when Ronald Reagan’s veto was overridden with strong Republican support’

“Well the legacy is so enormous, as Tom knows better than anyone, and Reverend Al, who was in the movement. Covering it from this end, I was so impressed with Dick Lugar, Nancy Kassebaum, George Schultz, other Republicans who stood up and said finally to Ronald Reagan, you have to change the policy, that sanctions were the only way. And it was the Congress. And starting with Maxine Waters, and Ron Dellums, and the Californians, and the Congress, the black caucus. Bill Gray, the late Bill Gray, was such a hero of this movement. And those were the people who pressed for compromise and tried to come up with a consensus that Reagan could finally go along with. He still vetoed the bill and it was the first foreign policy veto that was overridden in a century actually when Ronald Reagan’s veto was resoundingly overridden with strong Republican support. That was a moment, and it showed that the pressure that had been building on campuses, the pressure that had started in the Congressional Black Caucuses, as Reverend Al pointed out earlier today, it really had built to the point where it was irresistible, and where the United States and the economic pressure was joining with world condemnation of what had happened, what was continuing to happen in South Africa.”

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