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With the passing of President Nelson Mandela—arguably the most transformative world figure of the last century—our nation’s airwaves are awash in soaring and well deserved testimonials from all sides of the American political spectrum. While the memorials are both heartwarming and sad, the loss of Mandela has also resulted in a great many conversations providing important historical perspective and context via the media coverage—perspective that helps us more fully understand and appreciate just how remarkable and inspirational were the accomplishments of Nelson Mandela.

However, there is one retired Vice-President of the United States that will likely not be attending any memorials for this great hero of humanity—either in South Africa or right here at home.

It was Dick Cheney who, while serving as Wyoming’s Republican congressman back in 1986, found it simply beyond his capacity to distinguish between a freedom fighter committed to ending South Africa’s brutal system of apartheid—one of the most evil political systems ever to scar the planet—and a terrorist.

You see, in the mind of Dick Cheney, Nelson Mandela, and those whom he led in the African National Congress, were, indeed, terrorists.

In 1986, the United States Congress, finally coming to grips with the evil that was apartheid, succeeded in passing a bi-partisan bill calling for tough sanctions to be imposed on South Africa and its white leaders until such time as the African nation brought their apartheid laws to an end and freed political prisoners like Nelson Mandela.

While there was no shortage of Congressional Republicans who voted in support of the bill, Congressman Dick Cheney was not one of them. To Cheney, a vote to sanction South Africa for continuing generations of brutal rule would be to cast his support in favor of a terrorist organization who sought to bring an end to the despicable status quo in that country.

When the bill sent over to the White House by Congress was vetoed by then President Ronald Reagan who—along with his ultra-conservative friend, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher— believed Mandela’s ANC group to be a terrorist organization, Congress successfully overrode Reagan’s veto and made the legislation the law of the land.

That law was one of the most moral and ethical things our Congress has ever done and it only happened because Congressional Republicans were willing to stand up to a Republican President and support what was simply the right thing to do. People like Indiana’s GOP Senator Richard Lugar and Kansas GOP Congresswoman Nancy Kasselbaum heroically defied Ronald Reagan and, for the first time, Congress overrode the desires of the Reagan White House on a matter of foreign policy.

Yet, not only did Dick Cheney vote against the measure on the first go-round, he also voted to uphold the President’s veto when the matter came back to Congress.

It’s more than clear that Cheney was very much on the wrong side of history. If you question that, take a look at the parade of both Republican and Democratic leaders from days gone by who are paying tribute to Mr. Mandela today.

Still, people make mistakes and, over time, these errors in judgment can form the basis of a more well-rounded and well-informed perspective that allows people to get it right when similar issues appear somewhere down the road. Certainly, Dick Cheney must have come to see that his vote had been misguided and that his efforts in support the ghastly, malevolent system that was apartheid was a true blot on his legislative record, yes?

Not so much.

As recently as the year 2000, while campaigning as the nominee of the Republican Party to become our Vice President, Cheney showed up on ABC’s “This Week” program to defend his vote, stating that “I don’t have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.”

Clearly there were those who, back in 1986, viewed the ANC as a terrorist organization. And it is true that the ANC did engage in some violent acts. However, none of the violence perpetrated by the ANC was as heinous as the violence and acts of terrorism carried out by South Africa’s apartheid government. It was, after all, President P.W. Botha who gave the order to bomb the South African Council of Churches in 1988 just as it was with the many South African government leaders preceding Botha who, for decades, killed and maimed black South Africans by the thousands, whether they be political activists or small children.

Yet, when the ANC fought back in an effort to end this horrible political system that had engaged in terror against the black citizens of their nation for generations, it was Mandela and the ANC who were, in the mind of Dick Cheney, the terrorists.

At the time Cheney made this statement on “This Week”, I recall feeling that his comment on Mandela was one of the most revealing of the entire 2000 presidential campaign and provided ample evidence that the Bush ticket may not be the one that was best for the nation. After all, if the Vice Presidential nominee—a man who was already slated to hold a very important place of influence in the administration should his ticket succeed—was incapable of seeing and acknowledging the error of a vote—even if only through the prism of history—what did that say about his judgment and ability to make the kind of course corrections an administration must be prepared to make?

I believe that history bears out the legitimacy of my concerns. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/12/06/when-conservatives-br
anded-nelson-mandela-a-terrorist/

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

He was. That's how he got into prison in the first place.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

He was. That's how he got into prison in the first place.

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So, you're only a 'freedom fighter' if Reagan said you were then?
Gotcha.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Why am I not surprised that Cheney hasn't changed his mind on Mr. Mandela?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

So, to clarify, Reagan wasn't talking about Mandela, was he ?

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

So, to clarify, Reagan wasn't talking about Mandela, was he ?

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You can always be counted upon to entirely miss the point. Consistency- I like that in a person.

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Originally posted by Brenda:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Why am I not surprised that Cheney hasn't changed his mind on Mr. Mandela?

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Maybe because he's not buying into the standard mantra ?

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No, that's not it. I think it is because anyone Cheney and his ilk didn't support can't be "freedom fighters" or bring justice and democracy to the world.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Why am I not surprised that Cheney hasn't changed his mind on Mr. Mandela?

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Maybe because he's not buying into the standard mantra ?

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No, that's not it. I think it is because anyone Cheney and his ilk didn't support can't be "freedom fighters" or bring justice and democracy to the world.

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But Cheney DID support an end to apartheid.

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So, basically you're following up on remarks going off topic, and travelling down that rabbit hole with us here.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

So, basically you're following up on remarks going off topic, and travelling down that rabbit hole with us here.

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Dick Cheney Didn't Regret His Vote Against Freeing Nelson Mandela, Maintained He Was A 'Terrorist'

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
MY response was to the direct point being made that Cheney was some how NOT in favor of ending apartheid.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

He was. That's how he got into prison in the first place.

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So, you're only a 'freedom fighter' if Reagan said you were then?
Gotcha.

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Huh? Quote, please.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
MY response was to the direct point being made that Cheney was some how NOT in favor of ending apartheid.

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...which is not the topic of this thread.
Welcome to the hole, Alice.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:


Not tryin to excuse it, just explainin the why of it.
Frankly, a lot of what WE do is flat-out terrorism ("Shock and Awe" anyone?) and cause we do it from a position of strength that makes it all the more reprehensible, so we got NO moral high ground to be lecturing anyone else on the topic.

-Frem

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
Frem, I was particularly disgusted by the Contra tire-on-fire bullshit.
Was Mandella into that kind of torture to terrorize? I DON'T THINK SO. But Ronnie's minions were. "Get it done & don't tell me how" is the order of evil.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Slow your role there, Huckleberry.

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