Gordon C. Wong, SPECIAL DIPLOMATIC ADVISER TO THE U.S. PRESIDENT,SENIOR ADVISER TO THE YEAR OF THE CHILD,P.O. Box 1236,
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, V6C 2T1,
May 21, 1988.Gordon C. Wong,
SPECIAL DIPLOMATIC ADVISER TO THE U.S. PRESIDENT,
SENIOR ADVISER TO THE YEAR OF THE CHILD,
P.O. Box 1236,
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, V6C 2T1,
May 21, 1988.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson,
930 East 50th Street,
Chicago, Illinois,
U.S.A., 60615.
I delayed the mailing date for this a few days beyond what had been suggested in my May 10, 1988 submission to you (a copy of which is enclosed in case
the original wasn't delivered) because of two news reports that came to my
attention on May 19, 1988.
And the fact that i still haven't received instructions from President Reagan explaining to me how he would have me continue and/or complete the
"International Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" to his satisfaction,
as i forecast in my May 10, 1988 statement to you, has resulted in "overlapping" of the time-frames of upcoming summits with what he and his administration haven't repealed to the public but which regardless appears
certain to be widely known before the November, 1988 U.S. elections.
I now understand that the Democratic National Convention is to begin in
Atlanta on July 18, 1988.
Reverend Jackson, you may not be able to overtake Mike Dukakis and secure
the party's presidential nomination this year, but it seems to me that you
and i both are going to have significant "influence" in future regardless
of fortunes in the political arena.
Please let me briefly explain my reasoning.
On May 19, 1988, i saw a brief television report that on that day Vice
President George Bush had met with U.S. black leaders for purposes which
were not specified and i saw no report on this in the following day's
New York Times).*
In reference to this and the December 28, 1987 letter i received from Mr.
John J. Phelan, Jr., CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTlVE OFFICER, THE NEW YORK
STOCK EXCHANGE, and the enclosures addressed to South Africans and about
the continuation of apartheid in "The Beloved Country", i think i should
explain here that there were two key reasons why i promised President
Carter (in my January 30, 1988 statement to him) i would be contacting you
and providing you with document copies.
One is simply that i think both Desmond Tutu and i believed that after we
talked twice on April 2, 1986--the date of his first press conference
calling for economic sanctions against South Africa--and he agreed to
accept the document copies from me that he firmly understood were not explicitly supportive of economic sanctions against South Afrlca, there would
be widespread public awareness of this. The people of the world would know
we had spoken together, he had agreed to accept such documentation and it
would be revealed that the basis for our 1986 communications was "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" i had prepared and contributed
to in 1978 in part on behalf of the United Nations Secretariat and in part
on behalf of the Carter Administration and certain (other) American interests.
Despite the fact that between the time of my April 23, 1986 registered letter
#1825 and my July 31, 1986 registered letter #70 to Desmond i made detailed
submissions to the Canadian, U.S., and British governments, the press, the
United Nations Secretariat, and certain other parties with interests in this
field...no such public awareness resulted.
But this never altered the fact that at any time Pretoria could have charged
Desmond under the South Africa law forbidding the country's citizens from
overtly calling for economic sanctions against South Africa.
And during this period of time South Africa launched] the attacks on Zambia,
Botswana, and Zimbabwe with disputable justifications, and Pretoria imposed
yet another of its infamous "state(s) of emergency".
Considering the fact that i understood i would be in a position to offer
some defense for Desmond against the potential charge Pretoria might choose
to lay against him, i sent the June 30, 1986 registered letter #23l4 to
then-SOUTH AFRICAN AMBASSADOR TO CANADA Glenn Babb and i continued to try
and establish these facts about these circumstances as part of the public
record.
*-I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT VISITORS TO MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE TO CONSIDER A SIMILAR MEETING BY A RENOWNED INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL FIGURE WITH "U.S. BLACK LEADERS."
ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT MY 1986 TELEPHONE DISCUSSIONS WITH MY FRIEND, DESMOND TUTU, RELEVANT TO DEVELOPING CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE YEAR 2001 AND BEYOND, ARE CONTAINED IN WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.