Word: vetoes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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LAST WEEK THE SENATE voted to override the President's veto--only the fifth such occurrence in Reagan's current term--and so voted into law economic sanctions against the Republic of South Africa. The image of a U.S. government sharply divided between the Administration and Congress may send a somewhat ambivalent diplomatic signal to other nations, but Congress's unambiguous stand, confirmed by the uncharacteristic veto override, is important for the message it sends to Black South Africans...
While Secretary of State George P. Shultz last week affirmed the "common objective which unites us," the Reagan Administration's persistent attempts to salvage business interests in that nation and to protect the regime in Pretoria from sanctions has belied any meaningful opposition to apartheid. The veto override finally makes clear that the United States is on the right side of the struggle in South Africa...
...think in all honesty that the Administration has a very good idea where it is headed in South Africa." So said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar as the U.S., and indeed much of the world, waited to see whether President Reagan would veto a bill mandating strong new economic sanctions against South Africa...
...Reagan Administration, the dilemma was as much a matter of averting a political defeat as of sustaining its tattered policy of "constructive engagement." The White House was searching frantically last week for ways of winning enough Republican votes to sustain a presidential veto. One plan was to announce immediately the appointment of Edward Perkins, a black career diplomat, as the new U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. At the same time, the President would issue an Executive Order, much like the one announced last year, imposing limited new sanctions against South Africa. Also in the planning stage was an African trip...
With sanctions seen as a politically popular issue in an election year, the legislation rolled through the House on a 308-77 vote and through the Senate on a 84-14 tally. Two-thirds of the members present and voting are needed to override a veto...