"Africans, however, still face two awesome problems:

--The hope for modernization is spreading across Africa more rapidly than the means to assure its realization. The problems created by slender resources of capital and skilled manpower are aggravated by the narrow scope of national economies. Many African countries face a harsh choice between policies involving cooperation with others which hold realistic promise of growth--and the jealous guarding of unmitigated sovereignty.

--The quest of southern Africa's black majorities for full participation in their countries' political and economic life continues to meet minority intransigence and repression, and to divert African attention from the problems of development.

America's Interest in Africa

"Historically, U.S. interests derive from the many American citizens of African descent, and the long involvement of American churchmen, educators, and businessmen with Africa. In the last two decades, Africa's drive for independence stimulated our interest, and commanded our understanding and our support. The creation of new independent governments in Africa gave a new focus to our relationship and opened new opportunities for fruitful contacts between us. The special identification of black Americans with their African heritage adds intensity to our inherent interest in demonstrating that men of all races can live and prosper together.

"One-third of the world's independent nations are in Africa. Their voice and views are increasingly important in world affairs. Our global responsibilities require that we seek their understanding and diplomatic support for a wide range of policies.

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"The Need for Mutual Respect and Restraint

"If these American interests in Africa provide a firm basis for relations of mutual benefit--and I believe they do--I am equally

convinced that both African and American interests are served by political restraint in our policy toward Africa.

"Restraint must be mutual to be effective. Non-African powers should not seek, nor Africans provide, opportunities for exploiting local conflicts. Africans have demonstrated, in their drive for autonomy and self-reliance, their ability to solve their problems without outside interference.

"Mutual respect in relations with the United States also includes African recognition of our non-interference in African political affairs. We expect African nations to resist the temptation to serve domestic political purposes by making unsubstantiated charges of American interference in their affairs. Such charges appeared in a few places in Africa in 1971, particularly in Madagascar and Guinea.

"The Dimensions of Cooperation

"The United States responded, in 1971, to the special and priority concerns of Africans. This Administration was able, even in the face of declining worldwide aid resources, to increase U.S. support for African development. Our development loans to African nations increased 30 percent and Export-Import Bank activity rose 140 percent. In addition, we provided almost 40 percent of the total cost of multilateral assistance programs in Africa. Last year the Peace Corps maintained 2, 500 volunteers in 25 African countries, providing teacher training and vocational skills. American assistance to Africa totaled about $550 million last year, compared to $450 million in 1970.

"Private American investment in Africa is growing at an annual rate of 14 percent, a fact of the greatest promise for Africa's economic future. Private investment will undoubtedly play a major role in providing the Continent with the capital and technology it needs. We will continue to make every effort to

encourage private investment in Africa. It will benefit not only Africa, but the world, to encourage efficient development of Africa's resources of petroleum, mineral, and agricultural products. American companies will also continue to help create new manufacturing enterprises and to facilitate expanded trade and tourism by working to build ports and railroads, air links and hotels.

"U.S. private investment in Africa now totals about $3.5 billion, and continues to grow rapidly. Americans are participating in important new enterprises started last year in Nigeria and Zaire. The Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation stand ready to facilitate such ventures where our participation is wanted and where it can take place on a footing of mutual benefit. Africans who want this participation must, of course, create a hospitable climate for private investment. Kenya, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, and Zaire are examples of the benefits which flow from such a climate.

"For more than a decade, leading Americans in all fields have expressed this nation's profound concern over racial injustice in southern Africa, and decried the serious potential of the issue for bringing large scale conflict to this region. As I have repeatedly made clear, I share the conviction that the United States cannot be indifferent to racial policies which violate our national ideals and constitute a direct affront to American citizens. As a nation, we cherish and have worked arduously toward the goal of equality of opportunity for all Americans. It is incumbent on us to support and encourage these concepts abroad, and to do what we can to forestall violence across international frontiers.

"The United States can take pride in the measures it has taken to discourage a military buildup in the areas of minority rule. We have maintained our arms embargoes in those areas. We have stressed the need for self-determination in colonial areas. We have facilitated contact between the races, and underlined the fact that greater political and economic opportunity for Africans serves the true interests of all races. I detailed the steps we

have taken in last year's Report. It is a record second to none among the major powers.

"Americans alone, however, cannot solve the racial problems of southern Africa. The notion that one nation, however powerful or well-intentioned, can master the most intractable issues plaguing foreign societies belongs to a past era.

"For our part, we look toward black and white in Africa to play the primary role in working toward progress consistent with human dignity. We support their efforts by:

--Encouraging communication between the races in Africa, and between African peoples and our own.

--Making known directly to the parties involved our views on their actions. My Administration will not condone recourse to violence, either as a means of enforcing submission of a majority to a minority or as a formula for effecting needed social change.

"The situation today offers no grounds for complacency about the imminence of racial justice in southern Africa. It is, therefore, important that we continue to do everything we can to encourage respect of human dignity.

Problems of development abound in Africa, and with them a potential for violence and bloodshed. Growth and change are inevitable. The path taken by this change is of great concern not only to the people of Africa, but to the world at large, since this vast continent is destined to play an increasing part in the history of the world by virtue of its size, its location, its resources and economic potention, and because of its large restless population and the growing aspirations of its people.

Africa needs foreign capital and technological assistance to aid its development; yet the complexities found here defy foreign control of the continent's destiny. Above all, Africa will not be ignored. Perhaps the most welcomed and valuable contribution we might offer the African on his journey into the future is a full measure of understanding, encouragement, and patience.

In President Nixon's report of United States Foreign Policy to Congress on May 3, 1973, he grouped Africa with South Asia and the Middle East as regions of tension and opportunity. He noted that the United States misread the future of Africa in the early days of its national development: "We assumed we would be drawn into assertive involvement on the continent economically and politically, both because of endemic instability and poverty and the threat of aggressive competition from Communist powers. In an exuberant phase of our own foreign policy, the United States exaggerated its ability to help solve many of Africa's problems.

As the new nations evolved a different picture emerged. The President pointed out that ". . . African nations had proven to be the best guarantors of their own sovereignty. The continent was not divided into great power spheres of interest nor did it become an arena of great power confrontation.

He spoke of the need for practical approaches to racial inequalities and the importance of trade and private enterprise to finance African development. He emphasized that the responsibility for mobilizing energies and resources rested upon the Africans themselves; and restated the United States policy goals for the area: "political stability, freedom from great power intervention, and peaceful economic and social development."

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