From January 28 through February 4, 1972, the Security Council held its first meeting in twenty
years outside of New York City. The venue chosen was Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Bush made this theoccasion for a trip through the Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Zaire, Gabon, Nigeria, Chad, and Botswana. (^)
Bush later told a House subcommittee hearing that this was his second trip to Africa, with the
preceding one having been a junket to Egypt and Libya "in 1963 or 1964." [fn 26] During this trip
Bush met with seven chiefs of state, including President Mobutu of Zaire, Emperor Haile Selassie
of Ethiopia, President Tombalbaye of Chad, and President Nimeiri of the Sudan.
At the meeting in Addis Ababa, Bush was blind-sided by a speech delivered by the delegate of
Panama, one of the rotating members of the Security Council. The Panamian representative,
Aquilino Boyd, vigorously attacked the US "occupation" of the Panana Canal Zone. Bush was
forced into parliamentary manuevering to avoid further discussion of the Panamanian complaint,claiming that Boyd was out of order in that the Canal Zone matter was not on the agenda, which
was supposed to be oriented towards African matters. This marks one of Bush's earliest public
encounters with the Panama issue, which was destined to become his bloody obsession during the
first year of his presidency. [fn 27]
Bush in Addis Ababa voted in favor of two resolutions on Namibia, one of which set up the
machinery under which the UN Secretary General was empowered to contact the South African
government about the status of the trusteeship territory usurped by Pretoria. Bush thought that this
first Namibia resolution had been "the most positive thing that came out." Bush also voted for a
further resolution on apartheid, and abstained on the resolutions concerning Portuguese colioniesand on Rhodesia. Bush's vote on the Rhodesian resolution amounted to a vote of confidence in a
mission led by the British Lord Pearce on the Rhodesian question, a mission which many African
states opposed.
At a press conference in Addis Ababa, African journalists destabilized Bush with aggressivequestions about the US policy of ignoring mandatory UN economic sanctions against the racist, (^)
white supremacist Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia. The Security Council had imposed the mandatory
sanctions, but later the US Congrsss had passed, and Nixon had signed into law, legislation
incorporating the so-called Byrd amendment, which allowed the US president to import chrome
from Rhodesia in the event of shortages of that strategic raw material. Chromon the world market, especially from the USSR, although the Soviet chrome was more expensivee was readily available
than the Rhodesian chrome. In his Congressional testimony, Bush whined at length about the
extensive criticism of this declared US policy of breaching the Rhodesian sanctions on the part of
"those who are just using this to really hammer us from a propaganda standpoint." "We have taken
the rap on this thing," complained Bush. "We have taken the heat on it." "We have taken a greatdeal of abuse from those who wanted to embarrass us in Africa, to emphasize the negative and not (^)
the positive in the United Nations." Bush talked of his own efforts at damage control on the issue of
US support for the racist Rhodesian regime: "...what we are trying to do is to restrict any hypocrisy
we are accused of." "I certainly don't think the US position should be that the Congress was trying
to further colonialism and racism in this action it took," Busget the feeling we are categorized as imperialists and colonialists, and I make clear this is not whath told the Congressmen. "In the UN, I (^)
America stands for, but nevertheless it is repeated over and over and over again," he whined. [fn 28]
During the hearings, Bush was confronted by Congressman Diggs with an account published in the
Los Angeles Times of February 26, 1972, aagainst a draft resolution stating that all sanctions against Rhodesia should remain fully in forceccording to which the US had threatened to use the veto
until the people of Rhodesia had freely and equally exercised their right to self-determination. Rep.
Diggs referred to a report in this article that the African and third world sponsors of this resolution
had been forced to water it down in order to avoid a veto to be cast by Bush. Bush ducked any
direct answer on this behind-the-scenes veto threat. "...we simply cannot, given the restrictions