THEAPARTHEIDERA
far less to the United States than to Britain and accounted for only about
I
percent of American foreign trade and investment. Nevertheless, some
sectors of American business were profitably involved in South Africa, and
the Pentagon deemed it essential to have access to South Africa's strategic
minerals, Although few South Africans had American origins, as the civil
rights movement registered gains in the United States, black American
leaders began to identify with black South Africans and to lobby against
apartheid.
Under Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61),
the United States continued
to treat South Africa as an ally regardless of its racial policies. The Pen-
tagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had contacts with South
Africa's military and security services. As a producer of uranium, South
Africa became a member of the International Atomic Energy Board and
joined the United States in nuclear research, and an American firm built
South Africa's first nuclear reactor. The adverse effects of the Sharpeville
episode of 1960 were short-lived. The United States voted for U.N. con-
demnation of apartheid, but business quickly resumed as usual, and that
December the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) ob-