sociation."
Furthermore, by the end of 1989 profound 'changes in the wider world
were contributing to the demise of apartheid. The Soviet Union was be-
ginning to disintegrate, the communist regimes in eastern Europe
wer~
collapsing, and the Berlin Wall had fallen. Moreover, capitalist and com-
munist governments were cooperating
in freeing Namibia
from South
African control-the
South-West African People's Organization
won a
U.Ni-sponsored election in November 1989 and became the government
of an independent Namibia in March 1990. These events had two com-
plementary effects. They deprived the liberation movement of its main
sources of support. They also made nonsense of the government's claim to
be protecting South Africans from a communist onslaught. In the West-
ern-dominated
post-Cold
War world, both sides in the South African
conflict had an interest in solving their problems peacefully and democra-
tically. The domestic situation pointed in the same direction. It was be-
coming increasingly evident that the South African government could not
maintain white supremacy indefinitely; but it was also apparent that the
liberation movement could not overthrow the regime. Either side 'could
damage the other, neither could win total victory. Furthermore, the longer