The Last Trek--A New Beginning; The Autobiography
G. Mendel (Front Cover Photograph) New York, N.Y. St. Martin's Press, 1999. First United States Edition, presumed first printing. Hardcover. xx, 412 pages. Small DJ flap tear. Signing event ephemera laid in. The author signed this book on the title page. Endpaper map. List of Illustrations, Preface, Introduction, Conclusion, and Index. The 35 chapters cover Roots; My Childhood; My Education; Law, Community and Politics; Parliament; John Vorster's Cabinet; Ministerial Career; The Split in the National Party; The Tricameral Parliament; The Constitutional Future of Black South Africans; The Total Onslaught; My Election as Leader of the National Party; President Botha's Departure from Politics; The First Months of My Presidency; The Pretoria Minute and the Birth of the New National Party; Violence and Operation Vula; Peace Initiatives and Commissions; Codesa 1; Governing the Country and the Referendum; Codesa II and Mass Action; The Record of Understanding; The Steyn Investigation; The Multiparty Negotiating Forum, Atom Bombs and Assassination; Progress Towards the Interim Constitution; The Nobel Peace Prize; The Zulus Ask for Independence; The Collapse of the Freedom Alliance; The IFP Comes on Board; The Election and the End of National Party Rule; The Government of National Unity; The New Constitution, Withdrawal from the Government of National Unity, Opposition and Retirement; Truth and Reconciliation; and With the Advantage of Hindsight. On becoming State President of South Africa in 1989, F. W. de Klerk set about dismantling apartheid. By releasing Mandela from prison in February 1990, he set in motion a chain of events which would lead to the first fully democratic elections in South Africa's history, on 27 April 1994. Frederik Willem de Klerk OMG DMS (born 18 March 1936) is a South African retired politician, who served as State President of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as Deputy President from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a conservative and an economic liberal, he led the National Party from 1989 to 1997. de Klerk joined the National Party, to which he had family ties, he was elected to parliament and sat in the white-minority government of P. W. Botha, holding a succession of ministerial posts. As a minister, he supported and enforced apartheid. After Botha resigned in 1989, de Klerk replaced him, first as leader of the National Party and then as State President. Although observers expected him to continue Botha's defense of apartheid, de Klerk decided to end the policy. He was aware that growing ethnic animosity and violence was leading South Africa into a racial civil war. Amid this violence, the state security forces committed widespread human rights abuses and encouraged violence between Xhosa and Zulu. He permitted anti-apartheid marches to take place, legalized a range of previously banned anti-apartheid political parties, and freed imprisoned anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela. He also dismantled South Africa's nuclear weapons program. De Klerk negotiated with Mandela to fully dismantle apartheid and establish a transition to universal suffrage. In 1993, he publicly apologized for apartheid's harmful effects. He oversaw the 1994 non-racial election in which Mandela led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory; de Klerk's National Party took second place with 20% of the vote. de Klerk became a Deputy President in Mandela's ANC-led coalition, the Government of National Unity. He supported the government's liberal economic policies. His working relationship with Mandela was strained, although he spoke fondly of him. In 1997, he retired from active politics and since then has lectured internationally. The recipient of a wide range of awards—including the Nobel Peace Prize—he was widely praised for dismantling apartheid and bringing universal suffrage to South Africa. Derived from a Kirkus review: de Klerk is a fundamentally tragic figure: someone with the courage to abjure his most heartfelt inclinations and bravely lead his country forward—and himself straight out of power. There was little in his background to suggest he would be the man to end apartheid. He was an assiduous, ambitious National Party stalwart, reliably serving in a variety of ministerial assignments, delivering competence but never controversy, slowly climbing the ladder of politics . . . and then he changed everything. He provides a useful account of what happened, detailing the negotiating process leading to the creation of the “new South Africa,. He claims no knowledge of any of the recently revealed darker activities of the apartheid military-security complex. The end of apartheid may have been a moral struggle, but it was above all a grimy political process, and the most fascinating part of this account is the dance of adversaries, the shifting coalitions, the victories and defeats. Philosophically, perhaps even morally, de Klerk may have shifted, but he never turned from what is perhaps his truest identity: master political operator. Like South Africa’s gold deposits, a lot of the value here is buried deep. Condition: Very good / Good.
Keywords: South Africa, Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, African National Congress, Pik Botha, P.W. Botha, Government of National Unity, Goldstone Commission, Inkatha, Zulu, Xhosa, National Party, South African Defense Force, SADF, John Vorster, Truth and Reconcilia
ISBN: 0312223102
[Book #81141]
Price: $500.00