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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 1, 1984
Jesse Jackson's Radical Worldview
Jesse Jackson has clearly emerged as the most outspoken candidate on the
Democratic ticket. The former lieutenant to Martin Luther King is well
known for his advocacy of more political power for minorities, the poor and
women in America (his so-called "rainbow coalition"). Few people, however,
realize how radical Mr. Jackson's views are regarding foreign affairs and
what he foresees as America's future role in the world. A good indication
of this emerged in his Memorial Day trip to Mexico.
(Significantly,
President Miguel de la Madrid of Mexico did not accede Jackson's request
for a meeting.)
While there he sharply criticized President Reagan's
"manifest destiny" and "gunboat diplomacy" with regard to Central America.
He also repeated his desire to travel soon to Nicaragua (whose leaders, he
has said, are on the "right side of history") and also Cuba. He said that
he had been inspired to lead a nonviolent peace demonstration somewhere
along the U.S.-Mexico border on the Fourth of July. "We must march to our
common border," he said, "and stretch out our hands to each other."
As Jackson, increasingly labeled a "power broker," gains leverage in the
Democratic Party, he will undoubtedly push it further to the left. Here are
excerpts from an article in the April 1984 COMMENTARY magazine entitled
"Jesse Jackson, the Blacks & American Foreign Policy," written by Arch
Puddington:
Jackson's ideas about foreign policy are often described as em
bodying a "Third World approach" to international affairs. He
has criticized his Democratic presidential rivals for holding a
"E�ropecentric" attitude while ignoring or minimizing the needs
of the underdeveloped countries, and he has condemned Americans
in general for harboring feelings of "arrogance and contempt" for
the impoverished nations of the Third World.•..
He favors normalization of relations with the Sandinista regime
in Nicaragua and a cut-off of aid to the government of El Sal
vador. He calls for the imposition of trade sanctions on South
Africa...• In addition, he advocates massive increases in the
amount of foreign aid given African countries, and the elimina
tion of special conditions--such as a country's support for U.S.
positions in the United Nations--which the Reagan administration
has attached to our assistance programs...•
Looked at collectively, these positions are not especially un
usual.••. Where Jackson does diverge, however, is in his state
ments regarding the underlying values of American involvement in
world affairs•..• Jackson has referred to the Reagan administra
tion as� "repressive regime" and asserted, at a meeting of rep
resentatives of the Organization of African Unity at the UN, that
"Third World nations are being raped and robbed of valuable raw
materials" in the service of a coming nuclear holocaust. Jack
son, born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, refers to
himself as having grown up as a "Third World resident in the
first world," and of having been "born in occupied territory,
having lived for all of !!!Y developing years under apartheid."
Jackson also makes repeated references to America's "obsession
with Communism," an affliction from which he most certainly does