Agnew's Complaint

Americans have sometimes cherished a blunt directness in their politicians. But that particular "give-'em-hell" charm, as Spiro Agnew has never discovered, demands, besides truculence, an implicit instinct for the underdog. It is the charm of the anti-bully.

Toward the end of his 32-day world tour, in which he isolated himself from ordinary citizens and from most of the sights and sounds of the countries he visited, the Vice President delivered himself of some gratuitous remarks about blacks. Having met with three African leaders --Ethiopia's Haile Selassie, the Congo's Joseph Mobutu and Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta--Agnew told U.S. newsmen traveling with him that those Africans were "dedicated, enlightened, dynamic and extremely apt for the task that faces them." Then he added: "The quality of this leadership is in distinct contrast with many of those in the United States who have arrogated unto themselves the position of black leaders, those who spend their time in querulous complaint and constant recrimination against the rest of society." Agnew overlooked the obvious fact that these African rulers after all run their own countries; they could hardly be expected to engage in "querulous complaint" about their own regimes. Maryland Democrat Parren Mitchell, a member of the black congressional caucus, wondered if Agnew was suggesting that black Americans should fight racism in the U.S. in the manner of Jomo Kenyatta, who was convicted of leading the bloody Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya before independence.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.