THE SOUTH AFRICA LOBBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290016-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 19, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290016-5
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THE NATION
19 April 1980
E =.'A AMERICANS FOR SALE`
KAREN-ROTHMYER
back against their country's . growing international sentence
Yorster'to discuss what should be done to fight year, on five -counts of .fraud. He. is still :appealing that
gathered= in the office of Prime Minister John fled to Europe, only to be extradited and convicted late last
ne day i i February 1974, six white South Africans
ly bankrolling the pippoproT merican newspapers, un er-
writing phony academic conferences and sponsoring golfing
junkets for businessmen.-",
In the end, Rhoodie'precipitated-his own downfall. Al
:slim, handsome man with a taste for Jaguars and customized
executive jets,- Rhoodie was at the least careless about ac-
counting for his secret-.'funds.. Information about these ir-
regularities-perhaps leaked by Mulder's political enemies-
began to appear in the press in early 1978. A coverup ensued,
with the result that in the end, Rhoodie,-Mulder and Vorster
were all driven from office (van den Bergh retired)..Rhoodie
isolation. In addition to Vorster, the group included Gen_ .Independent interviews, together with South African and
Hendrik van den Bergh, bead of South Africa's Bureau of. European press-reports, tapes made by Rhoodie and the
State Security (BOSS),_and Information Minister Dr. Cor- ? findings of a South: African Government board of inquiry
nelius Mulder, the man touted as Vorster's successor. known as the Erasmus Commission show that Rhoodie was.
The group had come together to hear from Mulder's hand- ? able to work his waywith ease into some of the most power-
picked Secretary "of: Information, Eschel Rhoodie, . how ful offices in America: Even allowing for Rhoodie's tenden-
Rhoodie proposed to.increase the effectiveness of his depart- cy to exaggerate (and possibly ever. invent) some of his suc-
ment. The urbane,'40-year7old Rhoodie was convinced after cesses,, they also provide evidence, that. Rhoodie had no
more than a dozen sears abroad as an information officer ' problem recruiting Americans to assist him.in his efforts.
that South Africa must goon a public relations offensive. As The story of John-McGoff is a case in point. In 1974, at
Rhoodie described the meeting last year in an interview with the time Rhoodie was inning approval. for his secret opera-
the Rand Daily Mail, he told Vorster and the others, "I want - tions,: McGoff, a middle-aged Michigan publisher, was a
you to approve not an information asset but a propaganda frustrated would-be tycoon.. The -Panax.newspaper chain
war. in which, no rules or regulations would count.-!. -The--- which he headed, consisting of about forty small daily and
plan, which Rhoodie claimed was inspired by-Central In .'weekly .papers. mainly in the Middle West,. was losing{
_telligence Agency contacts in the United States, was agreed money despite McGoff's acknowledged sales ability and his
to, and along with it, a secret fund to finance operations. By flair forself advancement Even the local Williamston,
his on reckoning, Rhoodie, with the much-feared van den ' Michigan, voters didn't seem to appreciate. McGoff's'
Bergh's assistance, orchestrated between 160 and 180 secret talents: they threw him off the school board in 1974 after.
projects through 1978, at a cost approaching $100 million. he'd, attacked everything from Federal support for school
There is no available count of how many of these projects - lunches to the local superintendent of schools:
involved the United States, but enough is known about them- But there was one place where McGoff, the name-drop-
to indicate that this country was highly important-perhaps ? ' ping son of a Pittsburgh steelworker, was made to feel both
the most important of Rhoodie's targets. American opera- :... welcome and important.. As a result of having made the I
tions ranged from wining and dining Congressmen to secret acquaintance of a South African information officer named
Karen 'Rothmyer is a freelance.writer living in New York
City. Sheformerly worked for the Africa Fund. Research for.
this article was funded by the. Center for Investigative,
Reporting-
L.E.S. de Villiers, McGoff was invited to South Africa in 1968. He found .it much to his liking, and in time came to ?
know Rhoodie, Mulder and even Vorster himself.
According to the Erasmus report, as well as an interview
that Rhoodie gave to Elseviers, a Dutch magazine, last year,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290016-5