"This goddamn guy...is an ape!"

The following -- no kidding -- is a transcript of a telephone conversation between President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. It is quoted in The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda, a thoroughly worthwhile book by Andrew Rice (2009, Metropolitan Books, New York).

Nixon: I'm getting tired of this business of letting these Africans eat a hundred thousand people and do[ing] nothing about it.
Kissinger: And...all these bleeding hearts in this country who say we like to kill yellow people.
N: That's right.... Isn't it awful what these--that t his goddamn guy at the head of Uganda, Henry, is an ape. [Nixon refers to Idi Amin.]
K: He's an ape without an education.
N: That's probably no disadvantage. I mean, you figure that asshole that was the head of Ghana [Kwame Nkrumah] had a brilliant education in the United States.
K: That's right.
N: I mean, so, let's face it.... He's a prehistoric monster.
K: Yeah.
N: Let the British know we're going to help. The idea that we're going to stand still on the ground that any African government that...overthrew a colonial power thereby becomes lily white by our...standards and thereby beyond criticism is ridiciulous. The damn double standard is just unbelievable."

But the USA didn't help. It didn't send troops. It didn't do anything! Three months after this conversation, Kissinger presented President Nixon with a policy memorandum recommending that, with no vital American interests at stake, "no decisions need to be taken concerning Uganda, particularly aid levels." [My emphasis. Walt.]

According to Rice, Nixon scrawled his initials next to the word "approve".

There was no American action in Uganda. The Americans did send an expeditionary force into Somalia but withdrew PDQ. Click on the "Somalia" tab for references. There has been no meaningful American action against Comrade Bob Mugabe, the despot ruining Zimbabwe, in spite of the heartfelt pleas of the Zimbabwean diaspora.

What do the three countries -- Uganda, Somalia and Zimbabwe -- have in common? Why is the USA not much interested in doing anything to relieve them of rule by warlords, dictators and despots? Answer: they have no oil. And anyway, they're African. Let them go on eating each other.