by Patrick J. Buchanan – October 23, 1997

“African Brothers in Spirit” ran the caption over a photo of a beaming Nelson Mandela holding hands with a smiling Moammar Qaddafi. On entering Tripoli, Mandela’s 50-car motorcade passed under a banner reading: “Mandela’s visit to Libya is a devastating blow to America.”

What about U.S. objections to his visiting a nation now under U.N. sanctions for its role in the massacre of American school kids on Pan Am 103, Mandela was asked. In defiance, Mandela bared his contempt: “Those who say I should not be here are without morals. I am not going to join them in their lack of morality.”