After the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 precipitated a popular uprising and the subsequent arrest of the ANC's military wing, organized opposition to apartheid within South Africa was eliminated. For 30 years the ANC led a shadowy existence in exile and its most basic problem was one of survival. This book offers and explanation of how the foreign relations of the ANC contributed to its survival and looks at the closely related issue of how the ANC's alliance with the South African Communist Party and the support of the Soviet Union solved the problem of how to continue financing the armed struggle.
Examining the ANC's diplomacy in action, Thomas shows how the liberation movement attained its main diplomatic objectives - the mobilization of international support for mandatory sanctions; the arms embargo and the diplomatic isolation of South Africa; and the translation of international opposition to apartheid into support for the ANC as the sole legitimate representative of South Africa's oppressed people.