There is a clear consensus in the foreign policy community that the United States should exert pressure on the South African regime to change its domestic racial policies. This is striking because it coexists with a feeling that, in the wake of Vietnam, the United States possesses neither the domestic political will nor the practical ability to determine events in other countries. Why then should South Africa be viewed as an exception? What is at stake for the United States in South Africa that would warrant an effort to affect the course of events there?