This thesis is designed to demonstrate analytically three propositions: First, that the U.S. has maintained a foreign policy toward southern Africa which has been unevenly implemented and even neglected by various administrations, due to perceptual differences about Africa and due to other manifest priorities on the agenda of U.S. foreign policy concerns. Second, that a major determinant of U.S. policy in southern Africa has been the concern over potential superpower rivalry and intervention in the region as a dangerous and unwarranted element in the U.S.-Soviet competitive relationship. Third, that an overreaction in the U.S. to the perceived Soviet threat and a dramatic reinstitution of the East-West perspective in U.S. foreign policy priorities could lead the U.S. to set aside the regional approach toward southern Africa that has marked the Carter Administration's African policy since 1977. This development may create a situation of incipient crisis for future U.S. relations in the region. (Author).