In the 1980s, the United States during Ronald Reagan's administration hesitated to
sanction [punish] South Africa for its continued "apartheid." The textbook does not
mention this specifically, but from a general contextual understanding, you should be
able to choose which of the following explains that US policy.
O
a) South Africa was a Soviet ally, and Reagan did not want to provoke a conflict
with the Soviet Union.
b) South Africa was too poor to be considered important (it would likely have
been different if South Africa had any oil or valuable minerals).
c) South Africa was aligned with the West in the Cold War, and Reagan
suspected the anti-apartheid reformers had Communist sympathies.
d) Ronald Reagan barely knew where South Africa was, let alone its
importance--after all, he was only a former actor who was suffering from the
early stages of Alzheimers.