There is no doubt about the basis of the action taken by civil war veterans in destroying the lives and property of white farmers in former Rhodesia. It is an outrageous explosion of racial hatred. A government that would permit such actions with no attempt to restrain them deserves to be taken off the list of countries with which we choose to do business. The situation in other African countries is equally alarming. Two-thirds of the people in the world with HIV or AIDS live in Africa south of the Sahara.
Science still struggles to find a vaccine, but a speedy cure seems unlikely.
The chances that such a discovery would stop the pandemic entirely are diminished by the fact that, like other viral infections, HIV springs up in new forms, challenging the effect of existing medical treatments. The United Nations lacks the resources and authority to cope with such crises. It is not satisfactory to require great powers to pass the hat to raise enough money to extinguish the kind of calamity that is happening in Sierra Leone. Its charter provides for a military organization in the United Nations, requiring the establishment of a staff and a chief of staff, and the creation of a military force. The United States has always opposed Security Council efforts to set up such a force, and will probably continue to do so.