Stirring Up New Storms

Jackson's peregrinations and Farrakhan 's pronouncements arouse fierce rows

Relatives of the liberated prisoners waited long past midnight in a jammed terminal at Dulles International Airport, near Washington. Black supporters of the Rev. Jesse Jackson broke into spirited song, creating a revivalist mood. Mobs of reporters and photographers jostled for position. Finally, klieg lights flashed on and in their glare stood Jackson, resplendent in his safari suit and surrounded by a group of released American and Cuban prisoners. A grateful woman rushed tearfully toward the black minister and threw her arms around his chest. Jackson flashed his familiar grin.

Once again the unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination had turned a tour abroad into an ego trip and a personal publicity bonanza, while displaying little regard for the unfortunate consequences of attacking his own government in unfriendly countries. Barging off into four foreign capitals, the black minister assailed the U.S. role in the region. He negotiated for the release of prisoners. He even invited a head of state, Fidel Castro, to visit the U.S. As happened before his trip to Syria last January, when he won the release of captured American Navy Flyer Lieut. Robert Goodman, critics accused Jackson of violating the Logan Act of 1799, which makes it a crime for any private citizen to try to influence a foreign government on issues involving a controversy with the U.S. Now, on his whirlwind six-day tour of Panama City, San Salvador, Havana and Managua, the self-assured Jackson had gratuitously injected himself into the flammable arena of Central American politics.

There seemed to be no comparable case of a political figure's embarking on foreign relations during a campaign. As New York Times Columnist James Reston noted, "The Communists would do almost anything to cooperate with Mr. Jackson in order to embarrass Mr. Reagan." Charging that Jackson was "interfering with the constitutional rights of the President and Congress to conduct foreign policy," Reston also suggested he might be in "violation of the Logan Act."

In the midst of his foreign venture, Jackson was hit by yet another storm over Black Separatist Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement, whom Jackson had repeatedly refused to disavow as a political supporter. In an openly anti-Semitic tirade, Farrakhan called Judaism a "dirty religion" (some listeners heard the phrase as "gutter religion"), accused Israel of "injustice, thievery, lying and deceit," and charged that the U.S. was engaged in a "criminal conspiracy" in its support of Israel.

Noting that Jackson had claimed to be waging a moral crusade, Jewish leaders turned the morality issue against him. If Jackson did not disavow Farrakhan, they argued, then Walter Mondale should reject Jackson as unfit for any role in the party's political campaign. Caught in the controversy, Mondale faced the delicate task of trying to maintain Jewish support without alienating Jackson and his millions of black supporters.