The World: Big Daddy at the U.N.

Decked out in his field marshal’s regalia, Uganda’s President Idi Amin Dada last week made what must rank as one of the most bizarre debuts ever seen and heard in the United Nations General Assembly. In a prepared address, read by his U.N. delegate, Amin charged that the U.S. had been “colonized by Zionists” and called for “the extinction of Israel as a state.” At one point or another, Amin scourged the British (for the “terrible situation” in Ulster), the CIA (“a murder squad”) and American blacks (they are responsible for their own “perpetual subjugation”). What did Amin like? Beyond Washington’s more conciliatory Third World policy, which he said “has lit, cleansed and inspired” the developing countries, his approval seemed limited to Uganda’s tourist attractions. They included “the unforgettable waragi” (a local gin-and-vodka concoction) and “rare, huge but extremely shy gorillas.”