Big Daddy's Big Mouth

For manic bombast and sheer tactlessness, none of the world's leaders can compete with the big mouth of Uganda's General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada. Were it not for his dismal record as a capricious dictator--in addition to expelling 42,000 noncitizen Asians from Uganda, he has crippled the country's economy in the 32 months since his successful coup--Big Daddy's brand of verbal buckshot might be considered amusing. As it is, his off-the-cuff oratory mostly reflects his instability and ignorance. A sampling of the kind of rhetoric that has prompted President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia to call Amin "a madman" and "a buffoon":

"Hitler was right about the Jews, because the Israelis are not working in the interests of the people of the world, and that is why they burned the Israelis alive with gas in the soil of Germany." (In a cable to U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, September 1972.) "Some Asians in Uganda have been painting themselves black with shoe polish. Asians are our brothers and sisters. If anyone is found painting himself with black polish, disciplinary action will be taken against him." (In a speech in Brazzaville, August 1973.) "I am told that venereal disease is very high with you ... You had better go to the hospital to make yourselves very clean, or you will infect the whole population. I don't want you spoiled by gonorrhea." (In an address to students of Kampala's Makerere University, summer 1972.)

"I want to assure you that I love you very much, and if you had been a woman, I would have considered marrying you." (In a telegram to an old adversary, Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, August 1972.)

Amin claims to admire the U.S., yet he has gone out of his way to needle President Nixon and sent him a July 4th greeting wishing him a "speedy recovery" from Watergate.

Last week Big Daddy did it again. Learning that the President had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he snidely wired the White House: "I should like to congratulate you for the nomination. However, I have reason to believe the organization that has nominated you merely wishes you to hear of the nomination so that you can recover from the Watergate affair. My reason for holding this view is that it is very discouraging for real peacemakers in the world to hear of your nomination ... I am led to the conclusion that your nominators were not serious in their choice."

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