CHAPTER TWELVE

The letters cited in this chapter come from Sir Theodore Gregory's biography of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer filled in some of the gaps and motivations in an interview he gave me on September 4, 1978. Before I was ushered into his office that morning, I had viewed a video tape of a special hour-long documentary about Oppenheimer that had been prepared by South African television to commemorate his seventieth birthday. Throughout this televised interview, Oppenheimer was treated with the sort of somber respect reserved for the most exalted royalty. In hushed tones he was asked about the economy, the nation and the state of the world. This program was then followed on videotape by a second program, called "A Family Affair," that showed various aspects of Harry Oppenheimer's personal life. There were scenes of his arriving in Johannesburg in his own blue and white Gulf Stream jet, followed by his aide-de-camp and security police. Other scenes showed him at his palatial home, surrounded by his Goya paintings and greyhound dogs. There were also scenes of Oppenheimer at his stud farm outside of Kimberley with his championship racehorses.

Aside from Oppenheimer, I also gained some insight into how he operated from his executives, whom he had treated as members of "one big family" as one of them put it. For example, Richard Wake-Walker, a young executive with the Diamond Trading Company in London, told me how he had been invited to Oppenheimer's game farm during weekends in South Africa. He recalled that Harry Oppenheimer would sit in his shirt sleeves on the terrace surrounded by various members of his family, executives of Anglo American and De Beers and a few friends. Everyone would drink beer. When an elephant or a rhinoceros would trudge up to the barrier in front of the terrace, a servant would throw a floodlight on it, and everyone would admire the wildlife.

Kees Schager of the investment firm of Arnhold and Bleichroeder helped me through the corporate labyrinth of the Anglo-American and De Beers. The antitrust documents obtained by me under the Freedom of Information Act provided further clues to the interrelations. I also received some help from the Anglo-American corporation.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN I got files of the N. W. Ayer Company, the advertising campaign for De Beers. From my Freedom of Information request. Prosecutors in the antitrust division, attempting to show that De Beers had an agent in the United States, had subpoenaed all of the Ayer records. These archives contained the material reviewing the strategy research and ambitions of De Beers.

N.W Ayer provided me with volumes of campaign books. These included not only the advertisements used by N. W. Ayer in its campaign, but also the strategy it presented to De Beers. I also interviewed a number of executives at the advertising agency who preferred not to use their names.