"I don't apologize for saying that what drove me as a young man, before I decided we need to embrace a new vision, was a quest to bring justice for black South Africans in a way which would not -- that's what I believed then -- destroy the justice to which my people were entitled, " de Klerk said last week on CNN.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Few recent presidents have come to the White House with such a bold vision to change society or been so willing to spend political capital in that quest.

ECONOMIST: George Bush