Pieter Willem Botha (born 1916) was inaugurated as the first executive state president of the Republic of South Africa in 1984 after serving for six years as prime minister. Botha's administration was characterized by civil unrest. His policies have been assessed as essentially opportunistic, swaying from the progressive front to the radical right wing. Botha is best known for his stubbornness, a trait which earned him the nickname of The Old Crocodile.

Pieter Willem Botha, who is widely referred to by the Afrikaans pronunciation of his first two initials--"pee-vee"--was born on January 12, 1916, at "Telegraaf" farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State. In South African parlance, he is an Afrikaner, that is, a white person who speaks Afrikaans, a derivation of the Dutch language, as mother tongue. However, he is also fluent in English.

Botha's early education was at Paul Roux. Later he attended secondary...