by Tom Bethell

About the author: Tom Bethell is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the American Spectator.

Hype about AIDS in Africa has reached new heights. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Vice President Al Gore (at the U.N. Security Council) have declared it to be an international security threat. AIDS is now called the leading cause of death in Africa, with over two million deaths last year, and the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is spreading “nearly unabated.” Seventy percent of all AIDS cases are said to be African. On Newsweek’s cover we read of “10 Million Orphans.” Meanwhile, in a “Tour of Light,” a troupe of orphans from “devastated Uganda” performs on the Kennedy Center stage. There are calls for a new Marshall Plan...