[1] Pro-segregation Southern legislators (Byrd Jr. himself was an ardent segregationist) and several American businesses pushed hard for the amendment.

[2] Rhodesia, run by a mostly white supremacist government,[1] was unrecognised internationally and under a United Nations-led trade boycott from 1965 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain.

[5] The Byrd Amendment, despite breaching UN sanctions, was passed by the United States Congress to permit a resumption of Rhodesian chrome imports from January 1, 1972.

The Gerald Ford administration took a mildly opposed stance, with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger criticising the amendment in a speech given in the Zambian capital Lusaka, but did little to try to reverse it.

[7] Despite the opposition and the legal findings against the amendment, it was not repealed until March 1977, when newly elected President Jimmy Carter successfully pushed Congress to do so.