 While ambassador in the United States he made an important speech at a conference in Palm Springs, Florida in which he foresaw the inevitable demise of Apartheid.His successor as ambassador in Washington was Harry Schwarz, a prominent leader of the Progressive Federal Party, and later the Democratic Party.Throughout his career, Koornhof was seen as a moderate, at least compared to others in the apartheid government, and as a warm, larger than life personality with many contradictions.