All matters Rhodesian / Rhodesia (merged thread)

[Rex Brynen]

What exactly does it make you think?

...that poor little Rhodesia could stand up to Russian and Chinese supported and supplied insurgents but not also against Jimmy Carter and Andy Young?

I suspect he means that efforts to delay or avoid black majority rule were ultimately doomed to failure.

As Steve said:

Word. Tactical acumen cannot compensate for a failed strategy. Afghanistan anyone?

Quite right. Nor can it substitute for a lack of realism at the national level about what is, or is not, achievable.

[JMA]

I suspect he means that efforts to delay or avoid black majority rule were ultimately doomed to failure.

Circa. 1960 to delay was the (historically proven) intelligent approach but to avoid would have been futile.

Perhaps your attention (and that of a few others around here) should be drawn to the Southern Rhodesia proposed Constitution 1961 where the "Europeans" (meaning whites) accepted a qualified franchise system which would have led to an "African" (meaning black) majority in parliament within 7-8 years (soonest) or 10-15 years (more likely).

But the Brits - Alec Douglas-Hume and his flunky Duncan Sandys (Commonwealh and Colonial Secretary) - being led by the nose by that other "great" African democrat and champion of one-party elections Julius Nyerere - whose country (Tanzania) under his "enlightened" leadership went from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products - demanded that one 5 year term of parliament leading to a one-man-one-vote... once ... was the best they could offer and the best that - "great" body of democrats and human rights activists - the Commonwealth would accept.

In addition those two liberal authors (by the US definition) of Rhodesian military history - Moorcraft and McLaughlin - state in the preface of their 2008 edition:

... Nevertheless, after nearly three decades, and in the light of the near-total destruction of the state by Robert Mugabe, many will look back and reflect that the Rhodesian rebellion, although doomed, was perhaps not so damned.

That make one think?