Rhodesian COIN (consolidated thread, inc original RLI)

[davidbfpo]

JMM in Post 261 'A Rose By Any Other Name ...' referred to:

As an aside, I went back to Bruce Hoffman's 1991 RAND piece on Rhodesia. His Appendix C, Cross-Border Raids, summarizes several dozen raids in Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Angola. A study of those raids (if there is more available factually than Hoffman's brief summaries) seems presently material in light of the loosening of restrictions by two US administrations on those direct actions.

JMM,

The Rhodesians, later followed by the South Africans, used cross-border raids as a means of reducing the flow of guerillas into their territory - causing mass fatalities. Leadership attacks were unusual, IIRC attempts were made to kill Nkomo in Zambia, oddly I cannot recall a similar attack(s) on Mugabe & Co in Mozambique; the South Africans were more successful later with attacks on the ANC.

The cross-border tactic was controversial at the time within the Rhodesian military, IIRC Jakkie Cilliers wrote on this in his post-Independence book and others like Michael Evans. Partly as it avoided a serious strategic approach to what was vital inside Rhodesia; it is a long time since I read those sources.

The use made today by the USA, notably in Somalia, Yemen and NWFP, of the tactic cross border raids is very different - with selective targets, with far fewer fatalities. Yes the legal principles maybe the same, the method and effect are very different and so not similar.