Word: rhodesia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This is an important day for Rhodesia," declared a jubilant Sir Ian Gilmour, Britain's Deputy Foreign Secretary. "It means the end of the war." So it seemed. Moments earlier, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, co-leaders of the Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance, had entered a gilded room in London's Foreign Office to add their signatures to a twelve-page protocol that had already been initialed by representatives of Britain and the now defunct Salisbury government of Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa. The document: a three-sided agreement for a complete cease-fire in Zimbabwe Rhodesia...
...thus appeared to pave the way for the peaceful creation of an independent republic of Zimbabwe by early next spring, as the British plan envisages. More immediately, it called for all combatants to lay down their arms within two weeks and for thousands of exiled guerrillas to return to Rhodesia, outlaws no longer. Declared a smiling Nkomo with some emotion: "We are going home." For all the hopeful statements, however, even some British officials conceded that they remained skeptical about the long-term prospects for real peace...
...black nationalist rebels of Zimbabwe Rhodesia have come a long way to a ceasefire. In the early days of the war, when they crossed the Zambezi River in dugout canoes carrying rusting shotguns and hunting rifles to make hit-and-run attacks on isolated farms, a white Rhodesian officer dismissed them as "a bunch of bloody garden boys." Such sarcastic putdowns no longer apply. The Soviet-and Chinese-trained "freedom fighters " of the Patriotic Front have been forged into an efficient guerrilla force. Despite their edge in air power, some of Zimbabwe Rhodesia's white-led array units have...
...rank and file of the Patriotic Front have been recruited mainly from rural Tribal Trust Lands, where 40% of the country's 7 million blacks, employed mostly as day laborers, are concentrated. Zimbabwe Rhodesia's biggest black groups are the Shona, who form some 80% of the population, and Ndebele, who make up about 15% (whites constitute 3%). Like its leader Robert Mugabe, the bulk of the Mozambique-based Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) are Shona. The Zambia-based Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) is dominated by Ndebele, like Leader Joshua Nkomo...
...trip was part of a periodic exchange of visits between leaders of the two nations, and the agenda concentrated on the issues that currently matter most to both countries: Iran, Zimbabwe Rhodesia, Northern Ireland, defense, energy and the threat of recession. Back home Thatcher's own popularity has suffered as inflation has climbed to 17%, with the prospect of worse to come in 1980. Nonetheless, she seems to relish the challenge, openly acknowledging that her rigorously conservative policies will not begin to take effect until...