Word: rhodesian
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Even the trip, at the outset, seemed plagued by snafus. A Kissinger statement on a stopover in London hinting at "indirect military aid" to the Rhodesian rebels was misinterpreted, and the White House promptly shot it down, suggesting-falsely as it turned out -that there might be policy differences on Africa between Kissinger and President Ford. Next the State Department sent out photographic slides of five African leaders to television stations; three were labeled with wrong names...
Then there was Kissinger's visit to Victoria Falls. Walking out onto the railway bridge that spans the gorge below the spectacular cataract and straddles the borders of Zambia and Rhodesia, the Secretary stepped across a white line onto Rhodesian territory, then quipped, "At least now I know what the issues look like." The gesture, coming on the heels of a blast at Kissinger from Rhodesia's Ian Smith for not visiting Salisbury before criticizing his government, took on a slightly surreal quality when it turned out that it had all been prearranged two weeks before by Washington...
...nationals. Prime Minister John Vorster, who has been urging Smith to negotiate a settlement on black majority rule, warned the terrorists not to go too far. Killing innocent tourists, he said, "can only unleash forces which could have far-reaching effects." Increasingly, South Africans were worried about the growing Rhodesian crisis. Editorialized Johannesburg's Rand Daily Mail: "Having let slip one chance after another of reaching an accommodation with more moderate black leaders, Rhodesia's whites seem to have made the tragic choice of facing black nationalism over the barrel of a gun rather than the conference table...
...time may be growing short for a peaceful transition to black rule in Rhodesia. Across the 800-mile-long border with Mozambique, 3,000 armed, trained and increasingly bold black Rhodesian guerrillas stand ready to attack. At least 5,000 more, in a half-dozen camps, are being trained by Chinese and Mozambican advisors to make deadly forays back into their white-dominated homeland...
Even as Mozambique steps up its efforts to train Rhodesian guerrillas and help them infiltrate and harass the white-ruled nation, it is itself slipping deeper into an economic and political morass. President Samora Machel's decision last month to close his border with Rhodesia and proclaim a "state of war" deprived landlocked Rhodesia of vital rail links to the sea, and is forcing it into a virtual siege economy. But the move will also cost Mozambique at least $50 million a year in Rhodesian transit and rail revenues and up to $30 million annually brought back by Mozambican...