Word: rhodesians
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There remains bitter opposition, but the year saw the beginning of the end of white dominance in southern Africa. Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, 57, finally bowed to the inevitable and agreed in principle to transfer power in two years to the blacks, who outnumber the whites 22 to 1. Smith would never have given in without the pressure of Henry
Concluding his farewell appearance in Brussels, Kissinger stopped off in London in a final effort to salvage the deadlocked Rhodesian talks, to dine with Prime Minister Callaghan and attend a soccer match. Then he left for Washington, to sort out his plans for the future. There will be a "decent interval" of a year for work on his memoirs. And what then? When newsmen teased him, Henry Kissinger replied-some would say with a Mona Lisa smile-"I'll be back...
Despite those brave words, every white Rhodesian realizes that "fighting through thick and thin" may become a savage reality if the Geneva Conference on Rhodesia remains stalemated-which it has been since it convened at the end of October. All that seems to be keeping the conference alive is a reluctance by Smith and Rhodesia's four black nationalist leaders-Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole-to bear the blame for torpedoing Rhodesia's last real hope of avoiding a bloody civil...
Meanwhile military pressure mounted on white Rhodesians. There are at least 3,000 nationalist guerrillas now operating inside the country, and isolated farmhouses near the Mozambique border come under attack almost nightly. Snipers so imperil the roadways that many Rhodesian trucks and autos now travel in convoys (see below). According to Salisbury, daring raids by Rhodesian army units into Mozambique earlier this month destroyed six guerrilla staging camps and 70 tons of war matériel. Hundreds of freshly trained insurgents, however, are poised to cross into Rhodesia now that the summer rains have started...
...Geneva conference grinds on, the tempo of fighting in Rhodesia is stepping up. Last month was the bloodiest in the four-year war between black nationalists and Ian Smith's white-settler regime. The toll: more than 300 dead, including 181 guerrillas, 20 Rhodesian "troopies," twelve white and 88 black civilians. Nearly 100 others have been killed in early November. One major guerrilla goal has been to cut Rhodesia's rail and road links with South Africa-vital conduits for the fuel and ammunition that Salisbury needs. To assess the threat, TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs accompanied...