Rhodesia Fights Back!

3,011 words

If you’re watching a helicopter combat scene with the opening song in Act 3 of Die Walküre as the soundtrack, then the film is Apocalypse Now. If you’re watching a helicopter combat scene with music by Clem Tholet, John Edmond, or maybe even a disco track, it’s probably a documentary of the Rhodesian Bush War.

The results are familiar to us as what happens when whites are disunited and opposed by our own government. However, when whites are united and supported by our government, we can hold up against just about anything. This is how things were in Rhodesia, prior to forty years ago. Some other lessons may be derived too.

The road to UDI

British involvement in the area began in 1890, under the auspices of Cecil Rhodes. If one takes Carroll Quigley at face value, this would be back when the first stirrings of the Deep State were underway. (At the time, it was a small Anglo-American clique of wealthy businessmen whose interests were much more aligned with their own societies than they are now.) Further British colonization led to tremendous advances, and ultimately First World conditions, in Southern Rhodesia. It was the best-developed part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

After a rocky start, the native peoples began to benefit from the arrangement too, as they enjoyed order and prosperity like never before. In 1964, Northern Rhodesia became Zambia, and Nyasaland became Malawi. However, the rest of the federation — eventually just called Rhodesia — was denied independence, even though it had a suitably functioning government of its own since 1923.

The sticking point was Rhodesia’s voting franchise. It was discriminatory according to class lines (with requirements concerning property, income, and education). This made it de facto partially racially discriminatory in which only the highest class blacks could vote. Despite that, racial tensions were surprisingly low. The blacks, for the most part, were satisfied with the rapid pace of progress; a few generations back, the whole country was undeveloped wilderness. Still, the British government said that universal franchise had to be implemented before they’d grant independence to Rhodesia. As had happened time and again by then, and continuing to the present day, the politicians in London were more interested in optics cucking than in protecting their own people.

The white Rhodesians, whose future was at stake here, had some ideas about what would happen if they went along with what the do-gooders in their home country insisted. They believed that a black electoral majority would be naïve, easily led by demagogues, and not ready to govern itself. Following that, the country quickly would become a Leftist hellhole, the blacks would end up impoverished, and the whites would be dispossessed and brutalized. By then, this had become a familiar pattern throughout decolonizing Africa, and the British government should’ve known this. It’s been said that one should never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, but it’s hard to swallow that sometimes.

Rhodesia’s new Prime Minister Ian Smith wasn’t enthusiastic about such a fate, so he seceded from the British Empire with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence ^[1] on November 11, 1965:

That the people of Rhodesia having demonstrated their loyalty to the Crown and to their kith and kin in the United Kingdom and elsewhere through two world wars, and having been prepared to shed their blood and give of their substance in what they believed to be the mutual interests of freedom-loving people, now see all that they have cherished about to be shattered on the rocks of expediency. . .

Yeah, that.

Going it alone

Naturally, declaring independence caused a royal snit in London. The American government, led by our wise philosopher-king LBJ, was displeased likewise. (Ironically, in earlier times, the USA seceded from the British Empire in not-too-dissimilar circumstances.) The UN cookie pushers were aghast. All these Gutmenschen were shocked, shocked! These things led to economic sanctions and the lack of diplomatic recognition for Rhodesia.

The amorphous force of International Opinion, in all its italic initial-capitalized righteous indignation, had mobilized against them. Few countries traded with Rhodesia. Israel did ignore the sanctions, and I’m perfectly happy to give credit where due. The only adjoining friendly nations were South Africa and Mozambique, the latter at the time a colony led by the mildly fashy Salazar regime in Portugal. Since Rhodesia is landlocked, it depended on these countries to conduct whatever scanty overseas trade was possible.

Even so, the British government sent a naval blockade to the Mozambican port of Beira to interdict oil shipments. (How many pounds did this years-long activity cost British taxpayers? What did the sailors think about their orders to prevent supplies from reaching their kindred people?) Eventually, they no longer had to do that, since Portugal’s government fell — much to the applause of International Opinion. Thereupon, Mozambique quickly became a Leftist hellhole after Marxist guerrillas took over.

The War On Terror 1.0

Rhodesia itself had its own problems all throughout from Communist terrorists, which of course were considered “people’s liberation armies” by International Opinion. The major participants in this escalating spit-in-your-eye war included pro-ChiCom and pro-Soviet outfits: ZANU and ZAPU respectively (sometimes going by ZANLA and ZIPRA). In practice, they weren’t always too particular about which flavor of Marxism they adhered to, and sometimes cooperated. FROLIZI (an odd offshoot of both), FRELIMO (Mozambican pinkos), and the ANC (Saint Nelson’s outfit) sometimes were involved. This particular dust-up became known as the Rhodesian Bush War.

So here was an example of a country that rejected terms which would’ve meant certain suicide, and had few allies as a consequence of this refusal as well as horrible press, but things could’ve worked out if not for an intractable war with Communists. (Why does that sound so familiar?) They were in for a tough fight, of course, but the Rhodies gave it their best shot. Some of this is the stuff of legend, including the famous Selous Scouts ^[2]. Another notable event was retaliation for shooting down a civilian aircraft.

On September 3, 1978, a group of ZIPRA terrorists shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825 using a Soviet-manufactured missile. The plane made a crash landing, killing thirty-eight. A few survivors left the area, but ten stayed, some too injured to walk. Then the terrorists arrived and murdered the survivors who were still at the scene. The youngest was a three-week-old baby. (According to some reports, certain other loathsome atrocities occurred prior to this.) The survivors who had left came back, not knowing what had happened, and barely escaped being murdered too.

The following day, Joshua Nkomo — leader of that terrorist outfit (and future Vice President of Zimbabwe) — was interviewed on TV. He laughed about it, confirming that they did shoot down the plane. However, he claimed it was a military aircraft. As for the civilian survivors, he said that his guerrillas merely helped them rather than killed them. Why, they didn’t do nothing! One interpretation is that he was implying that although they shot down the plane, murdering the survivors was totally a false flag operation.

This terrorist attack didn’t change Jimmy Carter’s lofty mind, or cause his grin to fade, or make his super big heart skip a beat. (For any Rhodesians out there, this is as good a time as any to make it clear that — contrary to our principle of legitimacy — what our government does quite often is in direct contradiction to what the American people want.) The British government apparently wasn’t too bothered by what happened to their kinfolk abroad. That’s hardly surprising, given the present-day hostility of the politicians toward their own public at home. (As they say these days, “We were never asked ^[3].”) Neither did the rest of International Opinion have much to say about this.

Paybacks are hell

On the other hand, the Rhodesians certainly didn’t cotton to things like that. The first reaction was a daring raid on a ZANLA stronghold in Mozambique, Operation Snoopy ^[4]. This event beginning September 19 resulted in hundreds of dead terrorists, and only two dead on the Rhodesian side. (This followed on the success of Operation Dingo ^[5] the prior year. Three thousand enemies were killed, also holed up in approximately the same area of Mozambique, leaving a macabre desolation.) Another reaction was Operation Gatling ^[6]. This involved three raids on terrorist bases in Zambia. Two were hit with simultaneous airstrikes, one of which is better known as the Green Leader raid.

In that encounter, Chris Dixon led a Rhodesian Air Force detachment of four Canberra bombers toward the Westlands Farm in Zambia. Formerly a white-owned farm, it had been turned into the headquarters for ZIPRA. They called it Chikumbi (“Freedom”) Camp, an odd name given the Marxist-Leninist alignment of this organization. It was a bumpy ride from the turbulence, as they were flying in under the radar at a low altitude.

Coming up on 8:30 AM, the ZIPRA guerrillas were gathered in formation at the base, apparently assembled for a parade drill. The bombers accelerated, zeroed in over the target, and let them have it. Chris Dixon — the Green Leader, a sobriquet probably inspired by Star Wars — called out:

Beautiful! Jeez! You want to see all those bastards. The fucking bombs are beautiful!

Soon after, the navigator concurred:

That was lovely! Fucking hundreds of the bastards. It worked out better than we could have. . . they ran straight into the bombs.

Then it was time to notify the local airport about what was happening. Zambia had permitted terrorists to operate in their country and carry out attacks on neighboring Rhodesia, but still, they were owed a word of explanation:

Lusaka Tower, this is Green Leader. This is a message for the station commander at Mumbwa from the Rhodesian Air Force. We are attacking the terrorist base at Westlands Farm. This attack is against Rhodesian dissidents and not against Zambia. Rhodesia has no quarrel, repeat, no quarrel with Zambia or her security forces. We therefore ask you not to intervene or oppose our attack. However, we are orbiting your airfield now and are under orders to shoot down any Zambian Air Force aircraft, which does not comply with this request and attempts to take off. Did you copy all that?

The airport replied, “Copied.” Green Leader politely wrapped it up, “Roger, thanks. Cheers.” Meanwhile, the Alouette “K-Car” helicopters were carrying out their part of the mission. Zambian sources estimated around 1500 deaths. Rhodesian casualties include one KIA, three injured, and one downed helicopter.

The Party Line about this event was about as ridiculous as Joshua Nkomo’s earlier spin-doctoring. It was claimed that the Rhodesians only blew up some refugee children. Could it be that the Chikumbi Camp, headquarters of the pro-Soviet ZIPRA outfit, was actually an orphanage? Footage taken from a follow-up on the ground shows some bodies in khaki uniforms, but no kids. They also found an extensive collection of rifles, shoulder-launched rockets, land mines, ammo, and Marxist literature. Nice try!

Death by diplomacy

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. The terrorists shot down another passenger plane, that one with no survivors. The clever Rhodies figured out how to stealth their civilian aircraft against shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. Other terrorist incidents occurred, and so did devastating retaliations. (At one point, lopsided losses like this almost convinced Robert Mugabe to give it up and try for peaceful change instead.) However, the end was soon to come.

Ian Smith, Rhodesia’s leader, was a straight shooter, a rare trait in a politician. His tragic flaw was that he never imagined that the British government would be capable of selling out their own kindred people. Some other things were afoot too. As it happens, International Opinion isn’t exactly such an impersonal force as it might seem, and Henry Kissinger – one of its major figures – inserted his hefty proboscis. He hinted to South Africa’s Prime Minister Vorster that the USA would ease up on them if only they threw Rhodesia under the bus. Eventually, that was a done deal, and after losing their last ally and trading partner in the area, Smith was forced at last to bow down to the pressure ^[8].

Still, with Kissinger’s helping hand ^[9], what could possibly go wrong? This was the stately senior diplomat who had negotiated peace for South Vietnam a few years back, and that turned out great, didn’t it? More seriously, one can’t blame Ian Smith, since at that point, it would’ve been pretty much impossible for anyone to do better. He did buy his people fifteen years of survival. Things might’ve worked out if Rhodesia hadn’t been treated like a rogue state by Western governments that made optics cucking their number one priority.

Note well, although Ian Smith was supposedly a bad guy, the Carter administration was meanwhile awfully chummy with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. On April 12, 1978, Jimmy the Tooth obsequiously greeted Romania’s Communist dictator (and all-around moonbat) Nicolae Ceauşescu with the following heart-warming encomium:

Our goals are also the same, to have a just system of economics and politics, to let the people of the world share in growth, in peace, in personal freedom, and in the benefits to be derived from the proper utilization of natural resources. We believe in enhancing human rights. We believe that we should enhance, as independent nations, the freedom of our own people.

More mush from the wimp, right? If this wasn’t enough liberal schmaltz, Carter came out with slobbering praise for Nork dictator Kim Il Sung in 1994.

The aftermath

In the end, International Opinion got what it wanted. Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe, and Salisbury became Harare. Then terrorist leader Robert Mugabe got in office and became a corrupt Marxist dictator — what a surprise! Following that, the country quickly became a Leftist hellhole, the blacks ended up impoverished, and the whites were dispossessed and brutalized.

Then the revolution ate itself. The Ndebele who had supported ZAPU came under fire by Mugabe’s ZANU, backed by the Shona tribe. This event was the Gukurahundi ^[10], a rather odd euphemism for black-on-black violence which likely resulted in tens of thousands of deaths — among other thuggery — before they called it off. Why haven’t we heard more about this — don’t black lives matter? (Perhaps ZIPRA shooting down those planes hadn’t been worth it in the end.) Rhodesia once had been the famous “breadbasket of Africa,” but as Zimbabwe, it became a starving Third World dictatorship with an epically dysfunctional economy. After all the other misrule that followed too, the blacks were certainly not better off than they had been under a British aristocracy.

International Opinion kept its baleful eye on South Africa. It turns out that Kissinger’s offer to PM Vorster was worthless — what a surprise! After the idiot Vorster carried out his side of the bargain, he got double-crossed. They’d thrown Rhodesia under the bus, and after deserting their neighboring ally, now it was their turn on the chopping block. Even so, they also put up a spirited fight ^[11] against Marxist-backed terrorists for a while. This much inspired the Skrewdriver song “Strike Force” ^[12].

In the end, though, South Africa lost its resolve, somehow forgetting what happened to Rhodesia. A close plebiscite opened up the electoral franchise to everyone — “one man, one vote,” just like International Opinion ordered. This event was accompanied by tears of joy from millions of bleeding-hearted liberals around the world, repeated once again after that cuddly teddy bear Saint Nelson ^[13] took office. Unfortunately for the British and Afrikaner populations, the black majority had been agitated against them for decades. Moreover, it was naïve, easily led by demagogues, and not ready to govern itself. Following that, the country quickly became a Leftist hellhole, the blacks ended up impoverished, and the whites were dispossessed and brutalized. International Opinion doesn’t have too much to say about that — what a surprise!

Solidarity is paramount

Where did things really go wrong with Rhodesia? All throughout, this was a proxy conflict within the larger context of a little misunderstanding called the Cold War. The Soviets and ChiComs supported their own factions, which carried out bombings, conducted farm murders (still a common event in the region), and of course shot down passenger planes. After all this, did it end with the USA and Britain, which were ostensibly anti-Communist powers, rising to support the beleaguered Rhodesians? Of course not! The one reason was that it was still a white government in Africa, and we can’t have that, now can we?

Ideological solidarity, standing up for our kindred people, and common decency were all less important to the politicians than optics cucking. What would have happened if Britain, America, and other Western countries had recognized Rhodesia diplomatically and started trading with them? Why, then some clown like Muammar Gadhafi could’ve made a fuss in the UN General Assembly and called us all a bunch of raaaacists. Heaven forfend! Anything to prevent such a dire fate!

Eventually, the ChiCom faction came out ahead, represented by Robert Mugabe’s ZANU. Still, the Soviets deserve a special call-out for their treachery in the matter, which ultimately gained them nothing. Recall that it was the paramilitary arm of the Marxist-Leninist ZAPU which caused a large part of the trouble here. ZIPRA and its Ndebele followers had no ability to manufacture their own surface-to-air missiles or AK-47s, of course. If the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies had put race over ideology — granted, that’s quite a lot to ask of Leftists — they could’ve stayed out of it and avoided getting tooled. Leonid Brezhnev had an occasional moment of clarity, but this was not one of them. Granted, the American establishment was up to some highly counterproductive things too, but all that’s another matter.

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