The Big White Chief
RW Johnson with some interesting - and controversial - reflections on Ian Smith:
Just before the last presidential election in 2002, Smith said to me: “If Mugabe and I walk together into a black township, only one of us will come out alive. I’m ready to put that to the test right now. He’s not.”
"It is quite common to hear him blamed for having created Robert Mugabe": but presumably only by the sort of racist who believes that black men can't even aspire to be moral agents.
Posted by: dearieme | November 25, 2007 at 12:25 PM
IAN SMITH: LEGEND AND LEGACY
Richard Barrett
http://www.nationalist.org/docs/history/2007/112001.html
Posted by: Looking Ahead | November 26, 2007 at 03:59 AM
Looking Ahead - I'll keep the link up, but I don't really want all that stuff on my blog so I've cut the stuff you've pasted in.
Posted by: Mick H | November 26, 2007 at 02:08 PM
It's quite common in African countries to hear older blacks saying that things were better when the British ruled. Certainly, that was my experience but I don't think they were arguing for a return to minority rule.
That's a bizarre link from Looking Ahead. Carter gets the blame for forcing Smith to yield to Mugabe. No Callaghan, Thatcher, Muzorewa or Carrington. No mention of lifting sanctions during the interim Zimbabwe Rhodesia diversion.
Posted by: TDK | November 29, 2007 at 11:33 AM