From the Barrel of a Gun

The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980

Gerald Horne

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780807849033, 9780807825891
• eBook ISBN: 9781469625591
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

In November 1965, Ian Smith’s white minority government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking with Great Britain. With a European population of a few hundred thousand dominating an African majority of several million, Rhodesia’s racial structure echoed the apartheid of neighboring South Africa. Smith’s declaration sparked an escalating guerrilla war that claimed thousands of lives.

Across the Atlantic, President Lyndon B. Johnson nervously watched events in Rhodesia, fearing that racial conflict abroad could inflame racial discord at home. Although Washington officially voiced concerns over human rights violations, an attitude of tolerance generally marked U.S. relations with the Rhodesian government: sanctions were imposed but not strictly enforced, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American mercenaries joined white Rhodesia’s side in battle with little to fear from U.S. laws. Despite such tacit U.S. support, Smith’s regime fell in 1980, and the independent state of Zimbabwe was born.

The first comprehensive account of American involvement in the war against Zimbabwe, this compelling work also explores how our relationship with Rhodesia helped define interracial dynamics in the United States, and vice versa.

INDEX

Page references in italics refer to illustrations.

• Abbott, Phil, 234
• Academics, support of Rhodesia, 109–10
• Accord, John, 103
• Acheson, Craig, 63
• Acheson, Dean: support of Rhodesia, 24, 146–47; correspondence with Welensky, 37–38, 63, 146–47; on Nixon’s Southern African Strategy, 64; on black voters, 86–87
• Acheson, Donald, 271
• Acheson, Nora, 70
• Acker, Gary Martin, 209
• Activism: by evangelicals, 98–100, 113; pro-Rhodesian, 101–10; anti-Rhodesian, 233. See also Citizens, U.S.: support for Rhodesia
• Adelman, Kenneth, 289 (n. 7)
• AFL-CIO, 164, 245
• Africa: mercenaries in, 13–14, 205–6, 278, 283; U.S. public opinion on, 19–20; French policy on, 32; European immigrants to, 53, 54; U.S. economic interests in, 170; working class of, 245–46; African Americans’ influence in, 258; Cuban influence in, 262; organized crime in, 277–79; European expansion in, 289 (n. 15); military governments in, 342 (n. 37). See also Southern Africa
• Africa, south-central: influence of black nationalism in, 14; stagecoach travel in, 53; U.S. colonists in, 55; U.S. missionaries in, 93–94; U.S. interest in, 283, 286
• African Americans: view of Rhodesia, 11; influence in Zimbabwe, 13, 14, 83, 126–29, 241, 257; and Africans in Rhodesia, 14; anticommunism among, 20, 250; economic status of, 22–23; in Southern Africa, 56, 248; missionaries, 96, 248, 313 (n. 21); musical influences of, 126; influence on U.S. policy, 133, 286; influence on Coloureds, 243–45, 313 (n. 16); Nkomo on, 247; in CIA, 248; pro-Rhodesian, 249–50; commercial activities in Africa, 252; ties with PAC, 257–58; male homosexuality among, 319 (n. 171). See also Black nationalism, U.S.
• African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) missions, 96
• African National Congress (ANC), 40; nonracialism of, 43; use of religious music, 126; U.S. influence on, 242; Zimbabweans and, 243; ZANU’s view of, 247, 258; alliance with ZAPU, 257, 261, 351 (n. 21); Soviet ties of, 262, 300 (n. 113), 351 (n. 21); opponents of, 268, 274–75; assumption of power, 273; in 1999 elections, 275; control of ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• I Preamble
• II Power
• III Policy
• IV People
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Index