Ian Smith
(8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007)
I am not really sure why, but it I have never had much time for Ian Smith – undoubtedly a courageous airman (he flew Spitfires in WWII) who had a reputation as a tough politician. However there was something about his slightly stilted formal manner that is reminiscent of the Ulster Unionists to this day - its a bit like having your grandfather as PM. However as the Torygraph pointed out yesterday
Smith earned his place in history by leading the first revolt against Britain by white settlers since America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776
However as the article went on to point out, at a strategic level, Smith’s whole UDI gamble failed because...
First, Smith assumed that white Rhodesians – a dwindling minority of four per cent in 1965 – could monopolise political and economic power into the indefinite future. "I don’t believe in majority rule ever for Rhodesia, not in a thousand years," he famously declared.
If UDI was to survive, Rhodesia needed allies, notably Portugal which then ruled neighbouring Mozambique. The two countries shared an 800-mile frontier which had to be kept secure.
So Smith gambled that Portugal’s African empire would last for another thousand years or so.
South Africa provided Rhodesia with oil and electricity. Smith assumed that Pretoria’s apartheid regime, dominated by Afrikaners with a deep suspicion of British settlers, would support Rhodesia forever.
Lastly, Smith presumed that Rhodesia’s black majority – 96 per cent of the population – would accept their status as second class citizens.
These assumptions were so wildly unrealistic that only a fantasist could have believed them.
Portugal’s shambolic empire predictably collapsed in 1975. South Africa stopped backing Rhodesia one year later and the black majority began waging a guerrilla war in 1972.
However whatever went before does not forgive the horrific error in judgement made by HMG in anointing his successor
Comments
"...horrific error in judgement..." is, I believe, a classic understatement. Kind of like saying that because the government disagreed with parents who were beating their children, they(the government) decided to burn down the(parents) house.
Posted by: emdfl | November 22, 2007 2:28 AM
Interesting view of Smith here
http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_failure_of_democracy_in_africa/
Posted by: Peter Horne | November 22, 2007 10:36 AM
You're being unduly harsh. Desperate times breed desperate men, and Smith lived in a very desperate time (bear in mind the Cold War was in full-swing to boot).
In many ways he reminds me of our own Enoch Powell - a man who could see the tragedy that was unfolding before his eyes and had the courage to try and avoid it, and to this end, it should be remembered, he was working on some sort of accommodation with the black majority. Left to settle things he (or his successors) may well have achieved this more or less peaceably, albeit over several decades. By forcing his hand, as the West did, the Mugabe regime was all but inevitable and only a 'fantasist' would have thought otherwise. Sadly, there were all too many of them then as there are all too many of them today.
Posted by: mexicano | November 22, 2007 9:41 PM