Product Description

In July 2007, Zimbabwe's worsening economy saw inflation skyrocket to 7,634 per cent, deepening the already chronic food shortages in a country where only one in five of the adult population is in employment.Months later, on 20 November 2007, Ian Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia died, leaving behind him a lifetime of resistance to black majority rule and the dangers that he believed it would bring to his country.Ian Smith was a man with the ability to excite powerful emotions in all who heard his name. To those who still revere his memory he was a hero, a mighty leader, a man whose formidable integrity led him into head-to-head confrontation with the Labour Government of Britain in the 1960s. To others, he was, and remains, a demon, a reactionary whose intransigence long delayed majority rule in an important corner of Africa.The last decades of the twentieth century and the first years of the new millennium have seen Zimbabwe spiral into a chaos of violence and towards the brink of economic collapse, prompting many to reappraise Smith's role and the prescience of his actions.In this revealing and important historical document, Ian Smith charts the rise and fall of a once-great nation. He tells the remarkable story behind the signing of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, as well as the excesses of power that Mugabe has used to create the virtual dictatorship which exists in Zimbabwe today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58842 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 462 pages

About the Author
Ian Smith was born on 8 April 1919 in rural Rhodesia. He was educated at Chaplin High School, Gwelo, and at Rhodes University, South Africa, before joining No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, RAF. He became Prime Minister of Rhodesia in April 1964, and took his country through the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. His term as Prime Minister ended with the first fully democratic election of April 1979.He was a minister without portfolio in Bishop Muzorewa's Government of National Unity and remained in Parliament until Robert Mugabe had him expelled in 1986. Ian Smith continued to farm in Zimbabwe, maintaining a keen interest in politics, until his death on 20 November 2007.

Customer Reviews

A bitter harvest that is still in the process of being reaped.
I purchased this book following the death of Ian Smith. I had read a number of obituaries in the British press, some of which were more sympathetic to the man than others. I was curious to learn more about the so-called "Great Betrayal" of the title. I was already familiar with "the dreadful aftermath" as Zimbabwe is rarely out of the news these days.

Like many Rhodesians, Ian Smith interrupted his studies in 1939 to leave the safety of Southern Africa to fight for Britain in the Second World War. Smith explains that Rhodesia did more to help Britain than any other colony and it is clear that this was central to his sense of betrayal by post-war British governments - in particular the Labour government of Harold Wilson.

He reminisces about a Rhodesia where the white minority were `more British than the British.' Independently-minded, patriotic, courageous and family-orientated with a frontier-style `can-do' attitude. It was a society increasingly out of step with the mother country's soppy, soft-leftism and `progressive' politics. To Smith and the Rhodesians it seemed that the West had become decadent and no longer had the will to stand up to Communism. Rhodesia, along with South Africa was right on the front line in this battle and, as Smith explains here, the Rhodesians saw themselves as fighting not just for their own existence, but for the survival of Western Christian civilisation itself. He argues that the black majority were simply not yet ready to take over the reigns of power in the way the British wanted and were not politically aware enough to resist the lure of the Soviet sponsored infiltrators and agitators who were pouring down the African continent and into Rhodesia. Smith claims he wanted evolution not revolution and that, in time, majority rule was desirable but not at the cost of ruining one of the most prosperous and peaceful societies in Southern Africa by sacrificing it to Communism.

Britain's Labour Party disagreed and dared Smith to do his worst. Smith declared UDI, and sanctions - and a bitter civil war against Marxist insurgents followed. The Rhodesians gave a good account of themselves and, even though under sanctions, fought on for many years. The withdrawl of South African support [ a further betrayal according to Smith] made the situation untenable - leading to the 1980 elections when Mugabe's Marxist Zanu-PF swept to power. Ian Smith had the satisfaction of seeing many of the predictions he made in this book come true, but it is the sense of betrayal and treachery that leaves the strongest impression on the mind of the reader of this book.

Another angle to the story
This provides an insight into the mind of a man who has always attracted a division in opinion regarding his character. It represents a man who was willing to fight for his beliefs and his country. However interestingly throughout the book he refers to black people as 'our black people' which makes you wonder at his real views and feelings regarding these people. However an interesting read and definately a must read for all young Zimbabweans 'born-free' who might know very little of our history. Great Book

A wake up call.
This account of the deliberate destruction of Rhodesia by foreign powers helbent on disastrous political agendas which are also an existential threat to their own states and economies in 2009, is a wake-up-call for people with an interest in such matters. The bulk of Ian Smith's ire is directed towards Great Britain and its determined drive to placate the OAU and maintain the Commonwealth via the policy of No Independence Before African Majority Rule (NIBMAR) irrespective of the reality on the ground that Black-Africans desired any such a thing, or had the slightest ability to administrate it beyond a cadre of Marxiist-Lennist gangsters intent upon looting Rhodesia's capital core, for their own purposes.

As per Henry Kissinger's pragmatic advice and South Africa's disastrous détente policy, as aggressively advocated by John Vorster, Ian Smith accepted the inevitable. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. And Robert Mugabe in consort with Zanu-PF, rapidly instigated their intended programme to reduce a successful and thriving African state into the catastrophe it now is, whilst pocketing the loot and remaining in power without any possibility of being challenged. Which is the point of Communism, as Ian Smith was reliably informed by a Black African university graduate when asked why he was an advocate of Communism.

At the heart of this book is the observation that, when those who do not have to suffer the consequences of their actions persist in ignoring principles and sacrifice integrity for political expediency and personal gain, the state cannot survive.