Ellert, The
Rhodesian Front War: Counter-insurgency and guerrilla war in Rhodesia 1962 to 1980 (Gweru, 1989), 117
1965: White voters in the African colony of Rhodesia back Prime Minister Ian Smith's
Rhodesian Front which wants independence from the UK.
I AM surprised that Canon Peter Hall (Mailbox, June 8) did not reflect in his letter that the so-called rebels such as Ian Smith and Wing Commander Simmonds of the
Rhodesian Front party fought for Britain during the war.
Smith's party, the
Rhodesian Front, overwhelmingly won elections in 1970 and 1974, as government clashes with black nationalist guerrilla fighters intensified.
At independence in April 1980, there were two liberation parties--Zanu-PF and PF Zapu--in addition to Abel Muzorewa's UANC, Zanu Ndonga and Ian Smith's
Rhodesian Front. In ideological terms, the liberation parties were as far from the
Rhodesian Front as the North Pole is from the South Pole.
1965: Huge Rhodesia election win for Smith White voters in the African colony of Rhodesia back Prime Minister Ian Smith, pictured left, and the
Rhodesian Front which is demanding independence from the UK.
In the course of his story, he explains some of the factors and events that cumulatively formed the counter-insurgency war in Rhodesia and its neighboring countries, known as the
Rhodesian Front War of 1972-74.
In March 1962 three opposition groups, including the Dominion Party merged to form the
Rhodesian Front (RF), under the leadership of Winston Field of the Dominion Party.
This strategy, however, alienated Europeans from his United Federal Party and in December 1962 it was defeated at the polls by a new right-wing party, the
Rhodesian Front. The new prime minister, Winston Field, was "a mild-mannered man, a gentleman farmer who represented the old Rhodesian elite.