Rhodesia: And Now for Oil

The stakes were rising in Ian Smith's daring game against the British. Rhodesians jammed the downtown streets of Salisbury and Bulawayo in a carefree holiday shopping spree, while shopkeepers demonstrated their support of the poker-faced Prime Minister by decorating their windows with his picture, draped in tinsel and purple bunting. But in the rest of Africa, black men were lacing their indignation at Smith's breakaway regime with ugly threats.

Harold Wilson was on the spot. None of the mild economic sanctions he had imposed seemed to be having the desired effect of forcing...

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