At first, as the two jet fighters came screaming over the Zambian capital of Lusaka, most townspeople paid little attention, assuming them to be air force planes on some kind of training maneuver. But then a series of sharp explosions shook the city, and Zambians suddenly realized that the black-white confrontation in southern Africa had taken a new and dangerous turn.
For several years, white-ruled South Africa has attempted to destabilize some of the black-ruled regimes along its northern borders; on several occasions its forces have made lightning raids on South African dissident groups in nearby Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique. Last...