Ian Smith: An American-Rhodesian Perspective

An American-Rhodesian Perspective

IFIRST met Ian Smith in the autumn of 1966, and I recall that his first question tomeaswe sat in his office off Cecil Square, Salisbury, was a quizzical: “Are you another American intellectual seeking to reform us?” From this inauspicious beginning, conversation turned amicably to Rhodesia’s chances of surviving world ostracism and UN sanctions imposed as the result of its breakaway from the apron strings of the British Empire in the previous year. At the time, Smith was fairly sanguine about the prospects—a prognosis confirmed by my subsequent tour of Rhodesia’s farms, mines, and factories, and by its remarkable development from 1966 onward.

JD

About the Author

John Davenport

An American-Rhodesian Perspective

IFIRST met Ian Smith in the autumn of 1966, and I recall that his first question tomeaswe sat in his office off Cecil Square, Salisbury, was a quizzical: “Are you another American intellectual seeking to reform us?” From this inauspicious beginning, conversation turned amicably to Rhodesia’s chances of surviving world ostracism and UN sanctions imposed as the result of its breakaway from the apron strings of the British Empire in the previous year. At the time, Smith was fairly sanguine about the prospects—a prognosis confirmed by my subsequent tour of Rhodesia’s farms, mines, and factories, and by its remarkable development from 1966 onward.