From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980

In November 1965, Ian Smith’s white minority government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking with Great Britain. With a European population of a few hundred thousand dominating an African majority of several million, Rhodesia’s racial structure echoed the apartheid of neighboring South Africa. Smith’s declaration sparked an escalating guerrilla war that claimed thousands of lives.

Across the Atlantic, President Lyndon B. Johnson nervousl...