Ian Douglas Smith was a unique character in British colonial history, and in many ways he was an anti-hero of that period, being the only colonial leader – apart from the founding fathers of the USA – to declare unilateral independence from Britain on behalf of Rhodesia. It was Ian Smith who lead the rebel colony of Rhodesia through UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence), and that short lived republic’s bitter civil war, that culminated in independence proper, and the creation of the state of Zimbabwe.

Ian Smith is one of those creators of human history who inspire utter devotion from their followers and supporters, and total enmity from their detractors. That he was a man governed by high principals is beyond dispute, that those principals were misguided is a matter of opinion, and that he was guilty of tremendous excesses in pursuit of his political goals is beyond question. As Julius Caesar once remarked, it is acceptable to break the law in a quest for power only if one succeeds, and Smith did not succeed.

Born in, Selukwe, Rhodesia in 1919, Smith passed through what was then the white Rhodesian school system, and then attended Rhodes University in South Africa. His higher education was interrupted by WWII, during which he served in the RAF. He was injured in an aircraft accident, paralysing half of his face, which later lent him the cold stare that was often confused for hostility in situations of tense political negotiation. He was later shot down over Italy, and in the company of Italian Partisani evaded capture, eventually linking up with Allied forces after crossing the Alps.

Smith political activity began in the 1948 General Election when as a Liberal he won the Selukwe seat and entered parliament as a backbencher. He was a supporter and partial architect of the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and in 1958 was appointed Chief Whip for the Federal Party under Godfrey Huggins. In 1962 he resigned from the Federal Party and was instrumental in the formation of the breakaway Rhodesian Front which then campaigned for the Southern Rhodesian premiership on the cry for minority rule independence for Southern Rhodesia.

The first Rhodesian Front Prime Minister was Winston Field, but he was soon ousted in favour of Smith, who then aggressively pressed for Southern Rhodesian independence. Smith’s bete noire, British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, refused on numerous occasions to be drawn into granting independence except on the basis of majority rule, which resulted in the eventual declaration of UDI on 11 November 1965.

The basis and the intelligence of this decision has been questioned many times since, but Smith staunchly defended his action, accusing the British of selling out white Rhodesia, and refusing in the years that followed, and through the terms of several British Prime Ministers, any compromise over the question of unconditional dependence for the white minority.

The Republic of Rhodesia was quickly the subject of international trade sanctions, and although initially the country survived this well, as the years slipped by, and the 1960s became the 1970s, war increasingly overwhelmed the nation, and ever more desperate became the situation.

Smith was ultimately forced by sanctions, the unwillingness of Rhodesia’s main supporter, South Africa, to contemplate open ended support of a rebel state, and the increasingly bitter war waged against Rhodesia by liberation partners Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.

By the end of the 1970s the situation had become so dire for Rhodesia, and so vilified had Smith become internationally, that the Rhodesian Government were forced into a compromise with internal nationalist leaders who the Prime Minister believed could, with sufficient prompting, bring about and end to the war. This did not ultimately come to pass, and in due course, haemorrhaging white manpower, and unable to sustain and increasingly bloody and bitter war, the Rhodesian Government (by then the Zimbabwe/Rhodesian Government) was forced into negotiations with the principal armed liberation factions, which in 1980 resulted in an all party election, which brought to power the Zimbabwe African National Union, and its leader R0bert Mugabe into Power. Zimbabwe was born on 18 April 1980, and on the same day the flag came down forever on the brief and bloody Republic of Rhodesia.