Role Played By Kissinger In Facilitating Black Majority Rule In Southern Rhodesia

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100. He served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Kissinger Associates, a political consulting firm he founded, announced that the German-born former diplomat died at his home in Connecticut. Probably a few know of his role in facilitating black majority rule in Southern Rhodesia which later became Zimbabwe.

In 1976, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger became involved in negotiations to address the growing crisis in Southern Africa. The white Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith, was resisting black majority rule, which threatened to escalate into a regional conflict involving other African states and apartheid South Africa. Kissinger was concerned that this conflict could become another front in the Cold War. He decided to intervene and seek a negotiated solution to end minority rule peacefully.

Kissinger conducted a series of talks with Smith, and South African Prime Minister B.J. Vorster also joined the discussions. The goal was to establish political and economic stability in Rhodesia that could withstand communist influence. Smith eventually accepted the principle of majority rule, but no concrete results were achieved. Smith announced that his government had accepted Kissinger’s proposal for a black majority government within two years, but the war in Rhodesia continued.