The Great Betrayal by Ian Smith

Published by Blake Publishing, 1998, hardcover, illustrated, index, 418 pages, condition: very good.

The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith is the 1997 autobiography of the last white Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The book serves as a political defense of his administration's 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom and its actions during the subsequent Rhodesian Bush War.

Smith argues that Rhodesia was repeatedly abandoned by external allies. He primarily blames the British government, singling out Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington, as well as the South African government and certain white Rhodesian politicians who pressured his administration to capitulate.

Smith defends minority rule by asserting that his government intended to gradually transition the black majority into political power to maintain Western constitutional standards. He argues that the rapid handover of power directly caused Zimbabwe's subsequent economic collapse and authoritarian rule under Robert Mugabe.

The memoir also covers his youth in Southern Rhodesia and his time as an RAF fighter pilot during World War II, where he survived being shot down over Italy.

The book remains highly controversial and polarizing. While some sympathizers view it as a prophetic warning regarding Zimbabwe's future, historical reviewers and critics frequently describe it as unrepentant and delusional, noting that it glosses over the fundamental moral and practical unsustainable nature of a rigid white minority regime.