TRIUMPH OR TRAGEDY? RHODESIA TO ZIMBABWE by Miles Hudson

Almost everybody holds strong views about Rhodesia.  Some believe that the whites were despotic and selfish and that in the end they received their just desserts.  Others are convinced that, by duplicity, Britain has effectively ruined what was a prosperous and happy country.  One thing is certain: thousands of people have been killed, there has been much destruction and Zimbabwe now faces great economic, social and tribal problems.

Miles Hudson was in charge of Rhodesian affairs in the Conservative Research Department from 1965 to 1971, political secretary to Sir Alec Douglas-Home at the Foreign Office from 1971 to 1974, and a member of the Boyd Commission in 1979.

He traces the history of Rhodesia from its earliest beginnings right through to the spring of 1981, asking the question at every stage as to whether politicians, of all complexions, could have taken decisions which would have averted the tragedy.  Should the Conservative Government have recognized the Muzorewa regime in 1979?  What happened at the Lancaster House Conference?  Were the 1980 elections 'free and fair'?  What are the prospects for the new Zimbabwe now?

Miles Hudson answers these and many other questions with knowledge based on personal involvement with many of the issues and personalities concerned.

Those who wish to find their own prejudices confirmed in this book will be disappointed.  It is a remarkably objective, but nevertheless gripping, study of the history of a country, beset by racial conflict and, in the later stages, the centre of world interest and much outside interference.  How inevitable has all this been?  It is that question which Miles Hudson tries to answer in this important book.

Hard cover, good condition.  The paper is a bit discolored.  252 pages.