Getting Ready for War

While much of black Africa welcomed Henry Kissinger's forthright declarations of support during his visit to the continent, there were increasing signs last week that the Secretary's denunciations of Ian Smith's white minority regime in Rhodesia had merely stiffened its resolve to settle the issue of majority rule on the battlefield. Said one Western diplomat in Nairobi of Kissinger's ten-point program to pressure Smith into resolving the crisis: "Had it come six months earlier, it might have saved the day in southern Africa. But Kissinger is far too late. He calls for negotiations when that stage has been passed and confrontation is already the order of the day."

To meet the growing guerrilla threat from black nationalists operating from across the Mozambique border, the Smith government has implemented domestic press censorship, announced the biggest military mobilization since the breakaway from Britain in 1965, and begun talking of an "offensive" strategy that suggests the possibility not only of civil war at home but also of air strikes against Mozambique. Said Lieut. General Peter Walls, Smith's army commander: "We are switching from contain-and-hold to search-and-destroy, and adopting hot pursuit when necessary." It was the Rhodesian bombing of a Mozambique village in February that led to the closing of the Mozambique border with Rhodesia and what President Samora Machel at the time called a "state of war."

Under the mobilization order, 20,000 reserves are now liable to call-up for indefinite periods of active duty. Before, reserves had been subject to three or four call-ups a year, for a total of about four months. But now, said a Rhodesian official, "they'll stay in until they are stood down. It could be up to ten years." Salisbury also extended the draft from twelve to 18 months for all whites in the 18-to-25 age group. Since most jobs of any importance are held by whites, the mobilization will put further strains on the Rhodesian economy and add to the balance of payments deficit, which reached $220 million last year--the worst since 1965.

The measures will mean more hardship for Rhodesia's blacks as well. Salisbury recently forced 2,000 Africans to move from their tribal homes in the southeastern border area near the scene of a brazen Easter Sunday attack by guerrillas, who killed three South African tourists and derailed a freight train. Hundreds of other blacks have been awakened in the middle of the night by security police to be questioned or hauled off to detention.

Political Winds. Back home from his two-week African tour, Kissinger found the Senate Foreign Relations Committee enthusiastic about his new African policy but skeptical of the Administration's ability to make good on all his pledges--particularly the Secretary's call for repeal of the Byrd amendment, which allows U.S. imports of Rhodesian chrome in violation of U.N. sanctions. When pressed on the chrome issue, Kissinger did not seem to respond very forcefully, reinforcing some Senators' fears that the matter may simply be shelved to avoid its becoming a possibly contentious campaign issue. New York's Senator Jacob Javits urged Kissinger to tell Ford "to stick to his guns on Africa and not be distracted by political winds." But at the moment, the Administration has no timetable for seeking Byrd amendment repeal.

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