The American Career diplomat Henry Kissinger. Image credit Huffington Post

ZIMSEC O Level History Notes: The Struggle for Independence in Colonial Zimbabwe 1900-1980: The Kissinger Proposals

  • Efforts to get a peaceful settlement were necessary after the war were now necessary after 1977
  • Nkomo and Smith had failed to reach a consensus during the internal settlement and a new group of negotiators came to the scene which was led by Henry Kissinger an American Foreign Minister
  • America was drawing lessons from Mozambique, Angola and Vietnam that liberation struggles made nationalists radicals inclined to communism
  • Kissinger wanted to prevent this situation in Zimbabwe by granting majority rule but at the same time protecting minority rights
  • Kissinger and Smith drafted a proposal to this effect
  • At this time Smith was beginning to give up

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