MacCaulay
Banned
Just a quick note on the Biafran war. South Africa did send military advisors to Biafra at the behest of a number of black African states. This was more to do with Vorster's policy of looking for African allies than anything else. The Rhodesians were also indirectly involved through Jack Malloch and his notorious Air Trans Africa. I struggle to find any real benefit for these countries getting involved in Biafra other than trying to make political friends. Biafra wasn't the issue, rather the countries that supported them. At the same time, the Federal Nigerian government was also fiercely anti-SA and anti-Rhodesia.
I think that's what it boils down to. When it came down to who Rhodesia and South Africa fought, it really seemed that they were very cognizant of fighting both for what they considered "their homes" and of the proxy aspect of it.
I remember that when I first started looking into the Bush War and Border War, I went into it thinking "oh, all those Rhodesians are a bunch of racists and they just picked up a bunch of guns because they wanted to kill black people", like it was a country of Klansmen or something.
And the more I read on it, the more I'm starting to think that while there's definitely this racial aspect to it (and a rather large one at that), to say that the white Rhodesians weren't almost rabidly anti-Communist might be a big stretch.
The more I look into the society of that country, the more it reminds me of some places in America; Appalachia, perhaps. It's hard to define how I can understand it, but I think I do. Understanding isn't validation, but I think I understand it.