WI Mugabe and Nkomo killed during the Rhodesian War

I came across this on BBC's website the other day, on Good Friday 1979, the Rhodesian SAS staged Operation Bastille an attempt to kill Joshua Nkomo in retaliation for his ZAPU forces shooting down two Air Rhodesia airliners and in one case executing the survivors. While they knew where Nkomo was based in Zambia when they arrived they discovered that he wasn't there. In the article and associated radio programme, David Owen admits that the head of Rhodesian Intelligence, Ken Flowers had been working for the British and he had tipped them off about Operation Bastille, warnings that were passed on to Nkomo because the British regarded him and Mugabe as being crucial to a negotiated settlement and wanted to protect them. It is also claimed that Mugabe escaped Rhodesian assasination attempts because of British warnings.

But what if the Rhodesians had succeeded in decapitating both ZANU and ZAPU? Would both organisations have managed to remain unified or could they have split without their dominant figures? Would the internal settlement have stood a greater chance in that scenario?
 

Clipper747

Banned
I came across this on BBC's website the other day, on Good Friday 1979, the Rhodesian SAS staged Operation Bastille an attempt to kill Joshua Nkomo in retaliation for his ZAPU forces shooting down two Air Rhodesia airliners and in one case executing the survivors. While they knew where Nkomo was based in Zambia when they arrived they discovered that he wasn't there. In the article and associated radio programme, David Owen admits that the head of Rhodesian Intelligence, Ken Flowers had been working for the British and he had tipped them off about Operation Bastille, warnings that were passed on to Nkomo because the British regarded him and Mugabe as being crucial to a negotiated settlement and wanted to protect them. It is also claimed that Mugabe escaped Rhodesian assasination attempts because of British warnings.

But what if the Rhodesians had succeeded in decapitating both ZANU and ZAPU? Would both organisations have managed to remain unified or could they have split without their dominant figures? Would the internal settlement have stood a greater chance in that scenario?



Rhodesia may have lasted a few more years. The black leadership of NANU/ZAPU may have fought amongst themselves in the meantime.
 

Cook

Banned
It might have given President Josiah Gumede and Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa’s government a better chance of surviving and actually gaining international recognition.
 
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