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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?
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