"On 11 November 1965 the British colony of Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared it independence. Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith made this declaration fully confident that his Rhodesian Front Party could maintain power indefinitely for the white minority group it represented. Only fifteen years later on 18 April 1980, Zimbabwe emerged as an independent country under majority rule with international recognition. Mr. Smith's major adversary, Robert Mbellarmine Mugabe, became the new prime minister of this fledgeling state. During the intervening years a relentless war had been waged. The two black nationalist armies, ZANLA and ZPRA, gained ascendency over the smaller by technically superior armed forces of Rhodesia. This bitter struggle can be seen as a classic model of insurgent versus counter-insurgent strategies. The final outcome permanently altered the balance of power in the sub-continent of Southern Africa. This general study is an interpretative analysis of the counter-insurgency strategy during the eight crucial years of the war, 1972 to 1979. Since 1981 a small number of books have been published on certain aspects of the war ... Considering the scope of the conflict, comparatively little that is available to the public has been written on the war itself ... Chapter 1 provides a resume of events over the period 1890 to 1979 with an emphasis on the intensified confrontation from 1972 to 1979. This is a central chapter for evaluating and co-ordinating aspects of the struggle discussed in subsequent chapters. Each of the following eight chapters is concerned with specific organisations or counter-insurgency strategies which had direct bearing on the development of the conflict"--Introduction.