78-07-B2
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Rhodesia[edit]
Transcript[edit]The other day in the mail I received a full page ad from the St. Louis Globe Democrat. It had been taken out by a man who had just returned from his 24th trip to Rhodesia. The ad consisted of photos taken in Rhodesia with identification and explanation printed beneath each one. They were not pleasant to look at and the printed word was even less pleasant to read. There were pictures of Rhodesian citizens -- always black and always dead-- their hands tied behind their backs. They lay sprawled on the ground where they had fallen when Russian made automatic weapons mowed them down. In one photo the innocent victims had been burned alive. There was a hard-to-look-at picture of a village chief. He was still alive. His lips, ears and hands had been cut off. The caption said his wife had been forced to cook and eat them. There was only one picture of a white Rhodesian, a tiny baby girl, the only child of a young farm couple. Her parents were at work in the fields when the guerillas, perpetrators of all these horrors, came to their farm home. The nursemaid, a young black girl, tried desperately to save the baby. She was clubbed to the floor and the baby was then bayoneted a dozen times. These guerillas are the forces of Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe who call themselves and their murderous gangs, "The Patriotic Front". They claim they are fighting for majority rule in Rhodesia and one man, one vote. Since 1972 they have killed an estimated 9,000 of their fellow Rhodesians--mainly blacks. In the meantime three black leaders of more than 85 percent of the black population of Rhodesia have joined with Prime Minister Ian Smith to bring about majority rule based on one-man, one-vote. These four have such support from the people that our Secretary of State on his recent visit to Rhodesia was greeted by large crowds of black Rhodesians bearing signs proclaiming their support of the present plan. But our government says it will not accept the agreed upon interim government of Rhodesia unless it includes Nkomo and Mugabe, And so we continue the ridiculous economic sanctions prescribed by the United Nations, bringing hardship and more guerilla killings to the citizens of Rhodesia, black and white. What makes our governments attitude impossible to understand is that Nkomo and Mugabe still claim they are fighting for majority rule and one-man, one-vote. But the new interim regime has not only proclaimed majority rule and one-man, one-vote, it has invited Nkomo and Mugabe and their guerillas to return to Rhodesia and take part in the elections. There will be total amnesty, no reprisals, release of all political retainees and government help in reuniting the marauders with their families. Nkomo and Mugabe have been asked to participate in forming the new government. They've refused. It boggles the mind to hear our government in the face of all this refusing to accept the interim government because Nkomo and Mugabe cannot have it on their own terms. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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