Customer Reviews

From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980

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The preceding reviews show the depth of the divide between truth and fiction. History and propaganda, right and left without regard in every instance to the lives which have been affected by the actions on both sides. Personally this book is a jewel if for no other reason, than the author makes the reader privy to thoughts, ideals and a perspective which is not fomented in fear, slanted by political ideology or in defense of racial or nationalistic purview. Unfortunately the only acceptable word or view of Mugabe and Zimbabwe seems to be the one which paints a picture of him as an unquestioned despot, driven by a maniacal urge to defy authority, and yet those who unequivocally support this position rarely bother to give so much as a cursory glance at the facts as they pertain to equal rights or equal treatment. There are more than enough right/west slanted books on Africa and Mugabe to fill a thousand libraries yet and still it bothers them to no end when a coherently crafted work such as this dares to challenge their childish world view. Mr. Horne's work is a well-balanced alternative to the mountain of biased writings which are out there.

Poorly researched, opinionated drivel that is liberally spiced with half-truths and falsehoods. The book is a disappointment to anyone having real knowledge of the subject matter.

This book basically is a condemnation of the European (White) people, specifically the Rhodesian and the white minority government which was led by Ian Smith, Rhodesia's prime minister.
The author's book looks in another direction when he describes the so-called "liberation" fighters of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, giving the reader the view that they were somehow anything but the murderous butchers that they were/are.
The author leaves out the reality of just what has become of this once prosperous part of Africa (Rhodesia), once called the "breadbasket of Africa", now the disorganized, corrupt and starving black despot ruled nation of Zimbabwe, where sickness,starvation and death hangs over each and everyone of it's black citizens.
I lived in Rhodesia (1975) and saw for myself how the black Africans were treated. They were coming into Rhodesia,from all over southern Africa to work and live a rather good life under the white minority in charge of running the government.
While in Rhodesia I met a number of black Rhodesians who were quite prosperous and who had made quite a large amount of money , of course Mr.Horne makes little or no reference to the bulgenoning black middle class, which existed in Rhodesia, rather he harranges about mostly make believe "abuses" that needed to be addressed.
by guerrilla warfare and terrorism.
The author writes a very shallow and limited accont about the thousands of foreign volunteers, mostly ex-military, who came to Rhodesia, to fight the communist terrorist insurgency.
He does mention me by my full name and what he states in this book,relating to me, is factual, however he leaves an awful lot out with regarads to the foreign volunteer issue and there is no doubt in my mind that he should have researched this a lot more then he had.
I spoke with Mr.Horne, shortly after this book came out and he was somewhat surprised to hear from me, seeing as he wrote about me in his book.
I informed him that after my Rhodesian adventure, I had gone on to other parts of Africa, where I took part in an attempt to overthrow the military ruler of Togo (General Gnassingbe Eyadema), in 1977 and later on in 1979, I was captured in the Republic of Panama, attempting to overthrow the late Brigadier General Omar Torrijos and of my botched attempt in trying to assassinate his military intelligence chief Manuel Noriega (see "Panama-Echoes From A Revolution", Author House (2007).
I followed up my telephone call to the author, with an offer to give him a detailed account of many foreign volunteers, to include photos, etc. however Mr. Horne never contacted me about any of this.

I bought the book because I wanted to know more about the implications and decisions made in the USA that would influence that 'other war against communism in the 1970s', in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe . I was very dissaponted by the book, since it so utterly racist (towards the whites in Rhodesia) that I cannot take anything for granted that is written down.

Mr Home should try to write history as a historian, namely with prejudice and retrospection. If he wants to write with retrospect, I suggest he introduces a chapter about Zimbabwe after the war, in which he should talk about the tyranny and cruelty of Mugabe and his cronies. Seen in that light, Rhodesia wasn't so bad.

While the book itself is a sort of twisted history and reverse racism, it was very informative and helpful in my study of Rhodesia. You'll find a lot of good information here if you can forgive the Marxist slant to everything. It is worth reading but not stopping with. There are two sides to this story. This is one of them.

I bought this book, hoping to gain further insight to the war in Rhodesia.
Instead, what I got was leftist drivel that reads more like a harangue than a well thought out argument.
It's very poorly researched, and I can state that because I personally know some of the people that Gerald Horne is writing about.
I'm really surprised that Mr. Horne hasn't been sued by some of the people he so casually libels.

This book detailing the liberation struggle has an unusual structure. It starts off with a chapter "Toward Zimbabwe," which raises three of Horne's themes in this book: racism, anti-communism, and the problem of "whiteness." It is often repetitive and padded and is the least interesting chapter in this book. The next chapter looks at the links between the Rhodesian government and its supporters in the United States. The third chapter looks at the ideological support of the white minority regime, concentrating on missionaries, anti-communist supporters and sexual violence. The fourth actually offers a summary of American diplomacy towards Rhodesia from the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 to Zimbabwe's independence. The fifth looks at business relations with the white minority regime. The sixth looks at the mercenary scum that came mostly from the United States to ravage Rhodesia and the indulgence they received from the American government. The seventh looks at links between African-Americans and the liberation struggle. The conclusion looks at modern Zimbabwe and the often pernicious effect Rhodesian mercenaries have had, mostly on South Africa.

Horne, of course, is thoroughly in favour of the liberation struggle and is properly angry towards those who obstructed and delayed independence. Yet this is a mixed book. One point to start off with is that Horne is affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America. Even by the standards of world communist party leaderships, the American party is notorious for its dogmatic, simple-minded, philistine and uncritical attitude. Many intelligent and thoughtful people have joined the American Communist Party and the vast majority have left (or been expelled from) it in disgust at its dishonesty. Horne, a rather prolific scholar, is one of the very, very few who remain.

What makes this issue important is that Horne is less than frank on a number of important issues. The CPUSA, of course, supported the Soviet Union and they, in turn, supported the ZAPU movement headed by Joseph Nkomo. By contrast the first elections were won by ZANU, led by Robert Mugabe, which had support from China and Tanzania. On the one hand Horne writes that ZAPU was more authentically non-tribalist, in contrast to ZANU, which was also affected by African-American middle class nationalist ideas. (There is little research provided about Zimbabwean politics which would allow the reader to decide the issue one way or another). On the other hand, Horne writes sympathetically of Mugabe's government, and certainly does not provide a refutation of those, like R.W.Johnson, who have vociferiously criticized it for its authoritarianism and violence. There is also a passage in which Horne writes about possibility of homosexuality among Rhodesian mercenaries. The passage has a disingenous quality and certainly does not go far enough to castigate Mugabe's demagogic homophobia and massive failure in confronting the AIDS Crisis (In a footnote, Horne writes of Zimbabwean support for a book which suggests that AIDS is the result of a South African germ warfare program, without clearly stating that such views are nonsense.)

Having said that the book has some virtues. Too much is made perhaps of the letter writers to prominent Southern senators, but their racist, anti-communist, and occasionally anti-semitic tone has a certain rebarbative quality. Surprisingly little is written about Kissinger's transition to a pseduo-majority rule, though the Nixon administration has tried to keep its records as obscure as possible. There are plently of amusing information about the supporters of the repulsive Salisbury regime, as prominent William F. Buckley, Milton Friedman, Robert Dornan and Jesse Helms mix shoulders with racists, the John Birch Society and the Liberty Lobby, while Richard Burton and Percy Sledge make idiots of themselves as tourists. It is rather horrifying to learn that Bayard Rustin, one of the heroes of the civil rights struggle, pacifist and homosexual, was so poisoned by anti-communist hatred that he gave his moral support to the farcical 1979 elections in which Smith tried to buck up his regime with a few pathetic Black puppets. It is alarming to think that so many American senators were willing to give this regime the benefit of the doubt, and that it took Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher and Churchill's son in law to point out basic reality. While the chapters on business and mercenaries would undoubtedly have benefited from more systematic research (as Horne himself admits) there is much information about sanctions busting and the pathology of mercenary life. Horne is not able to provide much more than insinuations over whether the American government supported these mercenaries, but they were important, they did prolong the war, and it was alarmingly easy for the scum of the earth to cross the Atlantic. Considering that it was the official view of the United Nations and the United States that Rhodesia will still a part of the United Kingdom and the Salisbury regime in illegal rebellion against it, the government did give these people a surprisingly easy time (certainly more so than those who protested the Vietnam war and went into exile so as not to serve in it). Not a bad portait of a qualid episode of seventies diplomacy, but not good enough.

Gerald Horne shows clearly how the U.S.A. encouraged the White Population to defy international law and set up Rhodesia. It show the tragic role American mercenaries played in maintaining this state.

Gerald Horner provides an excellent account of the realities of the fight for liberation in Zimbabwe. The author takes a unique course to make his arguement, but in the end is very effective.
The revelation of the extent of the US's involvement in the war, as an extention of white supremist aspirations under the guise of fighting 'communism'. The book will provide a good basis for understanding the present circumstances in Zimbabwe.