TANZANIA: Nyerere's Appeal for Help

• Share

(3 of 3)

If the Anglo-American effort is resumed, Nyerere cautioned, the U.S. and Britain must not underestimate the wiliness of the Rhodesian Prime Minister. Said Nyerere: "Everyone who has assumed that Smith is a fool, Smith has taken in. [Prime Minister Harold] Wilson tried to be clever with Smith, and he failed. [Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger tried to be clever with Smith, and he failed too. Don't try to be clever with Smith. Deal with him on the ground he has chosen: power. Gather power and overthrow him." Then, as the warm winds ruffled the coconut palms at his ocean-front home near Dar es Salaam, Nyerere raised a grim alternative. "Otherwise." he said, "we are left only with the fighting. We will back the nationalists and fight to the end. We have no choice."