South Africa at war: White power and the crisis in southern Africa

In South Africa at War, the first carefully documented survey and analysis of the policies and actions of the government of South Africa under P.W. Botha, Richard Leonard shows that the enduring effect of the attempt to preserve apartheid has been to increase the militarization of the country. He traces the travail of the African National Congress and shows that black resistance to apartheid has gone from peaceful protest to militant confrontation. He documents South African military and financial involvement in the conflicts in Namibia, Angola, and Zimbabwe and evaluates the societal stresses induced by the need to maintain and expand the armed forces. There is a searching presentation of the "propaganda war" undertaken by the government in an effort to influence attitudes toward South Africa and an analysis of the "total strategy" that guides the Botha government in the coordination and implementation of its policies.