International records / Foreign Relations of the United States

284. Paper Prepared in the Department of State

. If Smith were to agree to leave office, turning the government over to a genuine impartial British administration supported by an external force, and if both Sithole and Muzorewa agreed to the settlement and to participation in it, and finally, if Nigeria and the Front Line could be brought to support such a settlement as they earlier promised to do, Nkomo would be faced with either participating in it or being frozen out. Under these circumstances it is quite possible that he would go along. This is the strategy which the US–UK initiative had been following. (4) Smith ’s Intransigence. In r…