Ian Douglas Smith

Ian Smith; Ian Douglas Smith, GCLM ID; politician, farmer, and fighter pilot; as Prime Minister, oversaw Rhodesia’s security forces during most of the Bush War; held found the all-white, conservative Rhodesian Front (RF), which called for independence from the United Kingdom without an immediate shift to majority rule; following Zimbabwe’s recognized independence in 1980, he was Leader of the Opposition during Mugabe’s first seven years in power; as Mugabe’s reputation plummeted amid Zimbabwe’s economic ruin, reckoning of Smith and his legacy improved; in 2005 he moved to Cape Town, South Africa for medical reasons, where he died two years later, age 88