Besides the usual rape and murder committed by his 'freedom fighters' on women and children, he also ordered the massacre of 30 000 Ndebele people by his North Korean trained Fifth Brigade.
Mugabe and his faction were mainly armed and sponsored by Communist China and North Korea while his opposition faction were supported by the Soviet Union. His rival Nkomo had two civilian passenger aircraft shot down and murdered the survivors including children, after raping the women, then bayoneting them to death.
They were blatantly communist and anti-Western and yet Britain and the US supported them.
Rhodesia was a prosperous country were blacks lived in the highest standards in Africa and had the best schooling and healthcare and a growing black middle class. Blacks, like everyone, could vote but the minimum requirements were high school and property ownership, which were deemed as 'racist' even though the country did not have Apartheid, though they did still have some colonial era laws which were being phased out. Not all whites owned property either.
After South Africa was basically forced by the US to stop supporting Rhodesia, it was impossible for them to continue the war as their oil and supplies from the only friendly border would be cut off.
Rhodesia fought to the end and inflicted massive losses on the terrorists, both within Rhodesia and in their bases in Mozambique and Zambia. Of course the terrorists always claimed their military and training bases were 'refugee camps', so they could get aid from Sweden and other Western countries alongside the weaponry and cash from the communists. Besides almost all the casualties at these bombed and raided bases wearing uniforms and carrying weapons, their documents admitted they were calling them 'refugee camps' to get financial support.
The Rhodesians said to look at the happened in the rest of Africa when handed over to black rule and they argued that the blacks were not ready, that it should be a gradual process of political inclusion of experienced and capable people instead of just handing over the country to Marxist-Leninist armed terrorists would had vowed to kill all whites.
A large percentage of the security forces were also black, who were volunteers instead of conscripts like the whites, asians and coloureds. There were also many international volunteers, particularly veterans from Vietnam who wanted to continue the fight against communists. From the Americans, the Rhodesian troops also started calling the terrorists 'gooks' and began using some American military slang and words.
Ultimately, the Rhodesians were proven right. The country of 'Zimbabwe' is now completely destroyed.
