For their part , the Rhodesian and South African defence establishments used Using RENAMO as a proxy to undermine FRELIMO support for militant nationalist organisations in their own countries .

During the Rhodesian Bush War two rival nationalist parties , Robert Mugabe 's Zimbabwe African National Union ( ZANU ) and Joshua Nkomo 's Zimbabwe African People 's Union ( ZAPU ) , had emerged Coming_to_be to challenge Rhodesia 's predominantly white government .

The Rhodesian Bush War—also called Name_conferral the Second Chimurenga and the Zimbabwe War of Liberation—was a civil conflict Hostile_encounter from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia ( later Zimbabwe-Rhodesia ) .

The conflict Hostile_encounter pitted Hostile_encounter three forces against one another : the Rhodesian government , led by Ian Smith ( later the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa ) ; the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army , the military wing of Robert Mugabe 's Zimbabwe African National Union ; and the Zimbabwe People 's Revolutionary Army of Joshua Nkomo 's Zimbabwe African People 's Union .

Its dramatic last stand , sometimes called `` Wilson 's Last Stand '' , achieved Achieve a prominent place in the British public imagination and , subsequently , in Rhodesian history , similarly to events such as the Battle of The Little Bighorn in the United States , the Battle of Shiroyama in Japan , the Battle of the Alamo in Texas , and the Greeks ' last stand at Thermopylae .