JCH 2009 Volume 34 Issue 1

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Browsing JCH 2009 Volume 34 Issue 1 by Subject "Border War"

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    Cross-border operations of the SAAF in Angola: 1987-1989. Prelude to the final stages of the war
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2009) Barnard, Leo
    Abstract not available
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    Die Suid-Afrikaanse lugmag se finale onttrekking uit die teater van Suid-Angola en Noord-Namibië - die einde van 'n era
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2009) Barnard, Leo
    The physical presence of the SAAF in the Border War in Namibia was presumed to take place in relative peacefulness during Operation Agree. The unexpected invasion of SWAPO cadres on 1 April 1989 (the Nine Days’ War) changed the military scene radically and caused the SAAF to find itself once more in the midst of serious hostilities. After the hostilities had been ended the last task of the SAAF was to withdraw graciously from a war zone that had been the home of thousands of air force men for 23 years.
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    Die Suid-Afrikaanse lugmag se optrede in die teaters van Noord-Namibië en Suid-Angola 1983-1985: 'n historiese verkenning
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2009) Barnard, Leo
    In comparison with the preceding years the period from 1983 to 1985 was, as far as the action of the SAAF in the Border War was concerned, relatively quiet. The few big operations in the north of Namibia, as well as cross-border operations in the south of Angola, are analysed in detail. After Operation Askari a period of relative peace followed as the Monitering Commission was established. The action of the SAAF during Operations Boswilger, Egert and Welmesh brought an end to this. The hostilities built up to such an extent that the end of this period can be seen as the lull before the storm.
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    Mededingende politieke paradigmas oor die Grensoorlog 1966-1989
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2009) Venter, Albert
    In this essay the author identifies five political paradigms with which the Border War was analysed, criticised, attacked and/or legitimised. Making explicit use of the insights of Thomas Kuhn, the following paradigms were selected the total onslaught, the liberal opposition analysis, the struggle critique, the technicist analyses and lastly the radical critique. The essay concludes that all the paradigms had a more or less underlying political agenda. The total onslaught legitimised the border conflict on Cold War grounds as a struggle against world communist domination. Its main anomaly was the apartheid state that it could not defend. The liberal critique showed the anomalies of the apartheid paradigm but could not convince the white electorate of its merits. The struggle paradigm defends the armed struggle on moral grounds, but could not escape the anomalies of its Soviet and Marxist backers. The technicists, while critical of apartheid, maintained their defence on mainly Western Cold War terms. The anomaly here was that it had to ignore or dampen down the apartheid background to the war. The radical analysts, while maintaining a sophisticated social science critique, could not escape their underlying political goal that the apartheid regime was illegitimate and had to go. While some of the paradigms have been discredited, such as apartheid total onslaught, the understanding of the Border War in moral terms is still controversial and sustains the problematic of contending paradigms that paradigms tend to be mutually incomprehensible. The essay also highlights the seriousness of contending intellectual constructs that academic paradigms can also, and indeed often do, legitimise violence and warfare. They are not simply scholarly games.