The chapter analyses how Mujuru became the first black commander of the army in independent Zimbabwe. With assistance from the British army, Mujuru oversaw the integration of a new national army comprising three undefeated forces: ZANLA, ZIPRA and the Rhodesians. While the chapter is about Mujuru’s hand in the creation of a new army, it underscores Britain’s lasting influence on part of its former empire through active assistance in processes of post-colonial state-making such as military integration. The chapter argues that regard for expertise and professionalism, however imperfect, were a hallmark of the army Mujuru attempted to create. Mujuru understood professionalism in a particular way, which is that the independence army was to be an equipped and technically competent one, with a high degree of discipline, education, military training and operational readiness. The chapter explicates the sources of Mujuru’s regard for expertise and professionalism.

The chapter expounds Mujuru’s legacy in the independence army. Mujuru had enormous impact on the value system of the independence army, particularly in his efforts to foster a particular kind of professionalism. However, Mujuru’s time as head of the military coincided with mutinies by and persecution of ZIPRA elements in the army, as well as ZANU PF political violence against ZAPU supporters, in which thousands of civilian lives were lost. The chapter implicates Mujuru in some of these human rights abuses. Nonetheless, the chapter argues that Mujuru’s stances during the Gukurahundi violence were far from straightforward. He protected some ZIPRAs for their expertise and professionalism and because of personal and ethnic considerations. Mujuru did not subscribe to the fanatical politics of the time. Lastly, the chapter maintains that Mujuru supported Zimbabwe’s 1980s military intervention in Mozambique, in support of the FRELIMO government’s war against a domestic rebel movement, because of solidarity ties forged in the 1970s.

This chapter examines the effects of World War II and its aftermath on the Truman administration’s civil rights actions. In conjunction with broader political pressures and electoral incentives, the chapter points to Truman’s belief in the republican virtues of military service as a variable that can mediate between his personal racism and relatively more extensive civil rights program. It then shows how civil rights advocates—particularly by highlighting incidences of violence against returning black veterans in the immediate postwar period— convinced Truman to issue an executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The chapter then discusses his executive order calling for equality of opportunity and treatment in the armed forces, issued after congressional inaction on his civil rights committee’s proposals, which eventually led to the desegregation of the U.S. military. This was not without its challenges, however, particularly from the Army, which frequently pushed back against the committee tasked with implementing the order.