To what extent did 'the decade following UDI...[see] Smith's regime go from strength to strength' (Verrier)?

... To what extent did 'the decade following UDI...[see] Smith's regime go from strength to strength' (Verrier)? The decade following the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in Rhodesia saw Ian Douglas Smith's minority white settler regime reach both its zenith and the initial stages of its collapse. Prior to 1972, the regime was surprisingly successful, in spite of its illegality and the opposition it aroused. For example, it managed to withstand the imposed sanctions and still achieve economic growth. In all, up until 1972, it did seem to quite a great extent as though Smith's regime was going from 'strength to strength'.1 However, despite this, after 1972 Smith's Rhodesian Front met 'the beginning of the end for white power in Rhodesia.'2 Factors such as the collapse of the Portuguese Empire, the more sophisticated incursion tactics embarked upon by the guerrillas, and the gradual withdrawal of vital South African support, led to

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