Southern African War (PJW)

The Southern African War was a war that occurred in the nations of Southern Africa during the 1970s. Initially four separate conflicts - the Angolan Civil War, the South African Border War, the Rhodesian Bush War, and the Mozambican Civil War - the entry of the United States military in 1972 defined the start of the larger "Southern African War". The four conflicts converged into a larger scale conflict - on one side was the Western forces of the United States, South Africa, UNITA, and various other pro-western armies; on the other side were the communist forces, consisting of the MPLA, SWAPO, Portugal, ZANU, FRELIMO, and others.

While initially Vietnam was the main focus of the United States, the war in Southern Africa became a major focus of United States foreign policy in the 1970s.