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"Smith became a pariah in the eyes of much of the world's press during the 1970s"[edit]
...as well as many millions of people worldwide. It also seems a bit of a cop out to assign his unpopularity to the media. This is an interesting topic though - at one stage I was planning a Military service of Gough Whitlam article about the former Australian PM's experiences in World War II. Nick-D (talk) 01:54, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I was going with what the source said, but you're right. Have changed to "Smith became a pariah in the eyes of much of the world during the 1970s". Thanks and keep well now! —Cliftonian(talk) 03:26, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I do not believe this article is currently up to Featured Article standards (or ever really was, for that matter):
The entire part about his war service is cited only to a 1978 biography and occasionally his own memoirs.
There appears to be an open question of whether Smith's war injuries lead him to be given a glass eye. The quotes from The Times obituary cited here seem to suggest he kept his original eye but it was damaged. The Guardian obituary says it was actually replaced with a glass prosthetic (I've seen other obits suggest this as well). This white Rhodesia apologist website adamantly rejects that he had a glass eye, a garbage source but it at least acknowledges the discrepancy. Something should be done to account for this.
There are problems of SYNTH and original research/editorialism creeping into the text. Some months back I had to remove some awfully pro-Rhodesia text that was not directly supported by the source, and this makes me worried that the more sources we check the more problems we will find.
The following [Smith's scarred face] was often commented on by observers, and when Smith died in 2007, it was prominent in many of his obituaries is sourced to two obituaries. We would need a secondary or tertiary source to support the claim that the facial differences were "often commented on by observers", and two obituaries is not evidence of this being present in "many" obits.
This article claims Smith...was strongly influenced as premier by his wartime experiences. The source, the Telegraph obituary, actually says "His war experiences left an indelible impression on Smith, and the fact that Rhodesia had done more than any other colony to help the mother country would become central to his sense of betrayal by post-war British governments." That's not exactly the same thing, and the vague claim that "Rhodesia had done more than any other colony to help the mother country" seems entirely dubious without some direct qualification, for that matter.
Southern Rhodesia's military contributions during the two World Wars, the Malayan Emergency and other conflicts, combined with memories of his own travails for Britain with the Royal Air Force—"undoubtedly the central experience of his life", R. W. Johnson wrote, caused Smith to feel profoundly betrayed when the British government proved one of his main adversaries as Prime Minister. This is sourced to the Daily Telegraph obit, and while it does mention his war service helping instill a later sense of betrayal, it says nothing of the other wars and does not include the Johnson quote, which appears to come from a Times obit. I can't access the whole thing, so I'm unable to tell how much of this statement is actually supported by Johnson's article aside from the direct quote.
I've sourced and moved the Johnson quote and axed the talk of the Malay Emergency et. al. -Indy beetle (talk) 00:20, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Martin Francis' book on the image of RAF fighter pilots is cited here, but curiously its criticism of the association of Smith with the WWII anti-Nazi fight (in his mind it opens a question of hypocrisy) is absent. IT appears to have been cherrypicked to mention how some Brits and many white Rhodesians admired Smith's WWII career.
I wish there was more up to date scholarship on Smith's early life, but that seems to be lacking. At the same time, I don't know if a biography of Smith written during the waning days of white Rhodesia should really be used as the foundation for an FA.
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