Imagining total onslaught: South African military threat scenarios and doctrinal change, 1953–1975

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Apartheid-era South African military (SADF) underwent dramatic peacetime changes, from a small and underfunded expeditionary element of Commonwealth forces in the 1950s to a regime bulwark with regional capabilities under ‘Total Strategy’ in the mid-1970s. By comparing internal assessments, changes in the SADF’s official view of future wars are traced through security crises of the 1960s and 1970s. Shifting future war perceptions were shaped by the interplay of organizational-political needs during crises of legitimacy for the military. These shifts in future war perception motivated strategic and operational-tactical doctrinal change and shaped the military’s view of security crises.