Talk:Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces

	Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Article milestones Date Process Result February 6, 2022 Good article nominee Listed June 3, 2022 WikiProject A-class review Approved October 3, 2023 Featured article candidate Promoted
Current status: Featured article

This article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Zimbabwe Low‑importance Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces is within the scope of WikiProject Zimbabwe, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.ZimbabweWikipedia:WikiProject ZimbabweTemplate:WikiProject ZimbabweZimbabwe articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Zimbabwe open tasks: edit history watch purge Zimbabwe-related tasks You can help! Here are some Zimbabwe related tasks you can do: Requests: Ruwa Scout Park, Central African Jamboree, Bulawayo Asian Civil Rights League, Rhodesia Bantu Voters Association, Nyasaland Chiefs Conference, Nyasaland African National Congress, Monarchy of Rhodesia, more... Stubs: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Econet Wireless, Khame Ruins, Wildlife of Zimbabwe Category:Zimbabwe stubs Category sorting: Verify or Factual Accuracy: Update: NPOV : Citations: Copyedit, Style or Cleanup: Expand: Related Wikiprojects: Wikipedia:WikiProject Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe-related topics notice board - Collaboration Project view • edit • discuss • history • watch Military history: African / Cold War This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles Associated task forces: /  African military history task force Cold War task force (c. 1945 – c. 1989) Additional information: /  This article has passed an A-Class review.

This is start class for the following reasons. Try to add an appropriate image from the Rhodesian conflict, perhaps from this article Rhodesian Security Forces. (This might work: File:Rhodesian Army emblem (republic).png) There does not seem to be an infobox that closely matches the subject matter, so you'll have to skip that. Djmaschek (talk) 02:25, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• B1=yes, B2=yes, B3=yes, B4=yes: The article meets these criteria.
• B5=no: Article currently has no supporting materials such as a picture or infobox.

@Djmaschek: that image is non-free (it dates from 1977), and I don't think that a rationale for it can be justified here. There are photos of reenactors playing at being members of the Rhodesian Light Infantry on Commons, but I'd rather not use them as I have no way of knowing whether they are dressed correctly. Nick-D (talk) 03:32, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Nick-D: I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. Without supporting materials, I cannot assess it as B class. There must be some photo or map that you can use, maybe a weapon or an armored car. Let me know if you find one and I'll revisit this. Djmaschek (talk) 04:55, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See the photo of Ian Smith signing the UDI in the Zimbabwe article. Djmaschek (talk) 04:59, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Djmaschek: I've added the military faction infobox, which seems appropriate. Nick-D (talk) 05:08, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That works for me. B class. Djmaschek (talk) 04:33, 24 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Sorry that this one was more work than average. Nick-D (talk) 08:58, 24 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Cerebellum (talk · contribs) 21:59, 2 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I'll be reviewing this article, could take up to a week. --Cerebellum (talk) 21:59, 2 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• Great, thank you `Nick-D (talk) 09:47, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• Prose: Prose is excellent! Some minor tweaks suggested below, take them or leave them, the article meets the GA standard as is.
• References: Article is well referenced to high-quality sources. Spot checks conducted for sources I could access, no issues identified. My only question is about the sentence in the lead on volunteer motivation.
• Coverage: Yes, does a good job of maintaining global perspective.
• Neutral: Yes.
• Stable: Yes.
• Illustrated: No, but I think it is ok since no free images are available.

• Lead: The most common motivation was opposition to governments led by black people Do any of the sources say this in as many words? From my cursory look at the sources I think the sentence at the beginning of “Volunteers’ motivations” is more accurate, Most foreign volunteers for the Rhodesian Security Forces did so as a result of personal political and ideological beliefs or a desire for adventure, i.e. it was a mix of motivations with racism a component but not necessarily the predominant one.
  • Yes, Luise White states that explicitly - please see the 'motivations' section Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Prose: ex-flechas - Should flechas be capitalized? Looks like it is in our article Flechas.
  • Yep, done Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Prose: In this work I suggest In her 2021 work, I think it is clearer.
  • I think that this is clear in this context? Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Prose: 100 Americans had served I suggest 100 Americans served, don't think "had" adds anything.
  • Done Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Links: American volunteers in the Rhodesian Bush War is not linked until the end of the article, what do you think about linking it earlier on?
  • Good idea - moved up Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Coverage: Do you think it would make sense to mention the crippled Eagles and Robin Moore's "unofficial US embassy" in this article? Or would it slant the article unduly to an American perspective?
  • I think it would, as Britons greatly outnumbered the Americans. I've covered this in the article on the US volunteers. Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Prose: but was unable to enforce this I suggest but was unable to enforce the ban.
  • Done Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
• Images: I couldn't find any free images of foriegn volunteers. I'm not well-versed in fair use rules but maybe you could use this non-free recruiting poster? link.
  • That's a good idea. I'll try to find a version with the source details needed Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Nick-D: Thank you for nominating this article! It was a pleasure to read, you do a good job of demythologizing the topic. I do have a few comments above but they are all minor points, the article meets the criteria as is so I'm going to go ahead and pass as GA. --Cerebellum (talk) 15:39, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Cerebellum: Thank you very much. I've found this an interesting topic to work on. Regards, Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]