Editing Kenneth Kaunda (section)

==Independence struggle and presidency==
[[File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-124-8.jpg|thumb|Kaunda with UNIP supporters after a meeting with [[Iain Macleod]], [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]], in March 1960|left]]
In 1949 Kaunda entered politics and became the founding member of the [[Zambian African National Congress|Northern Rhodesian African National Congress]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Zambia's founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, dies aged 97|first=Chris|last=Mfula|url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/zambia-s-founding-president--kenneth-kaunda--dies-aged-97/46713898|access-date=18 June 2021|date=17 June 2021|website=[[Swissinfo]]|archive-date=19 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619190535/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/zambia-s-founding-president--kenneth-kaunda--dies-aged-97/46713898|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 11 November 1953 he moved to Lusaka to take up the post of Secretary General of the Africa National Congress (ANC), under the presidency of [[Harry Nkumbula]].<ref name=BBCKen /> The combined efforts of Kaunda and Nkumbula failed to mobilise native African peoples against the European-dominated [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]].<ref name="BBCKen" /> In 1955 Kaunda and Nkumbula were imprisoned for two months with hard labour for distributing subversive literature.<ref name="BBCKen" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tischler|first=Julia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enZCvIio6RgC&q=kaunda+imprisoned+1955+nkumbula&pg=PA274|title=Light and Power for a Multiracial Nation: The Kariba Dam Scheme in the Central African Federation|date=8 February 2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9781137268778|language=en |access-date=18 May 2021}}</ref> The two leaders drifted apart as Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by white liberals<ref name="TNYTimes">{{Cite journal|title=Harry Nkumbula Dies; Led African Congress|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/10/obituaries/harry-nkumbula-dies-led-african-congress.html|access-date=18 June 2021|date=10 October 1983|journal=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624214322/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/10/obituaries/harry-nkumbula-dies-led-african-congress.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and failing to defend indigenous Africans, Kaunda led a dissident group to Nkumbula that eventually broke with the ANC and founded his own party, the [[Zambian African National Congress (1958–59)|Zambian African National Congress]] (ZANC) in October 1958.<ref name="BBCKen" /><ref name="TNYTimes" /> ZANC was banned in March 1959 and in Kaunda was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, which he spent first in Lusaka, then in [[Salisbury (Rhodesia)|Salisbury]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kenneth David Kaunda |url=https://biography.yourdictionary.com/kenneth-david-kaunda |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=biography.yourdictionary.com |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518104214/https://biography.yourdictionary.com/kenneth-david-kaunda |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BBCKen" />

While Kaunda was in prison, [[Mainza Chona]] and other [[Nationalism|nationalists]] broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the [[United National Independence Party]] (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, Chona did not see himself as the party's main founder. When Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960 he was elected president of UNIP. In 1960 he visited [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in [[Atlanta]] and afterwards, in July 1961, Kaunda organised a [[civil disobedience]] campaign in Northern Province, the so-called Cha-cha-cha campaign, which consisted largely of arson and obstructing significant roads. Kaunda subsequently ran as a UNIP candidate during the 1962 elections. This resulted in a UNIP–ANC [[Coalition government]], with Kaunda as [[Ministry of Local Government (Zambia)|Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare]]. In January 1964, UNIP won the next major elections, defeating their ANC rivals and securing Kaunda's position as prime minister. On 24 October 1964 he became the first president of an [[Zambia Independence Act 1964|independent Zambia]], appointing [[Reuben Kamanga]] as his vice-president.<ref>{{Cite web |title=10 Things You Didn't Know About Reuben Chitandika Kamanga {{!}} Youth Village Zambia |url=https://youthvillagezm.com/2019/06/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-reuben-chitandika-kamanga/ |access-date=18 May 2021 |language=en-GB |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518125925/https://youthvillagezm.com/2019/06/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-reuben-chitandika-kamanga/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Educational policies===
[[File:Saragat Kaunda 1966.jpg|thumb|Italian president [[Giuseppe Saragat]] and Kenneth Kaunda in 1966]]
At the time of its independence, Zambia's [[Modernization theory|modernisation]] process was far from complete. The nation's educational system was one of the most poorly developed in all of Britain's former colonies, and it had just a hundred university graduates and no more than 6,000 indigenous inhabitants with two years or more of secondary education.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Achola |first1=Paul P. W. |title=Implementing Educational Policies in Zambia |url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/332451468764125887/pdf/multi-page.pdf |publisher=World Bank Discussion: Papers Africa Technical Department Series |access-date=19 June 2021 |page=2 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202218/https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/332451468764125887/pdf/multi-page.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zambia – Education |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Zambia |access-date=15 October 2019 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-date=17 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117034837/https://www.britannica.com/place/Zambia |url-status=live }}</ref> Because of this, Zambia had to invest heavily in education at all levels.<ref>An Introduction to African Politics by Alex Thomson.</ref> Kaunda instituted a policy where all children, irrespective of their parents' ability to pay, were given free exercise books, pens, and pencils. The parents' main responsibility was to buy uniforms, pay a token "school fee" and ensure that the children attended school. This approach meant that the best pupils were promoted to achieve their best results, all the way from primary school to university level. Not every child could go to secondary school, for example, but those who did were well educated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leonard |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mE04D9PMpAC&dq=Kaunda+%22education%22&pg=PA900 |title=Encyclopedia of the Developing World |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-57958-388-0 |page=900 |access-date=18 June 2021 |archive-date=18 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618111331/https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_the_Developing_World/3mE04D9PMpAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Kaunda+%22education%22&pg=PA900&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[University of Zambia]] was opened in Lusaka in 1966, after Zambians all over the country had been encouraged to donate whatever they could afford towards its construction. Kaunda was appointed [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] and officiated at the first graduation ceremony in 1969. The main campus was situated on the Great East Road, while the medical campus was located at Ridgeway near the [[University Teaching Hospital]]. In 1979 another campus was established at the Zambia Institute of Technology in [[Kitwe]]. In 1988 the Kitwe campus was upgraded and renamed the [[Copperbelt University]], offering business studies, industrial studies and environmental studies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.cbu.ac.zm/sbe/about/ |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=School of the Built Environment |language=en-US |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518134707/https://www.cbu.ac.zm/sbe/about/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Other tertiary-level institutions established during Kaunda's era were vocationally focused and fell under the aegis of the Department of Technical Education and Vocational Training.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} They include the [[Evelyn Hone College]] and the Natural Resources Development College (both in Lusaka),{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} the Northern Technical College at Ndola,{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} the Livingstone Trades Training Institute in Livingstone, and teacher-training colleges.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Livingstone Institute of Business and Engineering Studies – Confucius Institute |url=https://www.unza.zm/confucius/livingstone-institute-of-business-and-engineering-studies#:~:text=The%20institute%20was%20established%20in,programmes%20in%20Carpentry%20and%20Bricklaying.&text=LIBES%20is%20one%20of%20the,University%20of%20Zambia%20in%202011. |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=unza.zm |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518134830/https://www.unza.zm/confucius/livingstone-institute-of-business-and-engineering-studies#:~:text=The%20institute%20was%20established%20in,programmes%20in%20Carpentry%20and%20Bricklaying.&text=LIBES%20is%20one%20of%20the,University%20of%20Zambia%20in%202011. |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Economic policies===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F031748-0006, Frankfurt-Main, Kenneth Kaunda bei Hoechst.jpg|thumb|Kaunda in [[Frankfurt]], West Germany, 1970]]
Kaunda's newly independent government inherited a country with one of the most vibrant economies in sub-Saharan Africa, largely on account of its rich mineral deposits,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fundanga |first1=Caleb M |title=Zambia's economic outlook - what have we learnt in the last 40 years and where do we go from here? |url=https://www.bis.org/review/r050203g.pdf |access-date=22 June 2021 |date=7 January 2005 |archive-date=1 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901025422/https://www.bis.org/review/r050203g.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> albeit one that was largely under the control of foreign and multinational interests.<ref>{{cite web |title=Presentation of the Government of Zambia: Action Programme for the Development of Zambia |url=https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aconf191cp9zam.en.pdf |website=UNCTAD |access-date=22 June 2021 |date=6 March 2001 |archive-date=2 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502060612/https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aconf191cp9zam.en.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
For example, the [[British South Africa Company]] (BSAC, founded by [[Cecil Rhodes]]) still retained commercial assets and mineral rights that it had acquired from a [[Concession (contract)|concession]] signed with the [[Litunga]] of Bulozi in 1890. Only by threatening to expropriate it on the eve of independence did Kaunda manage to get favourable concessions from the BSAC.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79842003/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |title=Mineral dispute settled |date=24 October 1984 |page=1 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

His ineptness at economic management blighted his country's development after independence. Despite having some of the finest farming land in Africa, Kaunda adopted the same socialist agricultural policies as Tanzania, with disastrous results.<ref name="Times">{{cite journal|journal=The Times|date=18 June 2021|title=obituary}} {{dead link|date=June 2021}}</ref>

Deciding on a planned economy, Zambia instituted a programme of national development, under the direction of the National Commission for Development Planning, which instituted a "Transitional Development Plan" and the "First National Development Plan". The two operations brought major investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. In April 1968, Kaunda initiated the [[Mulungushi]] Reforms, which sought to bring Zambia's foreign-owned corporations under national control under the Industrial Development Corporation. Over the subsequent years, a number of mining corporations were nationalised, although the country's banks, such as [[Barclays]] and [[Standard Chartered]], remained foreign-owned. The Zambian economy suffered a setback from 1973, when rising oil prices and falling copper prices combined to reduce the state's income from the nationalised mines. The country fell into debt with the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF), and the Third National Development Plan had to be abandoned as crisis management replaced long-term planning. His weak attempts at economic reforms in the 1980s hastened Zambia's decline.<ref name="Times"/> A number of negotiations with the IMF followed, and by 1990 Kaunda was forced into partial privatisation of the state-owned corporations. The country's economic woes ultimately contributed to his fall from power.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Maier |first1=Karl |title=Kaunda Swept From Office In Lopsided Zambian Vote |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/02/kaunda-swept-from-office-in-lopsided-zambian-vote/533a319b-ebdc-47f8-aaf1-e9d26d41f3b0/ |access-date=19 June 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2 November 1991}}</ref><ref name="BritanicaEconomy">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Zambia – Economy |last=Williams |first=Geoffrey J. |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |access-date=19 June 2021 |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Zambia/Religion#ref44125 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202437/https://www.britannica.com/place/Zambia/Religion#ref44125 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===One-party state and "African socialism"===
In 1964, shortly before independence, violence broke out between supporters of the [[Lumpa Church]], led by [[Alice Lenshina]]. Kaunda temporarily banned the church and ordered Lumpa's arrest.<ref>{{cite news |page=1 |date=4 August 1964 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79842686/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |title=15 die in 'holy war' outbreak |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

[[File:Dr Banda and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.jpg|thumb|Malawian president [[Hastings Banda]] meeting with Kaunda]]
From 1964 onwards, Kaunda's government developed authoritarian characteristics. Becoming increasingly intolerant of opposition, Kaunda banned all parties except UNIP following violence during the 1968 elections. However, in early 1972, he faced a new threat in the form of [[Simon Kapwepwe]]'s decision to leave UNIP and found a rival party, the [[United Progressive Party (Zambia)|United Progressive Party]], which Kaunda immediately attempted to suppress.<ref>{{cite journal |page=101 |volume=22 |publisher=Gideon Were Publications |journal=Transafrican Journal of History |year=1993 |jstor=24328639 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328639 |title=The Evolution of One-Party Rule in Zambia, 1964–1972 |last1=Mushingeh |first1=Chiponde |access-date=19 June 2021 |archive-date=23 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623181754/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328639 |url-status=live }}</ref> Next, he appointed the Chona Commission, which was set up under the chairmanship of Mainza Chona in February 1972. Chona's task was to make recommendations for a new Zambian constitution which would effectively reduce the nation to a [[one-party state]]. The commission's terms of reference did not permit it to discuss the possible faults of Kaunda's decision, but instead to concentrate on the practical details of the move to a one-party state.<ref>{{cite journal |page=111 |volume=22 |publisher=Gideon Were Publications |journal=Transafrican Journal of History |year=1993 |jstor=24328639 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328639 |title=The Evolution of One-Party Rule in Zambia, 1964–1972 |last1=Mushingeh |first1=Chiponde |access-date=19 June 2021 |archive-date=23 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623181754/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328639 |url-status=live }}</ref> Finally, Kaunda neutralised Nkumbula by getting him to join UNIP and accept the Choma Declaration on 27 June 1973. The new constitution was formally promulgated on 25 August of that year.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AAKyAAAAIAAJ&q=%2225+August+1973%22 ''The Law and Economic Development in the Third World''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128115808/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AAKyAAAAIAAJ&dq=zambia+one+party+state+25+August+1973&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%2225+August+1973%22 |date=28 November 2018 }}, P. Ebow Bondzi-Simpson
Praeger, 1992, page 25</ref> At the first elections under the new system held that December, Kaunda was the sole candidate.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79841586/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |author=General News Service |title=Zambia faces mounting problems |work=Montreal Gazette |date=18 December 1973}}</ref>

With all opposition having been eliminated, Kaunda allowed the creation of a [[personality cult]]. He developed a left nationalist-socialist ideology, called Zambian Humanism. This was based on a combination of mid-20th-century ideas of central planning/state control and what he considered basic African values: mutual aid, trust, and loyalty to the community. The ideology got critized, because it's seen as similar to [[Fascism|fascism]].<ref>https://phd-dissertations.unizik.edu.ng/onepaper.php?p=779</ref><ref>https://phd-dissertations.unizik.edu.ng/onepaper.php?p=559</ref> a Similar forms of [[African socialism]] were introduced inter alia in Ghana by [[Kwame Nkrumah]] ("Consciencism") and Tanzania by [[Julius Nyerere]] ("[[Ujamaa]]"). To elaborate on his ideology, Kaunda published several books: ''Humanism in Zambia and a Guide to its Implementation, Parts 1, 2 and 3''. Other publications on Zambian Humanism are: ''Fundamentals of Zambian Humanism'', by Timothy Kandeke; ''Zambian Humanism, religion and social morality'', by Rev. Fr. Cleve Dillion-Malone, [[Jesuits|S.J.]], and ''Zambian Humanism: some major spiritual and economic challenges'', by Justin B. Zulu. ''Kaunda on Violence'' (US title, ''The Riddle of Violence'') was published in 1980.<ref>Kaunda, Kenneth D., and Colin Morris. Kaunda on Violence. London: Collins, 1980.</ref>

As president of UNIP, and under the country's one-party state system, Kaunda was the only candidate for president of the republic in the general elections of [[1978 Zambian general election|1978]], [[1983 Zambian general election|1983]], and [[1988 Zambian general election|1988]], each time with official results showing over 80 per cent of voters approving his candidacy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Zambia.htm |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=1 March 2018 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305212655/https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Zambia.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Elections in Zambia |url=https://africanelections.tripod.com/zm.html |website=africanelections.tripod.com |access-date=18 June 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418064451/https://africanelections.tripod.com/zm.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Parliamentary elections were also controlled by Kaunda. In the 1978 UNIP elections, Kaunda amended the party's constitution to bring in rules that invalidated the challengers' nominations: Kapwepwe was told he could not stand because only people who had been members for five years could be nominated to the presidency (he had only rejoined UNIP three years before); Nkumbula and a third contender, businessman Robert Chiluwe, were outmanoeuvred by introducing a new rule that said each candidate needed the signatures of 200 delegates from ''each'' province to back their candidacy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zambia: 1973 and 1978 one-party elections |url=https://www.eisa.org/wep/zam1973election.htm |access-date=18 June 2021 |website=African Democracy Encyclopaedia Project |archive-date=18 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618111323/https://www.eisa.org/wep/zam1973election.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
[[File:Zambia123f.jpg|thumb|left|Kaunda visiting [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] in 1970]]
During his early presidency Kaunda was an outspoken supporter of the [[Internal resistance to apartheid|anti-apartheid]] movement and opposed white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia. Kaunda supported the succession of [[Biafra]] when he recognized it as an independent nation on May 20, 1968.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anglin |first=Douglas |year=1971 |title=Zambia and the Recognition of Biafra |journal= The African Review |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=102–136 |jstor= 45341498 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45341498}}</ref> Although his nationalisation of the [[copper mining]] industry in the late 1960s and the volatility of international copper prices contributed to increased economic problems,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shafer |first=Michael |year=1983 |title=Capturing the Mineral Multinationals: Advantage or Disadvantage? |journal=International Organization |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=93–119 |doi=10.1017/S0020818300004215 |issn=0020-8183 |jstor=2706487|s2cid=154660324 }}</ref> matters were aggravated by his logistical support for the black nationalist movements in [[Ian Smith]]'s [[Rhodesia]], [[South West Africa]], [[People's Republic of Angola|Angola]], and [[People's Republic of Mozambique|Mozambique]]. Kaunda's administration later attempted to serve the role of a mediator between the entrenched white minority and colonial governments and the various guerrilla movements which were aimed at overthrowing these respective administrations. Beginning in the early 1970s, he began permitting the most prominent guerrilla organisations, such as the Rhodesian [[ZANU]] and the [[African National Congress]], to use Zambia as a base for their operations. Former ANC president [[Oliver Tambo]] even spent a significant proportion of his 30-year exile living and working in Zambia.<ref>[http://www.anc.org.za/people/tambo_or.html Oliver Tambo Biography<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051218175948/http://www.anc.org.za/people/tambo_or.html |date=18 December 2005 }}</ref> [[Joshua Nkomo]], leader of [[ZAPU]], also erected military encampments there, as did [[SWAPO]] and its military wing, the [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia]].<ref>[https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=29476&page=archive-read April 27 1976 – an event exiled in history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903121612/https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=29476&page=archive-read |date=3 September 2017 }}, ''[[The Namibian]]'', 27 April 2007</ref>[[File:Cropped white house 78.png|thumb|Kaunda and US president [[Jimmy Carter]] at the [[White House]] in 1978]]In the first twenty years of Kaunda's presidency, he and his advisors sought numerous times to acquire modern weapons from the United States. In a letter written to US president [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1967, Kaunda inquired if the United States would provide him with long-range missile systems.<ref name="AndyDeroche2016" /> This request for modern weapons even included missiles with nuclear warheads.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=DeRoche |first1=Andy |date=18 May 2007 |title=Non-alignment on the Racial Frontier: Zambia and the USA, 1964–68 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682740701284132 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=227–250 |doi=10.1080/14682740701284132 |s2cid=154605351 |access-date=8 March 2023 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308164452/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682740701284132 |url-status=live }}</ref> All of his requests for modern weapons were refused by the United States. In 1980, Kaunda purchased sixteen [[MiG-21]] jets from the [[Soviet Union]], which ultimately provoked a reaction from the United States. Kaunda responded to the United States, stating that after numerous failed attempts to purchase weapons, buying from the Soviets was justified in his duty to protect his citizens and Zambian national security. His attempted purchase of modern American weapons may have been a political tactic to use fear to establish his one-party rule over Zambia.<ref name="AndyDeroche2016">{{Cite journal |last=DeRoche |first=Andy |date=1 November 2016 |title=Asserting African Agency: Kenneth Kaunda and the USA, 1964–1980 |journal=[[Diplomatic History (journal)|Diplomatic History]] |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=975–1001 |doi=10.1093/dh/dhv047}}</ref>

From April 1975, when he visited US president [[Gerald Ford]] at the [[White House]] in Washington, D.C., and delivered a powerful speech calling for the United States to play a more active and constructive role in southern Africa. Until approximately 1984, Kaunda was arguably the key African leader involved in international diplomacy regarding the conflicts in Angola, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and Namibia. He hosted [[Henry Kissinger]]'s 1976 trip to Zambia, got along very well with [[Jimmy Carter]], and worked closely with President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s assistant secretary of state for African affairs, [[Chester Crocker]]. While there were disagreements between Kaunda and US leaders (such as when Zambia purchased Soviet MiG fighters or when he accused two American diplomats of being spies), Kaunda generally enjoyed a positive relationship with the United States during these years.<ref>Andy DeRoche, ''Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa'' London: Bloomsbury, 2016, especially pp.21–196</ref>

On 26 August 1975, Kaunda acted as mediator along with the [[Prime Minister of South Africa]], [[B. J. Vorster]], at the [[Victoria Falls Conference (1975)|Victoria Falls Conference]] to discuss possibilities for an internal settlement in Southern Rhodesia with Ian Smith and the black nationalists.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79841670/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |title=No decision reached in Rhodesia |page=2 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |date=26 August 1975}}</ref> After the [[Lancaster House Agreement]], Kaunda attempted to seek similar majority rule in South West Africa. He met with [[P. W. Botha]] in Botswana in 1982 to debate this proposal, but apparently failed to make a serious impression.<ref name="nyti_SOUT">{{Cite web |title=SOUTH AFRICAN AND ZAMBIAN MEET IN BUSH COUNTRY (Published 1982) |last=Lelyveld |first=Joseph |work=The New York Times |date=1 May 1982 |access-date=19 June 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/01/world/south-african-and-zambian-meet-in-bush-country.html |archive-date=18 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618215143/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/01/world/south-african-and-zambian-meet-in-bush-country.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Kenneth David Kaunda DF-SC-84-01864.jpg|left|thumb|Kaunda arrives in the US for an official visit, 1983]]
Meanwhile, the anti-white minority insurgency conflicts of southern Africa continued to place a huge economic burden on Zambia as white minority governments were the country's main trading partners. In response, Kaunda negotiated the [[TAZARA Railway]] ([[Tanzam]]) linking [[Kapiri Mposhi]] in the Zambian [[Copperbelt]] with Tanzania's port of [[Dar es Salaam]] on the Indian Ocean. Completed in 1975, this was the only route for bulk trade which did not have to transit white-dominated territories. This precarious situation lasted more than 20 years, until the abolition of [[apartheid]] in South Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |title=aptnlibrary.com |url=http://ww5.aptnlibrary.com/ |access-date=15 October 2019 |website=ww5.aptnlibrary.com |archive-date=15 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015142834/http://ww5.aptnlibrary.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

For much of the [[Cold War]], Kaunda was a strong supporter of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]].<ref>See: "Message of President Kenneth D. Kaunda to the International Conference on Non-alignment", in: [[Hans Köchler]], ed., ''The Principles of Non-alignment''. London: Third World Centre, 1983, pp. 12–15. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WlaLuBO-YBMC&dq=%22kenneth+D.+kaunda%22&pg=PA12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508190906/https://books.google.com/books?id=WlaLuBO-YBMC&pg=PA12&dq=%22kenneth+D.+kaunda%22&hl=en|date=8 May 2016}}</ref> He hosted a NAM summit in Lusaka in 1970 and served as the movement's chairman from 1970 to 1973. He maintained a close friendship with [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]'s long-time leader [[Josip Broz Tito]]; he was remembered by many Yugoslav officials for weeping openly over Tito's casket in 1980.  He also visited and welcomed [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]]'s president, [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], in the 1970s. In 1986, the [[University of Belgrade]], Yugoslavia, awarded him an honorary doctorate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=University of Belgrade: Honorary Doctors |url=http://www.bg.ac.rs/csrp/nauka/pocasni_doktori.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503231449/http://www.bg.ac.rs/csrp/nauka/pocasni_doktori.php |archive-date=3 May 2012 |access-date=11 June 2012}}</ref>[[File:Kaunda1986.jpg|thumb|Kaunda in Amsterdam, 1986]]

Kaunda had frequent but cordial differences with US president Ronald Reagan whom he met 1983<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/33083c.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=8 January 2006 |archive-date=21 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321043508/http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/33083c.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and British prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 October 2004 |title=In pictures: 40 years of Zambia |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3945291.stm |access-date=7 May 2010 |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514003944/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3945291.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> mainly over what he saw as a blind eye being turned towards South African apartheid.<ref name="lati_Zamb">{{Cite web |title=Zambian Lectures Briton on Apartheid |agency=Reuters |work=Los Angeles Times |date=25 July 1986 |access-date=19 June 2021 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-25-mn-291-story.html |archive-date=18 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618133923/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-25-mn-291-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He always maintained warm [[China–Zambia relations|relations with the People's Republic of China]] who had provided assistance on many projects in Zambia, including the [[Tazara Railway]].<ref name="iris_Kaun">{{Cite news |title=Kaunda lauds Chinese role as 'force for good' in continent |last=Fitzgerald |first=Mary |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |date=25 August 2008 |access-date=19 June 2021 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/kaunda-lauds-chinese-role-as-force-for-good-in-continent-1.934172 |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518152025/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/kaunda-lauds-chinese-role-as-force-for-good-in-continent-1.934172 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Prior to the first [[Gulf War]], Kaunda cultivated a friendship with Iraqi president [[Saddam Hussein]], whom he claimed to have attempted to dissuade from invading Kuwait.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oklahoman.com/article/1926465/african-statesman-tells-of-saddambrzambian-tried-to-halt-iraqs-kuwait-invasion|title=African statesman tells of Saddam Zambian tried to halt Iraqs Kuwait invasion|date=26 April 2003|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=9 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009123402/https://www.oklahoman.com/article/1926465/african-statesman-tells-of-saddambrzambian-tried-to-halt-iraqs-kuwait-invasion|url-status=live}}</ref> A street in Lusaka was named in Saddam's honour, although the name was later changed when both leaders had left power.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nyambi |first1=Oliver |last2=Mangena |first2=Tendai |last3=Pfukwa |first3=Charles |title=The Postcolonial Condition of Names and Naming Practices in Southern Africa |date=17 August 2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_FckDQAAQBAJ |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=281|isbn=9781443899239 }}</ref>

In August 1989, [[Farzad Bazoft]] was detained in [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]] for alleged espionage. He was accompanied by a British nurse, Daphne Parish, who was also arrested. Bazoft was later tried, convicted, and executed, but Kaunda managed to negotiate for his female companion's release.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-16-mn-268-story.html Iraq Frees Nurse Held for Aiding 'Spy'], Reuters, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 16 July 1990</ref>

Kaunda served as chairman of the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) from 1970 to 1971 and again from 1987 to 1988.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Appiah |first1=Anthony |last2=Gates |first2=Henry Louis |title=Encyclopedia of Africa, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC |year=2010 |publisher=OUP |access-date=18 June 2021 |pages=636 |isbn=978-0-19-533770-9 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111210158/https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC |url-status=live }}</ref>