TPDF History - 1964-1969 - Formation
The Tanzania Peoples Defense Force has gone through three distinct phases since its inception. The first phase from 1964 to 1969 was a formative period which laid the foundation for the national army. During this period, emphasis was on recruitment, training, and building the administrative infrastructure of the TPDF. The army was politicized and became highly integrated with the society.
For the first few years of its esistence the TPDF was little more than a token force — the army was even smaller than the 2,000-man force that had been the Tanganyika Rifles, the air force was a miniscule group of airmen without any combat capability, and the navy had not vet been formed. As commander in chief of the TPDF the president had ultimate authority for the organization. administration, and operation of the forces. President Nyerere, who had led his country since independence in 1961 and was re-elected in 1975, generally relied on subordinates in his government for the day-to-day management of the armed forces, not because he had been uninterested in military affairs, but because his philosophy of government had been basically non-military. If conditions had permitted, he probably would have preferred to dispense completely with armed forces after the mutiny of 1964, but reality dictated the need for souse kind of defense so the TPDF was created.
In statements made during the recruitment and training of the soldiers who would replace the mutineers, Nyerere outlined his ideas on what the new armed forces should and should not be. He was adamant in his belief that the forces must be integrated into the party and the state. They must not he allowed to become an elite force that could be a threat to the government instead of its protector. In Nyerere's view the army would, in effect, be an arm of the party.
Such a concept would probably have been almost impossible to achieve in the pre-mutiny army because of its colonial background and British orientation, but creating a force almost from scratch gave Nyerere the opportunity to introduce his own ideas and to ensure that those ideas were implemented. The new TPDF became a politico-military force whose officers and noncommissioned officers were forced to be political activists. Overall control of the military, however, was firmly held by civilians.
The major supervisory body for defense matters was a high-powered committee chaired by the president and included in its membership both vice presidents (later the single vice president, the minister for defense and national service, the commander of the TPDF and his chief of staff, and the chiefs of political education for the TPDF from the mainland and from Zanzibar. Sub-committees existed to implement party directives in the armed force's.
Routine management of the forces was a responsibility of the Defense Forces Committee established by the National Defense Act of 1966. Subject to the approval of the president, this committee supervised administration and logistics. As originally constituted, the committee was chaired by the second vice president who at that time also held the defense portfolio. later, when the second vice-presidency was abolished and the Ministry of Defense and National Service established, the Defense Forces Committee was chaired by its minister. Other members included the commander of the TPDF. the secretary of the Department of National Defense, and the chief of military personnel.
At the time of the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar defense affairs were the responsibility of the Minister for internal affairs and defense, then Kambona. About a month after the union the defense portfolio was separated from internal affairs and made a responsibility of the second vice president, Rashidi M. Kawawa.
One important member of the military hierarchy was the individual charged with overseeing the political educat out and activities of the troops. In November 1964 President Nyerere created the position of political commissar of the TPDF to ensure that a high-ranking party member would have an official position in the top level of the armed forces. Nyerere chose Selemato J Kitunda, a civilian who was then Coast Regional Commissioner, to be the first commissar of the forces and gave him the rank of colonel. For lower levels the president decreed that company commanders would henceforth he chairmen of the elected party committees that each company would have. As company political leader the commander would he held responsible for the political education and indoctrination of the troops. Nyerere expressed the hope that an army actively participating in the building of a new nation would be unlikely to repeat the mutiny.
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