Paul Kagame

===Ugandan Bush War===
{{Further|Ugandan Bush War}}
[[File:Museveni1987.png|thumb|Kagame served under [[Yoweri Museveni]] (pictured) in the [[Ugandan Bush War]].|alt=Profile picture of Yoweri Museveni during a visit to President Reagan of the United States in 1987]]
In 1978, [[Fred Rwigyema]] returned to western Uganda and reunited with Kagame.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=19}} During his absence, Rwigyema had joined the rebel army of [[Yoweri Museveni]]. Based in [[Tanzania]], it aimed to overthrow the Ugandan government of [[Idi Amin]].{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=19}} Rwigyema returned to Tanzania and fought in [[Uganda–Tanzania War|the 1979 war]] during which Museveni's rebel group, [[Front for National Salvation|FRONASA]], allied with the Tanzanian army and other Ugandan exiles, defeated Amin.{{sfn|State House, Republic of Uganda}} After Amin's defeat Kagame and other Rwandan refugees pledged allegiance to Museveni, who had become a cabinet member in the transition government.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=20}} Kagame received training at the [[United States Army Command and General Staff College]], [[Fort Leavenworth]], [[Kansas]].{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=38–39}}

Former incumbent [[Milton Obote]] won the [[1980 Ugandan general election]]. Museveni disputed the result, and he and his followers withdrew from the new government in protest. In 1981, Museveni formed the rebel [[Popular Resistance Army]] (PRA); Kagame and Rwigyema joined as founding soldiers, along with 38 Ugandans.{{sfn|Associated Press (I)|1981}}{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=39}} The army's goal was to overthrow Obote's government, in what became known as the Ugandan Bush War.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=39}}{{sfn|Nganda|2009}} Kagame took part in the [[Battle of Kabamba]], the PRA's first operation, in February 1981.{{sfn|Kainerugaba|2010|pp=67–68, 76}}

Kagame and Rwigema joined the PRA primarily to ease conditions for Rwandan refugees persecuted by Obote. They also had a long-term goal of returning with other Tutsi refugees to Rwanda; military experience would enable them to fight the Hutu-dominated Rwandan army.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=40}} The PRA merged with another rebel group in June 1981, forming the [[National Resistance Army]] (NRA).{{sfn|Kasozi|1994|pp=164–165}} In the NRA, Kagame specialized in intelligence-gathering, and he rose to a position close to Museveni's.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=44–45}} The NRA, based in the [[Luwero Triangle]], fought the Ugandan army for the next five years, even after Obote was deposed in [[1985 Ugandan coup d'état|a 1985 coup d'état]] and the start of [[Nairobi Agreement, 1985|peace talks]].{{sfn|Library of Congress|2010}}

In 1986, the NRA [[Battle of Kampala|captured Kampala]] with a force of 14,000 soldiers, including 500 Rwandans, and formed a new government.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=47}} After Museveni's inauguration as president he appointed Kagame and Rwigyema as senior officers in the new Ugandan army; Kagame was the head of military intelligence.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=50–51}}{{sfn|Simpson (I)|2000}} In a 2018 paper, Canadian scholar and Rwanda expert [[Gerald Caplan]] described this appointment as a remarkable achievement for a foreigner and a refugee. Caplan noted Museveni's reputation for toughness, and said that Kagame would have had to be similarly tough to earn such a position. He also commented on the nature of military intelligence work, saying "it is surely unrealistic to expect that Kagame refrained from the kind of unsavory activities that military security specializes in."{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=153}} In addition to their army duties, Kagame and Rwigyema began building a covert network of Rwandan Tutsi refugees within the army's ranks, intended as the nucleus for an attack on Rwanda.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=51–52}} In 1989 Rwanda's President [[Juvénal Habyarimana|Habyarimana]] and many Ugandans in the army began to criticise Museveni over his appointment of Rwandan refugees to senior positions,{{sfn|Mamdani|2002|p=175}} and he demoted Kagame and Rwigyema.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=53}}

Kagame and Rwigeema remained ''de facto'' senior officers, but the change caused them to accelerate their plans to invade Rwanda.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=53–54}} They joined an organisation called the [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]] (RPF), a refugee association which had been operating under various names since 1979.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=48–50}} Rwigyema became the RPF leader shortly after joining and, while still working for the Ugandan army, he and Kagame completed their invasion plans.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=54}}