SENATE LIFTS BAN ON AID TO ANGOLA REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200720014-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: June 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
K Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: Cl
ARTICLE A?' EARED
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12 June 1985
banLuiuaiu
Senate lifts
ment refuses to withdraw from
Namibia until Cuban troops are
to withdrawn from Angola, repeal of
ngola the Clark amendment would set
A
back the prolonged negotiations for
the independence of Namibia," Mr
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Senate yesterday repealed
the so-called Clark amendment,
which bars U.S. military aid to resis-
tance forces seeking to overthrow
the communist government in the
southern Africa nation of Angola.
The vote was 63 to 34, and the
winning margin included several
Democrats.
The vote gave a psychological lift
to the Reagan administration, which
is working to restore aid to similar
resistance forces in Nicaragua.
On a motion by Sen. Steven
Symms of Idaho, a Republican, the
Senate attached the repeal to the
State Department authorization bill.
The bill was then adopted, 80 to 17.
The Clark amendment is called
that because it was offered by for-
mer Sen. Dick Clark of Iowa, a
Democrat. It stopped covert U.S.
assistance to the guerrillas fighting
the Cuban-backed Marxist govern-
ment in Angola - the guerrillas
were on the verge of victory.
President Reagan urged repeal of
the Clark. amendment in his 1980
campaign, when he said it was one
of his principal foreign policy objec-
tives. The Senate did, in fact, repeal
the amendment in 1981, but the
House did not and the issue was
mooted.
The House has passed its version
of the State Department
authorization bill, and, as in 1981,
differences between the two mea-
sures must be resolved by a House-
Senate conference committee. In the
present congressional atmosphere
- with an uneasy House consider-
ing changing its mind on Nicara-
guan resistance relief - the fate of
the Clark amendment repeal was not
at all certain.
During the 1981 debate, Mr. Rea-
gan said that repealing the Clark
amendment was one way short of a
direct military confrontation for the
United States to deal with the threat
in Cuba.
The Clark amendment specifi-
cally cut off the covert military
assistance that the United States had
been providing to forces fighting the
communists for control of Angola
when the Portuguese colonials with-
drew The amendment prohibited
further U.S. military action in the
African nation.
The Symms amendment was
adopted yesterday with almost no
debate, and on the eve of a House
vote on reconsidering its earlier sus-
pension of aid to the resistance
forces, or Contras, in Nicaragua.
Repealing the Clark amendment,
Mr. Symms said, "will send a clear
signal to the Soviets, to the Cubans
(whose troops are stationed in
Angolal that the United States can
and will recognize democratic
forces who are seeking to overthrow
the yoke of communist tyranny."
Sen. Jeremiah Denton, R-Ala.,
said the amendment should be
repealed as part of a "coherent
policy" to defend against communist
encroachment in southern Africa,
where he said the United States has
important strategic and economic
interests.
But Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode
Island, a Democrat, said repeal of
the prohibition "would lead the
Angolan government and the inter-
national community to conclude that
the United States intends to provide
aid to UNITA," which he described
as "the South African-supported
insurgent movement fighting for
control of Angola."
Mr. Pell said he does not believe
the threat of U.S. aid would compel
the Angolan government to reach an
accommodation with UNITA.
"It would however, increase Luan-
da's dependence on the Soviet Union
and Cuba and pave the way for the
introduction of more Cuban troops
into Angola," he said.
"Since the South African govern-
The Afghani
stan resista
nce is
thought to have
received fr
om the
United States o
ver the last
several
years about
50 mil ion,
mostly
administered
t e CIA to a fo
r
its struggle against Soviet occupa
ton forces.
Pell said.
Beyond the psychological impli-
cations in repeal of the amendment,
its most immediate effect would be
in Angola. Cuba has put 20,000
troops in Angola to defend the com-
munist government against resis-
tance forces commanded by Jonas
Savimbi, head of the rebel organ-
ization UNITA.
Premier Fidel Castro said
recently that Cuba had rotated
200,000 troops through Angola since
1975.
During the debate on repeal, Sen.
Symms said that repealing the Clark
amendment would be a symbolic
gesture that would give a "great lift"
to the forces of Mr. Savimbi, who
hosted a meeting last week in his
guerrilla base in Angola of four anti-
Soviet insurgent groups from
Africa, Asia and Central America.
The conference was organized by
Citizens for America, a lobbying
group headed by Lewis E. Lehrman,
which strongly supports President
Reagan. It includes rebel groups
seeking to overthrow Cuban- or
Soviet-aligned governments in Nica-
ragua, Afghanistan, Laos and
Angola.
If yesterday's vote is upheld in a
conference with the House, anti-
Marxist rebel factions in at least
three of the four nations in the alli-
ance will be receiving or be eligible
to receive some type of aid from the
U.S. government.
House and Senate committees
have approved at least $5 million for
resistance forces in Laos, and favor-
able votes in both houses of Con-
gress could be reached this year.
If the House joins the Senate in
approving the funding for the Nica-
raguan resistance, it will he the
fourth and final member of the new
alliance eligible for U.S. aid.
- Thomas D. Brandt
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200720014-9