HILL TOLD INTERVENTION WOULD BIND ANGOLA TO CUBA, SOVIET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100140080-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: May 26, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100140080-1
THE WASHINGTON POST
ARTICLE APPEARED 26 May 1978
ON PAGE A-19
A - la to
a-go.
By Don Oberdorfer'
Washington Post Stat+ Writer
Renewed U.S. aid to- antigovern-
ment guerrillas in Angola would have
disastrous political, economic and so-
cial impact there and make the ruling
regime more dependent than ever on
Cuban and Soviet aid, two experts on
the area told the African subcommit.
tee of the House International Rela-
tions Committee yesterday.
With a chair kept.empty at the wit-
ness table for Assistant Secretary of
State for African Affairs Richard M.
Moose Jr., who failed to appear be-
cause of the heightened "sensitivities"
of the issue, members of Congress as!
well as witnesses expressed fears that
the Carter administration is moving;
toward a renewal of intervention, co-!
vertly or openly, in the Angolan civil
war. -.
John Stockwell, the former chief of
the Central Intelligence Agency's An-
gola Task Force who has written a
book, criticizing U.S. operations there,l
charged that the CIA "very much
wants to go back into Angola" and l
said it is "quite plausible" that CIA!
Director -Stan fi eld -Turner had an-'.
proached senators on the matter with
out the knowledge of President Car-';
'ter. ,:^ !
?Both Stockwell and Assistant Prof.;
Gerald J. Bender of the University of.
California, who has made three long!
visits to Angola in the past 10 years,;
urged lawmakers'not to ease the legal
prohibitions, enacted in early 1976'
,which halted the covert- U.S. aid to
factions in the Angolan civil war. -
"If the Carter administration does 1
not have the wisdom to compete
peacefully against the Russians, then
the Congress should at least prevent
the president and his national secu;,
rity adviser from opting for further'
senseless, counterproductive blood-1
shed," said Bender. I
As the two witnesses told the story. 1
In the first congressional hearing!
on the potential consequences of a
new American intervention in Angola,{
- previous U.S. paramilitary aid ands
that U.S. aid to UNITA (National Un-!
ion for the Total Independence of!
Angola) and FNLA (National Front!
for the Liberation of Angola) guerril-'
las could bring down the government
of President Agostinho Neto. Stock
well said that "the -thinking now is to
create a Vietnam for Cuba there" by
tying up Cuban troops in a war!
against the rebels.. The resulting coo-
flict would "tie us up as well" and
lead to useless and heavy spilling oft1
blood by ' Angolans on all sides, beI
said.
The witnesses disputed at length
the public perceptions of the conflicts
in Angola and neighboring Shaba ~
Province in Zaire fostered by national!
security. organs of the U.S. govern-1
ment and reported in many press ac-I
counts. Specifically, Bender reported:
?.While it maybe true that the Ka-j
tangans who recently raided Shaba i
province were trained and armed by'
Cubans, this does not ? define their!
movement. The Katangan force, over;
the past 15 years, has been armed and
trained at one time or another by
white mercenaries, Belgians, French
and Portuguese, and fought on the
side of the Portuguese for almost 10
years against the governmental lead-'
ers whom the Cubans now support; he
said. , _ .
?.Cuba had begun to reduce its mill-i
tary force -in Angola after the Carter
administration came to office early
last year, with weekly withdrawals be-
ginning about February. However,
this was reversed and additional Cu-
ban troops dispatched after major at
tacks against. Angola were mounted
from South Africa and Zaire and after
the Neto regime was challenged inter-
nally by a? racist and radical dissident
faction which had Moscow's backing,
Bender said.
? UNITA and FNLA, which had
U.S. support in the past, are more,
anti-white than the Neto government,
which has .a multiracial policy. Any;
supported by France, Zaire and Ga-
bon, and considers the Gulf Oil Co.,
which continues to operate the Ango-
Ian oil fields in Cabinda Province, as
a major enemy. A FLEC victory could
mean the end of American access to
the Angolan oil fields, to the advan-
? tage of competing French companies,
he said.
"I'm seeing the emergence now of a
French-American struggle over the
corporate side of Angola," said Ben-
der. He charged that the French are
seeking - to -manipulate the United !
States in their own interest
Bender said it is "obvious" that the
Cubans are a stabilizing force in An.
j
gola, as previously stated by U.S. Am-
bassador to the United Nations An-
drew Young. He said 900 Cuban doe-j
tors and nurses perform necessary i
medical tasks, nearly 2,000 Cubans are
working on housing projects and more,
than 700 additional Cuban school,
Yeachers for the countryside recently
'arrived.
The Angolans "need some kind of
help, and they chose Cubans," Bender
said. He said it is "extremely mislead-,
ing" to dismiss or minimize Cuba's
civil importance. ,
The professor, who has written ex-
tensively on Angola, said that coun-
try's economy had notably improved
between January 1977 and-January'
1978, based on his. eyewitnesi:experl.
ence there:
He ridiculed reports that the capital
of Luanda is "a ghost town," and told
the committee that Brazilian-madei
.Volkswagens and Soviet-made Fiats
compete for favor in a country which
is quite different from the impression:
which abounds. outside.. ?:
operations were a major factor in gen-' program to destabilize the Neto re-
erating the Cuban and Soviet pres-l gime would be likely to result in the!
ence there and would cause a redou destabilization of multiracialism ins
bling of communist support if the op -! Angola, he said.
position were r ed " '
eaew Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100140080-1