WHY AMERICA SHOULD INTERVENE IN ANGOLA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600230024-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: August 1, 1978
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

IF
ON PAGE Z. Z,
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
1 AUGUST 1978
ION AND COMMENTARY
W Why America should intervene in Angola
By William 11. Burgess III
The Russians are playing "hard ball" in Af-
rica. By their actions, it is clear the Soviet
concept of detente does not preclude the use of
armed struggle as a means to obtain foreign
policy ends. To paraphrase a recent editorial
in a Zambia newspaper, the Soviets are "pur-
suing their ideology on the corpses of Afri-
cans" by attempting to install, against the will
of indigenous democratic forces, pro-Moscow
minority governments in many African states.
As a political and moral leader of the West-
ern democracies, President Carter must take a
firm stand against the red star rising over Af-
rica. Specifically he must pursue a course of
action that will destabilize the Soviet-Cuban
presence in Africa; secure moderate pro-West
governments; and reverse Soviet-Cuban ex-
pansion. His starting point should be the Ach-
illes heel of Soviet penetration of Africa - An-
gola. With Senate approval, the United States
should seek accord with other nations of com-
patible interests and develop a joint program
of aid to pro-West guerrillas battling the Rus-
sian client regime of Dr. Antonio Agostinho
Neto's 3iovimento Popular de Libertacao de
Angola
Many would disagree, and urge not only
closer relations between the U.S. and the
_ ll"LA government but also full recognition of
President Neto as legitimate leader of Angola.
Some attempt to portray the MPLA as the
"true" representative of all Angolans, Dr.
Neto as a "respectable" leader, and the
MPLA's archenemy, the Uniao para a Indepen-
dencia Total de Angola (UNITA), as a diaboli-
cal CIAJSout:h African front tirelessly attempt-
ing to undermine Angolan democracy. These
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are misconceptions..
Ideologically, ethnically, culturally, and mor-
ally, the MPLA government represents only a
fraction of the Angolan people, and has scant
claim to legitimacy.. A radical Marxist party
brought to power in Angola by Cuban troops and
Russian weaponry, the MPLA was founded in
1956 by members of the Portuguese and An-
golan Communist parties.-In 1959, the M PLA
was expelled from Luanda, capital of Angola,
by the Portuguese colonial authorities. With
the 1962 election of Dr. Neto, poet and medical
doctor, to the MPLA presidency, the party as-
sumed its strongly pro-Moscow stance and be-
gan a guerrilla war against the Portuguese.
The leadership of the MPLA, and most of its
support, is predominantly from mulattos (5
percent of the Angolan population) and city
dwellers mostly from in and around Luanda
and Lobito. Dr. Neto is, for example; a mem-
ber of the_Mbundu tribe (25 percent of the pop-
ulation), but is also of mixed
Portuguese- Afri-can descent and an "assimilado" - a member
of an elite (3 percent of all Angolans) class
allowed Portuguese citizenship and participa-
tion in mainstream Portuguese society. As
with many in the ]MLA hierarchy,' he has
spent most of his life outside the country,..
UNITA was established in 1965 by its current
leader, Dr. Jonas Savimbi. among tilt- O.
bundu (45 percent of the Angolan population:
Dr. Savimbi is the son of a prominent Bap-!-
preacher in southern Angola, and is a cir -
ismatic, spellbinding orator in four major A=
golan dialects and five European language-
Although educated abroad, Dr. Savimbi, Jikt
virtually all UNITA leaders, has lived most o;
his life in Angola.
UNITA is unique among African politic::'
groups- and worthy of U.S. aid - because it is
a self-contained popular movement fighting for
a constitution that calls for a multiracial so-
ciety, multiparty democracy, and free elec-
tions every five years. UNITA is also fighting.
with moderate success, the elitist, totalitariar
MPLA and the 20,000 Cuban and 1.500 Russian.
soldiers who would transform all of Angohh
into a repressive police state.
The United States must act soon if dem.,c
racy is to have a chance in Africa. We must
realize that "intervention" is not per se a di.-ty
word, and that the outcome of the Angolan
conflict and the history of African politics in
this century will be shaped by the American
posture toward the Angolan insurgency.
Mr. Burgess, former U.S. intelligence
analyst, writes after a year's research on
the Angolan civil war.
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