BEYOND PROFIT IN ANGOLA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303310001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303310001-2
V
110
Jeans Kirkpatrick
WASHINGTON POST
15 September 1986
Beyond
Profit
In Angola
It has became a familiar scene. The
same House and Senate members who
have consistently opposed significant
U.S. aid to resistance fighters every-
where have now mounted a new effort
to block American assistance in Ang .
la's struggle against incorporation into
the Soviet system. They have rallied
behind an amendment that would effec-
tively her aid to Angola, an amendment
This latest chapter in the struggle
over U.S. policy in southern Africa is,
of course, part of a much larger issue
with a much longer history . The strug-
gle in southern Africa is as complex as
it is important-to the people of the
region and to us.
At stake in Angola is the national
independence of the Angolan people vs.
that country's incorporation into the
Soviet bloc. The outcome of that strug-
gle will have serious consequences for
the future of Namibia and the whole of
southern Africa, including South Africa,
where a struggle for democracy is also
under way.
The United States is property seek-
ing a southern Africa made up of inde-
pendent, self-governing nations. No
other outcome is consistent with our
principles and our interests.
People who oppose U.S. aid to UNI-
TA argue first that we should not seek
to overthrow an existing government
(the MPLA), and second that to aid
that could come up for a House vote as UNITA is to associate ourselves with
early as Tuesday. the South Africa goverrunent-which
The anti-freed n fightow hU ' has provides military assistance to UNITA.
mobilised to support Rem Lee ' These arguments will not wash. The
tons agrxL) amendment to the me -
Authorization Act 1987.
amendment provides that no forces
highting in Angola could receive an
y
Covert )e unless t
-
passes a port resolution "publicly ecr-
fynmg m dean assistance and
p~neof this
amendment is provide or public
discussion and debate of aid to Jonas
aavin bi s anti- UNITA forces.
The effective consequence-as most
amendment supporters understand-
would be to prevent an assist-
ance to tutu or their
cacmtry's self-government and sover-
ghty.
1
ut this time there is a big difference
from most previous congressional
struggles over aid to resistance fight-
ers. This time it is two D ssocrats,
Reps. Claude Pepper and Dante Faa-
cell, who are leading the fight to block
the people who would block assistance
to UNrrA.
On Sept. 8 Pepper and Fascell wrote
to House colleagues alerting them that
the amendment would "erode our pros-
pects to bring freedom to Angola .
provide valuable information to the
MPLA (Angola's pro-Soviet govern-
ment] ... increase the potential politi-
cal cost to nations and groups who are
discretely giving aid to UNITA ... and
encourage the Soviet Union to further
increase its level of support....'.
government of Angola is a de facto
government imposed by the force of
more than 40,000 Soviet military per-
sonnel and approximately $2 billion in
Soviet military assistance. It was not
chosen by the Angolan people, and it is
unable to govern more than two-thirds
of the country because the Angolan
people do not support it. In this context
it is disingenuous to speak in opposition
to -'outside interference" in Angola.
The argument that by aiding UNITA
the United States would associate itself
with South Africa's government is tan-
tamount to claiming that to aid the
Allies in World War II was to help
Joseph Stalin.
It is true that the struggle in South
Africa is related to that in Angola.
Savimbi represents the armed forces
supporting self-government by Ango-
lans. Zulu Chid Gatsha Butheleti and
his allies represent unarmed forces
supporting self-government and democ-
racy in South Africa.
The United States should firmly ally
itself with the supporters of self-gov-
ernment in both countries, lust as we
should not support the racist govern-
ment of South Africa, neither should we
permit ourselves to be gulled into be-
lieving the struggle for self-determina-
tion, democracy and human rights is
served by helping communist forces
consolidate power. Yet that is what
Angola's MPIA government and its
friends would have is believe.
Those friends include an all-toafa-
miliar coalition of certain corporate and
banking interests willing to work with
any government that will permit them
to make a profit, and some benighted
'progressives' who still believe the
people of the Third World are not
capable of effectively governing then,
Selves.
Unfortunately some of the latter
are found inside the U.S. Department
of State, where various efforts are
under way to assist the Marxist gov-
ernments of Angola and Mozambique
by helping them upgrade their trans-
portation systems, and where plans
are already afoot for Secretary of
State George Shultz to visit the area
in October and meet with regional
leaders, probably including Oliver
Tambo, leader of the African National
Congress.
If these corporate interests, State
Department bureaucrats and congres-
sional activists succeed in blocking aid
to UNITA, the Reagan Doctrine
would be undone in southern Africa.
The political and strategic stakes
are very high in this rich region,
where our principles and our interests
are engaged. They are threatened by
Hamilton's sleeper amendment.
01986, 14s Angeles TWM Syadicah
Approved For Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303310001-2