ANGOLA POSES TEST OF REAGAN RESOLVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720003-4
ARTICLE AP? fl D
ON PAGE
1 ; 1
WASHINGTON TIMES
20 November 1985
Angola poses test
of Reagan resolve
When the rainy season ends next March on the in-
hospitable landscape of Angola, a muddy quagmire
will slowly dry into loose, sandy soil.
The surface of roadways and of the flat, open land
dotted with scrub brush will have hardened enough to
support columns of Soviet-built T-62 tanks.
Early in that month, the Marxist MPLA govern-
ment's troops, backed by Cuban forces and directed by
Soviet battle commanders, are certain to launch an-
other offensive against the pro-Western insurgents of
the National Union for the Tbtal Independence of An-
gola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi.
By then, the Reagan administration will have dem-
onstrated whether the Reagan Doctrine and its vow to
help freedom fighters are simply empty rhetoric or a
blueprint for American policy and a chance for an in-
delible entry in the history books by this president.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, in
mounting numbers, are emerging from the Angola
debate in favor of turning that rhetoric into policy.
Perplexingly, only the administration - and particu-
larly the State Department - stands in the way.
That analysis, by Heritage Foundation visiting fel-
low William W. Pascoe III in a recent paper "Angola
Tests the Reagan Doctrine;' appears to be an accurate
assessment of the situation on the ground in Angola
and in the snowballing debate here.
Another of those classic inside-the-administration
battles is taking shape over Angola among the
president's top advisers. Secretar of Defense Caspar
Weinberg er and IA Director William Caley are ing for substantial covert aid to UNITA. They recog-
nizeTince 1976. Angola has hen the key to Mos-
cow's strategy for the region, providing a base for
SWAPO guerrillas to destabilize Namibia.
inexplicably, Secretary of State George Shultz -
who seemingly spends more time planning redecora-
tion of his suite of offices than in sorting out African
policies - is actively opposing bipartisan congres-
sional measures to aid UNITA. He has gone so far as to
write House Minority Leader Robert Michel of Illinois
asking him to block the legislation.
In the House, legislation asking for $27 million in
humanitarian aid was introduced Oct. 1 and a bill ask-
ing for a similar amount in military aid was introduced
Oct. 24.
The combat has been fierce in Angola, and Soviet
strategists are not likely to accept another defeat such
as the one Luanda government forces sustained last
September.
Late in the month, the Luanda government claimed
that Mr. Savimbi had abandoned his base at Jamba and
had withdrawn into neighboring Namibia. The UNITA
leader denied this and on Oct. 8 brought Western jour-
nalists to the Lomba River to see the remains of a deci-
mated MPLA mechanized column. UNITA had blunted
the Angolan offensive 20 miles northwest of Mavinga, a
key UNITA stronghold, and had forced the MPLA to
retreat.
For the moment, at least, Mr. Savimbi had won.
The latest intelligence reaching Washington sug-
gests that Soviet planners may use a break in the rainy
season to launch another attack - probably relying
heavily on Soviet MiG-23 jet fighters, SU-22 fighter
bombers and MI-24 helicopter gunships - to deal Mr.
Savimbi's forces a retaliatory strike. The attack would
presumably come on the eve of the MPLA Second
Party Congress and be aimed at dissuading some mod-
erate delegates to that congress from voting to negoti-
ate with UNITA.
Support for UNITA is in the national interest of the
United States. A display of unanimity on the issue
among U.S. government executive and legislative bod-
ies would go a long way toward correcting the image
abroad of an American leadership divided on foreign
policy. '
Edward Neilan is foreign editor of The Times.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720003-4