U.S. AID TO REBELS IN ANGOLA TO RESUME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920027-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: December 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920027-5
ARTICI:E APMVW
ON PAGE
U.S. aid
to rebels
in Angola
to resume
? By Rodney hlnfiPr l
EUTERS
Aid from the United States to anti-
communist rebels in Angola may re-
sume within weeks as State Depart-
ment resistance to American
involvement in the southern African
bush war crumbles under a conser-
vative assault.
The State De artment seems ill-
uioriee to urt er resist t Fe oro-
aid forces in the Pentagon, the CIA,
NEWS ANALYSIS
the National Security Council and
conservauvec in r ongress.
"State is pretty well isolated in the
administration. Patience [with nego-
tiations] is running out and one must
assume State will re-evaluate its po-
sition," says one congressional
source.
Congressional and administr t'on
sources say the first installment of
money anti arms for rh National
Union for the Tbtal Independence of
Angola (UNITA) of Jonas Savimbi
could be flowin down secret chan-
ne~s controlled b the Central Intel-
igence gencv as ear v as Febru
at
E timates of the size of the initial
package differ, but one published re-
port said it could be worth between
$8 million and $15 million. Congres-
sional sources said it would prob-
ably include anti-aircraft and anti-
tank missiles.
The plan could be derailed if the
State Department's veteran
southern Africa peace negotiator,
Assistant Secretary Chester
Crocker, produces an 11th-hour deal
to remove Cuban forces fighting for
Angola's Marxist government under
President Eduardo dos Santos, the
sources said.
But Mr. Crocker has been
struggling for a peace agreement in-
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 December 1985
volving Angola, South-West Africa
(Namibia) and South Africa for five
years. Success in the next month ap-
. pears remote.
Says a source at the State Depart-
ment: "We are beginning to get the
feeling that even State's opposition is
weakening considerably."
A scenario for peace pursued by
Mr. Crocker has linked withdrawal
of an estimated 35,000 Cuban troops
from Angola to independence for
neighboring Namibia, which is ruled
,by South Africa in defiance of the
United Nations.
Mr. Crocker met Angolan officials
in Zambia last month and reported
South Africa and Angola were inter-
ested in renewing talks. But nothing
firm was announced and con-
servatives scoff that the Crocker
process had seen many false dawns.
"Crocker has stalled for five
years. I think he sympathizes with
the communist government;' says
Howard Phillips, chairman of the
Conservative Caucus.
UNITA and Mr. Savimbi have be-
come rebels with a cause worth sup-
porting for American conservatives
determined to roll back what they
regard as a worldwide communist
assault on freedom.
A "fact sheet" published by the
American Security Council last
week bemoaned the withdrawal of
U.S. aid from Mr. Savimbi's forces in
1975 after a row over America being
allied in the war with UNITAs main
backer, South Africa. A law banning
aid to UNITA was repealed last July.
"U.S. support would effectively
relate the Angolan struggle to the
ongoing worldwide process for free-
dom and justice in Afghanistan,
Nicaragua, Indochina, Ethiopia and
elsewhere;' the council says.
Conservatives brush aside State
Department arguments that support
for UNITA would ruin the U.S. role
as a mediator in southern Africa as
well as its reputation among African
states deeply offended by South Af-
rica's apartheid racial policies.
They say that while apartheid is
deplorable, South Africa remains a
key U.S. ally in the fight against So-
viet communism and that UNITA is
on the front line.
Officials say the Soviet Union has
pumped $2 billion in military aid into
Angola in the past 18 months.
Congressional sources say U.S.
assistance would probably include
Red Eye and Stinger anti-aircraft
missiles as well as anti-tank rockets.
"Savimbi needs something ade-
quate to deal with 500 tanks, 100
MiGs and 40 Hind helicopters;' says
Mr. Phillips. "I hope we will give him
enough."
He says that "something less than
$100 million" would probably be
adequate.
"It's a top priority in foreign
policy for conservatives;' according
to a spokesman for another conser-
vative group, the Committee for the
Survival of a Free Congress.
State Department sources say
even if the aid were to be covert,
news inevitably would leak out. The
best they could hope for, one says,
was that it would be "deniable"
"It may be public knowledge, but
as long as we can say 'no' or'no com-
ment' that's different. It maintains
certain options;' says one.
But congressional aides question
whether that might not be too so-
phisticated for southern Africa's po-
litical cauldron.
"As soon as news of American
support for UNITA is out, Luanda
will cut off negotiations, charge the
State Department with hypocrisy
and step up military action against
the UNITA-South African-United
States threat;' one predicts.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920027-5