ANGOLA: A BICENTENNIAL REFLECTION
Carney, Joseph P.
ANGOLA: A BICENTENNIAL REFLECTION JOSEPH P. CARNEY The search for a policy in Africa Kwa nini, Yosefu, Amerika inakwenda kupigana watu wa Angola kwa upande wa Afrika ya Kusini? "Why, Joseph, is...
...When Undersecretary of State for Africa, Nathaniel Davis (formerly of Allende Chile fame) resigned from the State Dept...
...It behooved the U.S...
...The white regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa would do much to entrap the American government in such a fallacy...
...In effect, the preservation of the capitalistic colonial system in Southern Africa also necessitates the continuation of political and economic oppression and injustice for the indigenous peoples...
...proclaimed its foreign policy was for non-violent and peaceful evolution in Southern Africa...
...tensions in the Angolan civil war and Southern Africa in general...
...Kissinger and the State Dept...
...The white regimes were judged as here to stay and the only way to effect constructive change in their racialist postures was to work in and through them...
...At the United Nations, the U.S...
...foreign policy in Southern Africa and focal points of crisis in the future...
...In 1962 both Augustino Neto of the MPLA and Holden Roberto of the FLNA asked the U.S...
...Congress has initially prevented such a mishap in the Angolan conflict...
...Why, Joseph, is America fighting against the people of Angola on the side of South Africa...
...In admiration of their socialist states, Lenin Peace Prizes were awarded to Sekou Toure of Guiana m 1961, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana in 1962, and Mobido Keita of Mali in 1963...
...stance with Portugal included stopping the financial aid to Roberto and the FLNA in 1969...
...The Azores Base Agreement of 1971, which was written under executive action only, gave $436 million in loans to Portugal through the, Import-Export Bank during 1971-73...
...The crisis is met in the area of the Third World, where in the latter half of the twentieth century, indigenous people are struggling to throw off the oppression of centuries in the form of colonialism and neo-colonialism...
...Reflections during the Bicentennial Year on die human freedoms proclaimed in the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S...
...seek "broader association with both white and black states in Southern Africa to encourage moderation in both groups and reduce tensions and opportunities for cross-border violence...
...10,000 South African troops, 2000 Zairian ones, European mercenaries and $114.5 million of United States financial and military equipment were assisting the joint forces of the FLNA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola...
...diplomat captured that responsibility well vathepoem, Stanzas on Freedom: Fetters for our dear sake, Is true Freedom but to break And, with leathern hearts, forget That we owe mankind a debt...
...Two contradictory options were being pursued simultaneously under the cover of benign neutrality...
...Portugal was enmeshed in the suppres- . sion of three simultaneous rebellions in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola...
...Paulo Jorge, the MPLA delegate at the United Nations has stated: "We assure you that we have not fought for 14 years for the independence of Angola in order to be under the umbrella of another country or power...
...It's the wrong game and the players we got are losers...
...Although President Ford had recently lambasted this Congressional vote as "short-sighted" and "hamstringing" the role of the President acting in a National Security Emergency, I hopefully explained that no recent vote of the U.S...
...Kissinger, as chairman of the Committee of 40 for National Security, has reinitiated covert aid of $50,000,000 to the perennial runner, Holden Roberto...
...and Western Europe...
...The American Revolution against political and economic oppression was sustained for two decades on an ideology of human freedom...
...The African understands that well, and the American seems to have forgotten it...
...Neto was refused because of his socialist leanings and he later traveled to Moscow in 1962 and 1968 seeking military aid...
...involvement and also to minimize the opportunities for the USSR and China to exploit the racial issue and gain political influence with independent Africa and the liberation movements...
...policy in Southern Africa during the 1960s have been best enumerated by George Ball, Undersecretary of State for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and later Ambassador at the United Nations...
...Kissinger in their campaign speeches about Congress's "short-sightedness" and "hamstringing," are still struggling to close the door on 15 years of contradictory and self-defeating foreign policy in Southern Africa...
...The loss is a real one for the United States...
...Among the five' possible options in Southern Africa, the National Security Council recommended that the U.S...
...The transistor radio offers a depth of propaganda and political acumen to ask such a question...
...In spring 1975, it gave for the first time $300,000 to Dr...
...hoped to minimize the likelihood of escalation of violence and the risk of U.S...
...I ventured to explain that Senator Dick Clark, (D.Iowa), chairman of die Congressional Subcommittee on Africa, had led die Senate (55-22) and the House of Representatives (323-99) in passing an amendment to the Security Supporting Assistance Act of 1975, which forbade the use of U.S...
...Briefly put, the United States in its foreign policy toward the continual crisis of Southern Africa from 1961 to the present has fore-saken the pearl of great price embodied in American traditions that "just governments are formed to guarantee self-evident truths that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, i.e...
...The U.S...
...In the three decades after World War II, the U.S...
...This simple and lethal question was asked of me by rural fanners in the Ujamaa or socialist village of Nye-gina, Tanzania...
...national security interests in the Third World...
...The "unthinkable" happened...
...Asia was shared common ground...
...However, the CIA did channel a limited amount of funds to Roberto and the FLNA to aid in its fight against the Portuguese from 1962-1969...
...also increased its foreign aid to the independent nations bordering Southern Africa by $5 million hoping to soften their support toward the liberation movements...
...From that time until its collapse in April 1974 rarely did a year pass when Portugal was not engaged in some colonial compaign of suppression against the African...
...Jonas Savimbi and UNITA, a third liberation movement which he formed in 1966 as a splinter group from the FLNA among the Ovimbundu people of southwest Angola...
...Such a policy of flipping a coin and proclaiming, "Heads I win, tails you lose," was re-evaluated in the now famous 1969 National Security Study, NSSM 39, as a part of the Nixon Doctrine for defending U.S...
...The fact that 40,000 Angolans had died in the past two years in this proxy battle of Cold War ideologies illustrated the wisdom of the African proverb, "When the elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers...
...The U.S...
...Augustino Neto's MPLA, which was founded in 1956 from a variety of left-wing groups in the intellectual circles of assimulados in the cities of Luanda and Lobito, attacked the Sao Paul fortress in Luanda...
...over the issue of this covert aid, he had an apt comment on the U.S...
...Nkrumah, was overthrown in 1966 and Keita in 1968 and more moderate governments exist now...
...In the decade of Independence in Africa from 1958-1968, England, France and Belgium struggled to maintain a vested interest in the political and economic stability of their former colonies...
...for financial aid for their liberation movements...
...futile search for a winner in Angola: "Neither Savimbi or Roberto are good fighters-in fact they could not fight their way out of a paper bag...
...would do well to completely re-evaluate its foreign policy in Southern Africa at this juncture...
...Selective relaxation of the U.S...
...had also been pursuing a low profile in Africa in general...
...Toure and Guiana have since gone their own independent neutralist way in the struggle of capitalism and socialism in the Cold War, as many African nations would aspire to do...
...from 1969-72...
...The U.S...
...It lives in shambles with Vietnam around the feet of the Nixon Doctrine of 1964...
...The African revolutionary will declare that such a moderate policy was more appropriate in 1966 than in 1976...
...An additional $34.9 million in military weapons was given to Portugal between 1962-69...
...Absence of a politically-minded proletariat, scarcity of urban centers and communication media, a high-illiteracy rate, tribalism, the absence of an overpopulation crisis, respect for the Western value system of social development, education and freedom of the individual, as well as the realm of religion and the reality of a God, and finally, an educated African elite as wary of the rhetoric of Communism as they were of colonialism-all mitigate against the formation of a Communist state in Africa...
...On February 4 of that year Dr...
...Many African politicians believe that the United States only has two choices left after the MPLA victory: even closer financial and military association with the white governments to protect and increase its economic and strategic interests or complete dissociation from the white governments financially, politically and militarily in an effort to enhance the American image on the racial issue and to secure long-range financial and strategic interests with the eventual black governments of South-em Africa...
...might still hope to back a winner...
...In these two different rebellions of Angolans against the criminal injustices of the Portuguese lie the origins of the USSR-U.S...
...At the time of the Angolan rebellions in 1961, the Cold War was reaching a climax of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Kennedy-Krushchev nuclear brinkmanship...
...On February 11 the Organization of African Unity recognized the MPLA as the official government of Angola...
...The USSR intervention in the Congo in the 1960's was a failure...
...Soviet aid in the Nigerian civil war did not prevent that country from following a progressive neutralist policy...
...Portugal's Angolan wars began in 1575...
...10,000,000 worth of herbicides for suppressing guerrilla warfare were sold to Portugal by the U.S...
...300 Soviet Union advisors, 12,000 Cuban soldiers and $200 million worth of USSR military arms were aiding the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) in their struggle for domination of Angola...
...The steadfastness of the African soldier and the discouragement of the Portuguese soldier and taxpayer, who sensed that a people, African or otherwise, will fight to the death for their basic human rights had caused the Portuguese colonial empire to crumble perhaps 10-15 years before the U.S...
...has been supporting the side of injustice against their basic human rights for the sake of preserving the status quo economic system of capitalism of the minority colonial governments, which are regarded as political and economic allies in the still furtive battle of the Cold War...
...objectives and goals in foreign policy toward Southern Africa was a $288.5 million grant to Portugal in 1961 for arms and military training under the auspices of NATO for the suppression of guerrilla warfare...
...The U.S...
...Ten days later, Portugal's recent socialist government also recognized its former enemy as the legitimate government of Angola...
...government approval to serve as troop transports from Portugal to Southern Africa...
...But rather than give lessons to rural farmers on the rejuvenation of the U.S...
...Under the Russian-Cuban-MPLA onslaught, the FLNA has completely collapsed in the north and UNITA has gone underground in the south...
...and particularly in Southern Africa, it followed the initiative of its European allies and NATO...
...The foreign policy of the Soviet Union in Africa has not been without its blunders and misunderstanding of the African people...
...True Freedom is to share All the chams our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand, to be Earnest to make others free!e Earnest to make others free...
...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...
...The USSR must be wondering what General Amin of Uganda will say or do next with their military arms...
...It was generally accepted that the United States had a "sphere of influence" in the political and economic stability of Latin America, while Europe had a similar pattern of relations with its colonies and former colonies in Africa...
...pursues a verbal policy of peaceful evolution toward justice for the same oppressed people through hoped-for democratic enlightenment of elite leaders, but it is subordinated to a mandate of action guaranteeing the status quo economic system of international mercantilism...
...The objectives of U.S...
...However, in identifying with the Southern African's aspiration for social justice through diplomacy at the United Nations and consistent and considerable aid for the liberation movements since 1961, the USSR has gone far in winning allies in the conflict of socialistic and capitalistic ideologies...
...The U.S...
...The U.S...
...The indigenous people of Southern Africa have perceived correctly that for the past 15 years the U.S...
...now fighting on the side of oppression in die war of Angola...
...to abandon the principle and verbiage of the Cold War that any socialist state in the Third World is inimicable to the political and economic interests of the U.S...
...Constitution would leave only one possible response...
...The USSR, which for its own pragmatic self-interest is seeking to promote forms of socialistic governments, consistently identifies with the issue of social justice in the rebellion of oppressed peoples outside the borders of its own closed system, (a moot point that many Africans note well...
...He was the major architect of a plan for the European Common Market to enhance a "closed system" of trade and development with the newly independent African nations and the Southern African complex...
...The result of these U.S...
...The U.S...
...From 1971-73, four Boeing 707's were sold to Portugal with U.S...
...does not have a clear and well-thought-out foreign policy on Southern Africa now...
...also intended to protect its economic, scientific and strategic interests in the area...
...Washington pursued a policy in Southern Africa which has been described as the pursuit of a minimum amount of trouble, purchased with a minimum amount of time, trouble and energy...
...The question freely translated might have been: "If the Voice of America can broadcast vignettes about freedom, independence and democracy enhancing the Bicentennial Year of the American Revolution, why was the U.S.A...
...Since that time, the CIA under the direction of President Ford and Dr...
...also planned to bestow generous terms of financial and military aid to Portugal to assist in suppressing the guerrilla wars of liberation, while at the same time increasing slightly its foreign aid to independent African nations to encourage them toward a moderate stance on Southern Africa...
...Under this policy the U.S...
...The liberation movements and the USSR are experiencing the flush of victory after sixteen years of struggle and now cast their eyes toward the vulnerability of Rhodesia and Namibia...
...advised President Nixon that there was no hope for the blacks in Southern Africa to gain political rights through violence...
...and the USSR have stared down the barrel of the thermonuclear ultimate weapon and have pragmatically entered upon a policy of detente in relation to disarmament and increased cultural, agricultural and financial contacts...
...Events have moved rapidly since then...
...The African elders are fond of a proverb which states: "When the elephants stop fighting, they can hear the other animals...
...World detente is a realistic appraisal of the tragedy of nuclear war, but it is also an attempt by the U.S...
...The historical events following this 1969 policy evaluation achieved just the opposite effect...
...foreign policy in Southern Africa was "to play all ends against the middle...
...The strident nationalism of Nasser's Egypt has given way to the flexibility of Sadat's...
...Congress was ever more propitious and prophetic in protecting the domestic tranquillity and Constitution of the U.S., as well as affording American citizens an opportunity to reflect on their responsibility to aid in guaranteeing the basic human rights for 37,000,000-plus African people of Angola, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Namibia and South Africa...
...It seemed to be a military and political analysis of Southern Africa mixed with wishful thinking...
...three facts were universally known...
...Goals within the general policy called for strengthening already existing preferential trade systems between Europe and Africa, "gradualism" on the evolution of Southern African racialism and neutrality on issues of condemnations of Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa in the United Nations...
...It would profit the U.S...
...The third aspect universally recognized by the common man of Africa was that South Africa represents the historical embodiment of long-endured racial, economic and political oppression in the area of Southern Africa...
...On March 15 the forerunner group of Holden Roberto's FLNA activated a mass peasant rebellion of the Bakongo people in northern Angola...
...Indeed, the horse has long escaped from the barn and President Ford and Dr...
...had been continually strengthening its alliance with European nations and NATO...
...Although the CIA requested $64.5 million of aid for Zaire in 1976, which was to be channeled to the FLNA, Zaire on February 6 read the handwriting on the wall and forbade mercenaries and covert aid to be funneled through her country to the FLNA-UNITA forces in Angola...
...The white minority governments have hardened into positions of reactionism and militarism...
...Four centuries of slavery, forced labor systems under the guise of "assimilation" of Africans into Portuguese civilization, and the rape of its natural resources culminated in the armed revolution of the Angolan people in 1961...
...In effect the U.S...
...The BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio Peking and Sauti va Tanzania all proclaim their unique versions of bias and omitted news as gospel truth...
...A moderate amount of aid was given to the FLNA at the same time, since it was judged that if Portugal should falter, the U.S...
...Congressional system of checks and balances since the denouement of President Nixon, I feel compelled to raise a voice of alarm and concern with my fellow American citizens about the mistakes of past U.S...
...With common sense and an appreciation for political satire, the Tahzanian peasant can surmise the basic truths...
...James Russell Lowell, the 19th century New England poet and U.S...
...foreign policy in Southern Africa might include closer financial associations with independent African nations and the liberation movements, a stronger positive stand on the racial and social justice issue in diplomacy with South Africa and at the United Nations, limited but politically influential economic relations with Rhodesia and South Africa and an appeal to open and candid negotiations on majority rule in Southern Africa in the near future...
...CIA's Secret War in Angola," Intelligence Report, Center for National Security Studies, Washington, D.C...
...to meditate on the prin-ciples of the American Declaration of Independence and its own Constitution and ask itself: might such documents of human freedoms not yet win the minds and hearts of the African...
...A practical direction in future U.S...
...to encourage the USSR to accept America's definition of international economic and political stability for a relaxation of world tensions...
...private investment in Portuguese Africa reached a height of $300 million a year in 1973, while the Portuguese war budget was $400 million...
...But the flash points of Ian Smith's Rhodesia (4.S percent of the total population is white), South Africa's flouting of the World Court of Justice decision on Namibia (13 percent is white), and the ultimate intransigence of Africa itself (19 percent white) all remain in the future...
...intelligence estimate...
...The U.S...
...The Portuguese government in Europe and its war effort in Africa collapsed in April 1974...
...At the same time, the United States and Portugal had the dubious distinction of being the only two nations to vote against the United Nations Ban on Herbicides as a Means of International Warfare...
...funds for covert military assistance to any party in the Angolan conflict...
Vol. 103 • April 1976 • No. 8
