Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-26T05:53:44.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

U.S. Policy Towards Angola Since 1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

It is generally agreed that the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in March 1988 marked the final attempt to secure a military solution to the Angolan conflict. Thereafter, in December 1988, South Africa, Cuba, and Angola signed the so-called ‘New York accord’ that included a timetable for the phased withdrawal of the South Africans and the Cubans from Namibia and Angola, respectively; in June 1989, the Gbadolite agreement initiated African attempts to end the continuing armed struggle in Angola; and in March 1990, Namibia achieved its long-awaited independence. But despite these efforts and developments, the war continued between the Government that had been established in Luanda by the Movimento Popular de Libertacão de Angola (M.P.L.A.) in November 1975 and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (Unita), with devastating implications for the country's estimated ten million inhabitants. Not before May 1991 was a final peace agreement signed in Portugal, and then with considerably poorer options for political stability and economic recovery than would have been the case after the original accord in New York.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Martin, Ben L., ‘American Policy Towards Southern Africa in the 1980s’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 27, 1, 03 1989, p. 23.Google Scholar

2 Bender, Gerald J., ‘Washington's Quest for Enemies in Angola’, in Bloomfield, Richard J. (ed.), Regional Conflict and U.S. Policy: Angola and Mozambique (Angolnac, MI, 1988), p. 202.Google Scholar

3 For interesting points of view about these developments by two of Washington's ‘insiders’, see Harold Wolpe, ‘Southern Africa and American Politics’, and Cohen, Herman J., ‘Constructive Engagement at work in Southern Africa: a view from the inside’, in Glickman, Harvey (ed.), Toward Peace and Security in Southern Africa (New York and London, 1990), pp. 205–23.Google Scholar

4 See Heywood, Linda M., ‘Unita and Ethnic Nationalism in Angola’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 27, 1, 03 1989, pp. 4766;CrossRefGoogle ScholarJames, W. M. III, Cuban Involvement in the Angolan Civil War: implications for lasting peace in Southern Africa (Pretoria, 1988);Google ScholarHough, Mike, ‘The Angolan Civil War with Special Reference to the Unita Movement’, in ISSUP Strategic Review (Pretoria), 11 1985;Google Scholar and Virmani, K. K., Angola and the Superpowers (Delhi, 1989).Google Scholar

5 See Bender, loc. cit. p. 187.

6 The Economist Intelligence Unit, Angola to the 1990s: the potential for recovery (London, 1987), Special Report No. 1079, p. 9.Google Scholar

7 Bender, loc. cit. p. 188, quotes the inability of the director of the C.I.A., William Colby, to explain the differences between the three liberation movements to the House Select Committee on Intelligence in December 1975: ‘They are all independents. They are all for black Africa. They are all for some fuzzy kind of social system, you know, without really much articulation, but some sort of let's not be exploited by the capitalist nations’.

8 Stockwell, John, In Search of Enemies: a CIA story (New York, 1978), p. 64.Google Scholar

9 Gaspar, Carlos, ‘Portugal's Policies Toward Angola and Mozambique Since Independence’, in Bloomfield (ed.), op. cit. pp. 4074.Google Scholar

10 See Legum, Colin and Hodges, Tony, After Angola: the war over Southern Africa (London, 1976),Google Scholar and Wolfers, Michael and Bergerol, Jane, Angola in the Frontline (London, 1976).Google Scholar Also, Bridgeland, Fred, Jonas Savimbi: a key to Africa (New York, 1986)Google Scholar and ‘Savimbi: a fallen idol of Africa’, in The Sunday Telegraph (London), 12 March 1989.Google Scholar

11 Dreyer, Ronald, Namibia and Angola: the search for independence and regional security, 1966–1988 (Geneva, 1988), Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies, Occasional Paper No. 3.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. p. 18.

13 Ibid. p. 22.

14 In 1982 the Estaçãoes de desenvolvimento de agricultura (E.D.A.s) were established in order to support private farmers.Google Scholar

15 Bender, loc. cit. p. 194.

16 See Campbell, Horace, The Siege of Cuito Cuanavale (Uppsala, 1990), Current African Issues No. 10.Google Scholar

17 The Economist Intelligence Unit, Angola, São Tomé & Príncipe. Country Report (London), 03 1989, p. 9.Google Scholar

18 Africa Confidential (London), 29, 16, 1988.Google Scholar

19 Dreyer, , op. cit. pp. 35Google Scholar. See also, Africa Confidential 30, 5, 1989.Google Scholar

20 Quoted in Country Report, March 1989, p. 8.Google Scholar

21 See Angola in the 1990s and E.I.U., Angola, São Tomé & Principe. Country Profile, 1989–90 (London), June 1989.Google Scholar Also, Hermele, Kenneth, Landrapport Angola (Stockholm, 1988), S.I.D.A. planning secretariat,Google Scholar and Tvedten, Inge, ‘Angola og norsk bistand’, in Forum for Utviklingsstudier (Oslo, 1989), Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt.Google Scholar

22 Country Report, November 1989, p. 20Google Scholar. Both Cuba and the Soviet Union gave considerable humanitarian aid, although military hardware obviously accounts for the bulk of the outstanding debt.

23 Ibid. p. 37. Also, Hermele, , op. cit. p. 15Google Scholar.

24 See World Bank, World Development Report, 1990 (Oxford, 1990), p. 178.Google Scholar

25 According to Streiker, Gary, a Canadian reporter, ‘in a nation where anti-government rebels are supplied with American land-mines, the result is the world's largest per capita population of amputees’ –International Hour of the C.N.N., 10 10 1989, quoted in Southscan (London), 4, 38, 1989.Google Scholar

26 See Andrén, Ulla, Svenskt katastrofbistånd till Angola (Stockholm, 1986).Google Scholar

27 Southscan, 5, 28, 1990.Google Scholar

28 Africa Confidential, 31, 13, 1990.Google Scholar

29 Marcum, John A., ‘Africa: a continent adrift’, in Foreign Affairs (New York), 68, 19881989, p. 162.Google Scholar

30 See Minter, William, Account from Angola: UNITA as described by ex-participants and foreign visitors (Stockholm and Amsterdam, 1990), a research report for S.I.D.A.Google Scholar

31 Cohen, Herman on C.N.N.'s International Hour, quoted in Windhoek Advertiser, 21 July 1989.Google Scholar

32 See Kaplan, Irving, Angola: a country study (Washington, D.C., 1978), p. 75.Google Scholar

33 Minter, op. cit. p. 4.

34 See Tvedten, Inge, The War in Angola: internal condition for peace and recovery (Uppsala, 1989), Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, pp. 56.Google Scholar

35 Quoted in Windhoek Advertiser, 1 November 1989.

36 Country Profile, 1989–90.Google Scholar

37 Country Report, September 1991, p. 3.Google Scholar

38 Ibid. September 1990.

39 Country Report, June 1991Google Scholar, and ANGOP News Bulletin (London), 162, 7 06 1991.Google Scholar

40 Country Report, September 1991Google Scholar, and África Hoje (Lisbon), 44, 10 1991.Google Scholar

41 Africa Confidential, 32, 7, 1991Google Scholar. See also, Southscan 6, 28, 1991Google Scholar, and Southern African Economist, (Harare), 4, 4, 08/09 1991.Google Scholar

42 See ANGOP News Bulletin, 162, 7 June 1991Google Scholar, and Southscan, 6, 25, 1991.Google Scholar

43 Journal de Angola (Luanda), 15 11 1991.Google Scholar

44 Quoted in Country Report, September 1991, p. 12. Since November 1990, Lopo do Nascimento has been the President's special political adviser and ‘number-two man’.Google Scholar

45 Pazzanita, Anthony G., ‘The Conflict Resolution Process in Angola’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 29, 1, 03 1991, p. 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar