A new book is revising the conventional wisdom about U.S. intervention in Angola during the Cold War. The book, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976, quotes a former CIA station chief in Angola as saying the 1975 advent of a leftist regime, soon shored up by Cuban troops, was not responsible for destroying the country. “The opposite proved true,” said Robert Hultslander. “It was our policies which caused the destabilization.” Documents published in the book have been noticed by The New York Times:
Historians and former diplomats who have studied the documents say they show conclusively that the United States intervened in Angola weeks before the arrival of any Cubans, not afterward as Washington claimed. Moreover, though a connection between Washington and South Africa, which was then ruled by a white government under the apartheid policy, was strongly denied at the time, the documents appear to demonstrate their broad collaboration.
“When the United States decided to launch the covert intervention, in June and July, not only were there no Cubans in Angola, but the U.S. government and the C.I.A. were not even thinking about any Cuban presence in Angola,” said Piero Gleijeses, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University, who used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the documents.
Despite huge oil reserves—in many ways, because of those reserves—Angola has suffered more than a quarter century of warfare fueled by outside powers, including the United States, which backed the rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi, one of the most notorious warlords in contemporary African history. Savimbi was killed by government troops in February, and his rebel forces have agreed to a truce. But Angola remains in horrible shape, and this Washington Post editorial notes that U.S. oil companies continue to support the Angolan government’s policy of not disclosing its oil revenues, which allows corrupt officials to steal or misuse billions of dollars.
“Conflicting Missions” is a political book; for a beautiful and chilling description of Angola as independence (and disaster) dawned in 1975, read Ryszard Kapuscinski’s Another Day of Life. It’s one of his least-known books, but one of his best.
