The change of government in Portugal and their change in policy to their colonies created a power vacuum that the liberation forces of Angola began fighting over.
America, Cuba, the Soviets and South Africa were dragged in even deeper.
With America fearing the increased Cuban and Soviet interventions, they lent more support via the CIA under very ambiguous and dubious circumstances.
I finally managed to dredge up an English documentary that covers the involvement of all the players.
With inputs from all parties, including Fidel Castro and CIA Leadership, to set the stage under which the major South African offensive was held. This offensive escalated South African meddling in Angola to a previously unprecedented scale.
So began the Angolan phase of the South African Border War with backing from the CIA and from then onward the South Africa Border War would be intimately intertwined with the Angolan Civil War.
CIA - Angolan Revolution
Involvement of CIA, Cuba, Russia and South Africa as seen from the US and Cuban perspective.
Next time we will take a look at this through South African eyes, beginning with Operation Savannah.
Other posts in this series
The piece of the cold war nobody told you about - Africa's forgotten war
The air battles
The SA Fighter Aircraft
The SA Bomber Aircraft
The conflicts deep roots and start
Regional Tensions
Africa's forgotten cold war - Angolan War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Mozambican War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Rhodesian Bush War
Love the fact that you always come back to South African History, thanks for a very nice post.
I'm a Ghanaian but I'm not all the opened to all the colonial powerings during the cold world wars among others. Thanks for sharing such a post....winks. ...
Thank you, for this, gavvet. If you want some "personal experience" input, my dad was the chaplain for a South African regiment. I could maybe write something for you.
Highly appreciated. Angola is a huge mess today. And... while the drillers are being forced into administration (Seadrill, Transocean), it will not take long before the oil companies themselves cannot put up with the price pressure, maintenance of platforms will cease, Angola will be left to rot. I wonder if all the blood spillt was worth it.
That question has been on peoples lips for decades
I always knew there was something going on there but not to this extent ///wow!!
This war was an amazing war, with a lot of lives lost, but still it is an interesting piece of history, which was part of our lives when we grew up. I am looking forward to the posts.
Ah yes, good old cold war.
My country was under communism hands for over 40 years, up to 1989 and to this day you can still find some of those communist principles echoing through our system.
Another interesting war from those times to look into is the one in Laos. It's very one sided but its aftermath is horrible.
Cool find, looking forward to the followup for this article :)
Did I understand correctly that Moscow was hesitant to send arms & food, because it knew that it would escalate the conflict. And the US, not only supplied 2 of the 3 rival factions in Angola but also, through the CIA, sent mercenaries?
Dubious indeed.
that is correct
I'm perplexed as to how the US has maintained the image of being the "Good Guys" with such a long history of "Bad Guy" actions.
A question I've been asking for a long time myself. - The Americans by nature are a very kind and giving people who have given their trust to their government thinking the government would do right by the people who only wanted to help others. Foolishly or perhaps willfully turning a blind eye to the little eww blurbs of ill will or crimes/atrocities against civilians in other countries indicating US involvement,because it was happening outside of the US and wasn't our problem. Americans don't wan't to get to conserned or involved in dealing with forcing our government to do the right thing, by force if, necessary because they would be inconvienced and put out of a nice sheltered life necess
@gavvet interesting that the CIA funded mercenaries with tax dollars, even though the American people had no desire to get involved. If the MPLA hadn't been against aparthied, they probably would not have even noticed the war.
The MPLA had Soviet and Cuban backing, thats what made them fair game to the South Africans... SA was very worried about the "communist threat" since all of the surrounding countries were falling to communist backed liberation forces.
Wow! Can't believe how intertwined this all is - especially for us little South Africans...
I'm assuming you also live in SA @gavvet? Where in SA are you?
G-angster P-aradise
Whaha - used to live there but couldn't take the traffic :O
In Limpopo now ;)
Thanks for all the super posts man :)
I have a very close family friend that is from South Africa and he a spoken many times regarding this war to me...Great post mate.
Hello @gavvet
Without Soviet and Cuban weaponry, and without Cuba's 50,000 troops, the MPLA would almost certainly not have beaten UNITA and the South African Defence Force at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, in 1988.
The defeat fatally undermined the apartheid regime, and Nelson Mandela would declare: "We are deeply indebted to the Cuban people for the selfless contribution they made to the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle in our region … we will never forget those who stood by us in the darkest years of our struggle against apartheid."
It is easy to romanticise the "historic friendships" that the USSR, Cuba and Yugoslavia offered African liberation movements and governments, as Calvert 22's "Red Africa" season seems to, especially with so much information about the era still locked in archives.
The truth is nuanced. The USSR and Cuba's involvement in countries like Angola and Ethiopia has dark episodes too, and has been heavily criticised. Many members of the Non-Aligned Movement (which brought together governments and liberation movements from across the Global South) saw both Soviet and Cuban intervention as another form of colonialism, a sentiment echoed in some accounts from Angola at the time.
There are also political reasons that parts of this history have been airbrushed from mainstream retellings of the Cold War - not just in the West but also in Russia, which sought to downplay Cuba's role compared to that of the USSR, and even Angola, where " former adversaries of the MPLA - mainly the USA and China - have become the most important trading partners," as Christabelle Peters points out.
"Where lies the incentive to bring up an uncomfortable or inconvenient historical fact?"
The recently initiated rapprochement of the US and Cuba could change that - but on this, historian Edward George suggests a Russian expression.
"The trouble is, you never know what's going to happen yesterday."
Thanks @gavvet for reminding and sharing this amazing video...
Great Leader, I read one book about life history apart from Hitler and also more than one movie.
Ideal leader for the current generation as well
Appreciated & upvoted
I've studied about South Africa Angolan war in my history book.
Thank You for sharing this documentary with us.
I'll be looking forward to this @gavvet
War is a terrible phenomena. It causes devastation all around. Unfortunately the rift between USA and USSR during the Cold War Era has had a deep impact on such catastrophe. This documentary describes brilliantly the situation you have highlighted. Amazing video! Thanks for shring this informative stuff @gavvet
Furthermore, your grip on history and wars of the eras is just peerless. I love reading your blogs! I would like to up vote with compliment
Fidel Castro one of my favourite leaders with strong leadership qualities...
We pray peace for their country. God bless us.
@gavvet Amazing Work man. I liked it. How you got such interesting facts , nice work. I have been following all your posts . Your work is extraordinary . Keep it up. Upvoted. 👍
Woooww..amazing
Thanks for sharing.. As an african, need more of these kind of post.. Resteemed
i'm african and i did not know about this! wow thanks for this valuable post bro
Gotta check it for sure. I like hearing a little bit about history :P
I guess that is the problem with fighting for independence.
You have many faction groups working together to defeat one enemy and when that common enemy disappears then factional violence occurs driving the country apart.
Plunging it into civil war.
Then you have of course the US and USSR delving into another proxy war trying to spread their influence.
Great Leader
Nice video, please help me in career because I am
Stell a beginner @gavvet
Your suggestions are so valuabe to us
Thanks
so much happens behind the scene unknown to the common man
nice video
thank you
Can we stop all wars for a second and give each other a bottle of Pepsi? :(
I'd rather have a Coco-Cola. The one with Cane sugar.
Good news nice post
This has been going on since the '70's!
nice video
thank you
Really nice of you to share this video. As African, there is a lot I do not know about my Race. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this video
there are indeed so many things about South Africa that the world needs to know
History teach us that Wars are not the prior and ultimate solution of any problem it is self name of problems which ends with great sorrow and hate from each others. so always treat others with love and humanity.
CIA and America has their hands in everything all over the world. Like the content. I am following you now.
Crazy things happened overthere.
@gavvet you requested that I must inform you when I post my story on the SA bush war, I have done so today
The war became a Cold War struggle.Price The Lord
good post
thank you for video & post
Great post
thank you
A wonderful publication Greetings to you I wish you a beautiful day
rrrrr