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Into the Storm: American Covert Involvement in the Angolan Civil War, 1974-1975

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Into the Storm: American Covert Involvement in the Angolan Civil War, 1974-1975 Into the Storm: American Covert Involvement in the Angolan Civil War, 1974-1975 Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Butler, Shannon Rae Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 02:28:15 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195354 INTO THE STORM: AMERICAN COVERT INVOLVEMENT IN THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR, 1974-1975 by Shannon Rae Butler _____________________ Copyright © Shannon Rae Butler 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2008 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Shannon R. Butler entitled Into the Storm: American Covert Involvement in the Angolan Civil War, 1974- 1975 and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Michael Schaller _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 24, 2008 David Gibbs ___________________________________________________________________ Date: October 24, 2008 John P. Willerton ___________________________________________________________________ Date: October 24, 2008 Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Michael Schaller ________________________________________________ Date: October 24, 2008 Dissertation Director 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Shannon Rae Butler 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………..6 INTRODUCTION: EXPLAINING AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES……………………………..8 CHAPTER 1: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, AFRICA, AND THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE: THE HORNS OF A DILEMMA…………………………………………………. 41 CHAPTER 2: HENRY KISSINGER: GLOBAL ARCHITECT………………..121 CHAPTER 3: 1974: PORTUGAL IN CRISIS…………………………………..174 CHAPTER 4: THE COLONIAL QUESTION: SPINOLA VERSUS THE MFA…………………………………………………...214 CHAPTER 5: AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA: THE OFFICIAL MYTHOLOGY……………………………269 CHAPTER 6: AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA: WHY DID THE UNITED STATES BECOME INVOLVED?..................354 CHAPTER 7: AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA: WHO DID WHAT, AND WHEN?............................................457 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued CONCLUSION: EXPLAINING AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY WHAT DO WE NOW KNOW?.................................................530 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………559 6 ABSTRACT Angola’s civil war in the mid-1970s has an important role to play in the ongoing debate within the diplomatic history community over how best to explain American foreign policy. As such, this dissertation uses the Angolan crisis as a case study to investigate and unravel the reasons for the American covert intervention on behalf of two pro-Western liberation movements: the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by Holden Roberto, and Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. That Angola is a late 20 th century example of foreign intervention is not disputed. However, the more significant and difficult questions surrounding this Cold War episode, which are still debated and which directly relate to the purpose of this study, are first, “Why did the United States involve itself in Angola when it had previously ignored Portugal’s African colonies, preferring to side with its NATO partner and to maintain its distance from Angola’s national liberation movements?” Was it really, as the Ford Administration asserted, a case of the United States belatedly responding to Soviet expansionism and Kremlin-supported aggression by Agostinho Neto’s leftist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Secondly, “Exactly when did the United States intervene, and was this intervention largely responsible for the ensuing escalation of violence and external involvement in Angola affairs?” In other words, as suggested by the House Select Committee on 7 Intelligence, was the Soviet Union’s intervention in response to the American decision to allocate $300,000 to Holden Roberto’s National Front in January 1975? If so, then contrary to the Ford Administration’s official account of the crisis, the United States – and not the Soviet Union – was the initial provocateur in the conflict that left the resource-rich West African nation in a ruinous, perpetual state of warfare into the early 21 st century. 8 INTRODUCTION EXPLAINING AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES “The Soviet Union’s massive and unprecedented intervention in the internal affairs of Africa…are a matter of urgent concern.” Secretary of State Henry Kissinger 1 “The Soviets did not make the first move in Angola. Other people did. The Chinese and the United States. The Soviets have been a half-step behind, countering our moves.” Anonymous CIA Official 2 “Subsequent to President Mobutu’s request last winter to Dr. Kissinger…the Forty Committee approved furnishing Roberto $300,000 for various political action activities.” The Pike Committee 3 This study will attempt to explain the American intervention in the Angolan crisis and civil war of the mid-1970s on behalf of two pro-Western liberation movements: the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by Holden Roberto, and Jonas 1 Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Involvement in Civil War in Angola: Hearing before the Subcommittee on African Affairs , 94 th Cong., 2 nd sess., January 29, 1976, 6. Hereafter referred to as Angola . 2 Former CIA agent John Stockwell identified the anonymous official as Brenda MacElhinney. She was the CIA desk officer for Angola when he returned to CIA headquarters in late July 1975 to become the head of the task force that oversaw the covert American involvement in Angola (code name IAFEATURE). “Brenda MacElhinney” is a pseudonym. John Stockwell, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978), 62. 3 “The CIA Report the President Doesn’t Want to Read,” The Village Voice , February 16, 1976, 85. In 1975, the House Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Representative Otis Pike (D-NY), conducted hearings on the American intelligence community, which ran parallel to the Church Committee hearings on the same subject in the Senate. The Ford Administration blocked public disclosure of the House committee’s findings. Newsman Daniel Schorr of CBS, however, managed to obtain a copy of the official report. It was subsequently published in The Village Voice . Holden Roberto of the FNLA had lived nearly his entire life in Zaire and had received most of his support from the Zairian president, Sese Seko Mobutu. He was also related, by marriage, to Mobutu. 9 Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). 4 As David Gibbs has observed, foreign intervention – broadly defined as “the manipulation of internal politics of one country by another” – has been practiced since at least ancient Greece. In the Cold War era, however, it became more common and important. 5 This occurred because the possession of nuclear weapons, especially by the United States and Soviet Union, made direct confrontation between the two increasingly dangerous. As a consequence, the global adversarial competition between the two nations was often displaced to indirect confrontation in the Third World, usually either through the use of surrogates or through paramilitary, and often, covert operations. Angola is a late 20 th century example of foreign intervention. That simple fact is not disputed. However, the more significant and difficult questions of this Cold War episode, which are still debated and which directly relate to the purpose of this study, are first, 4 The United States supported both the FNLA and UNITA, viewing them either as pro-West, or at least as anti-Communist. By November 1975, this support amounted to at least $32 million dollars. The Soviet Union and Cuba were the primary supporters of Agostinho Neto’s Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the civil war phase of the Angolan crisis. Yugoslavia also gave significant assistance to the Popular Movement. China was a patron of the FNLA and to a lesser extent, UNITA, as were Zaire and the Republic of South Africa. During 1975-1976, Zambia primarily supported Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, although it had provided limited support to all three liberation movements during their struggle against the
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