University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2015 America's War in Angola, 1961-1976 Alexander Joseph Marino University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the African History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Marino, Alexander Joseph, "America's War in Angola, 1961-1976" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1167. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1167 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. America’s War in Angola, 1961-1976 America’s War in Angola, 1961-1976 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Alexander J. Marino University of California, Santa Barbara Bachelor of Arts in History, 2008 May 2015 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council ______________________________________ Dr. Randall B. Woods Thesis Director ______________________________________ Dr. Andrea Arrington Committee Member ______________________________________ Dr. Alessandro Brogi Committee Member ABSTRACT A study of the role played by the United States in Angola’s War of Independence and the Angolan Civil War up to 1976. DEDICATION To Lisa. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: THE AZORES, AMERICA, AND ANGOLA .................................................. 10 THE ULTRAMAR .................................................................................................................... 12 WORLD WAR II ....................................................................................................................... 15 PORTUGAL IN THE POST WAR ESTABLISHMENT .......................................................... 20 COTTON, COFFEE, AND SETTLERS .................................................................................... 22 HOLDEN ROBERTO ............................................................................................................... 28 ROBERTO, THE CIA, AND THE UPA ................................................................................... 31 THE CONGO CRISIS ............................................................................................................... 37 THE WHITE POWERS ............................................................................................................. 42 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 2: KENNEDY, JOHNSON, AND SOUTHERN AFRICA .................................. 47 THE ELECTION OF 1960 ........................................................................................................ 48 KENNEDY ................................................................................................................................ 51 THE CONGO CRISIS UNDER KENNEDY ............................................................................ 64 KENNEDY AND THE WHITE POWERS ............................................................................... 68 JOHNSON ................................................................................................................................. 71 JOHNSON SAVES THE CONGO, LOSES ANGOLA ............................................................ 78 THE PROBLEM OF ZAMBIA, RHODESIA, & SOUTH AFRICA ......................................... 86 UNITA & THE EASTERN FRONT .......................................................................................... 91 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 95 CHAPTER 3: OPERATION IAFEATURE AND THE FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLICY ........................................................................................................................................ 96 CHANGING OF THE GUARD ................................................................................................ 97 MOBUTUISM ......................................................................................................................... 103 THE MPLA AND THE EASTERN FRONT ........................................................................... 109 PORTUGAL STRIKES BACK ............................................................................................... 113 NIXON’S TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY ................................................................................. 116 CARNATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 120 THE SCRAMBLE FOR ANGOLA ......................................................................................... 121 POLITICAL PARTIES WITH ARMIES ................................................................................ 130 ALLIES ................................................................................................................................... 137 THE DIE IS CAST ................................................................................................................... 144 JOHN STOCKWELL AND IAFEATURE ............................................................................. 152 QUIFANGONDO .................................................................................................................... 154 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 161 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 163 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 169 Introduction “That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned…And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed…Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.” -Haile Selassie1 “I think we’ve mishandled Mobutu and the whole area. I have not given too much attention to it, so it’s partly my fault. Mobutu looks at the Congo in 1960 and that [then] what we’re doing in Angola now where the Communist influence is greater than it was in the Congo in 1960 and he must conclude that we have written off the area. If we’re letting Angola go, then in essence we’re letting him go. At least I think if he’s rational, that’s what he’s thinking.” -Henry Kissinger2 “I know America. I know the heart of America is good.” -Richard Nixon3 Angola, a Portuguese speaking country in southern Africa, was one of the principal battlegrounds of the Cold War. Although Angola did possess incredible amounts of oil, diamonds, and fertile land, it was not highly contested due to its vast mineral riches. Rather, in their pursuit of African adherents to their competing ideologies, the superpowers sought to champion Angolan independence as a powerful symbol of their support for African independence, and racial justice. Furthermore, after the failed communist insurgency in 1 Haile Selassie, “Address to the United Nations, October 6, 1963,” in Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty, 1918 to 1967 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: The Imperial Ethiopian Ministry of Information, Foreign Language Department, 1967), 374. 2 “Memorandum of Conversation - Document 111,” June 20, 1975, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Southern Africa, Volume XXVI. 3 “Richard Nixon: Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1969, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1941. 1 neighboring Zaire (Congo) in the mid-1960s, both the United States and the Soviet Union (and its allies) viewed Angola as the critical battlefield of the Cold War in Africa. However, it was Angolans themselves, not agent provocateurs from the East and West, which brought the Cold War to central Africa. Angola’s nationalists, divided by ethnic, class, and social differences, adopted competing ideologies in their pursuit of independence from Portugal and one another. This internal rivalry within the Angolan revolution led Angolans to seek external support from the superpowers. The 1975-1976 civil war, for which Angola is now infamous, was the culmination of a twenty-year struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union in southern Africa.4 Both the Soviet Union and the United States aligned with competing Angolan nationalists for ideological reasons, rather than security concerns. For the superpowers, Angola was an arena “to prove the universal applicability of their ideologies,” both of which claimed, “to expand the domains of freedom” and “social justice.”5 Once committed to the conflict, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was willing to see their chosen rebels lose. This is the story of America’s war in Angola. How the United States, through its ascendancy to superpower status in World
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