Angola

Strengthening Ties with the Soviet Union and Its Allies

The Nitista plot shook the Neto regime severely and was a stark reminder of the young government's vulnerability in the face of internal factionalism and South African destabilization efforts. In the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, the government came to the realization that its survival depended on continued support from the Soviet Union and its allies. Consequently, the government's reliance on Soviet and Cuban military support increased, as did its commitment to Marxist-Leninist ideology.

A new phase of Angola's formal relationship with the Soviet Union had already begun in October 1976, when Neto signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union pledging both signatories to mutual military cooperation. The treaty was significant in global terms in that it gave the Soviet Union the right to use Angolan airports and Luanda harbor for military purposes, enabling the Soviet Union to project its forces throughout the South Atlantic region.

For the Soviet Union, its intervention in Angola was a major foreign policy coup. Soviet leaders correctly judged that the United States, because of its recent Vietnam experience, would be reluctant to intervene heavily in a distant, low-priority area. Conditions would thus be created in which the Soviet Union could exert its influence and gain a firm foothold in southern Africa. In addition, South African involvement in Angola convinced most members of the OAU that Soviet support for the Angolan government was a necessary counterweight to South African destabilization efforts. Furthermore, United States support for UNITA during the civil war had tainted the United States in the eyes of the OAU and many Western governments, which perceived a South African-American link.

Beginning in 1978, periodic South African incursions into southern Angola, coupled with UNITA's northward expansion in the east, forced the Angolan government to increase expenditures on Soviet military aid and to depend even more on military personnel from the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and Cuba.

The Angolan government's relationships with the Soviet Union and Cuba were linked in some ways but distinct in other respects. Clearly, the Soviets and Cubans were both attracted to the Angolan government's Marxist-Leninist orientation, and Cuba generally followed the Soviet Union's lead in the latter's quest for international influence. Nonetheless, Cuba had its own agenda in Angola, where Cuban leader Fidel Castro believed that by supporting an ideologically compatible revolutionary movement he could acquire international status independent of the Soviet Union.

Although Soviet and Cuban interests in Angola usually converged, there were also disagreements, mostly because of the factionalism within the MPLA-PT. On the one hand, the Soviet Union seemed to have favored Minister of Interior Alves's more radical viewpoints over those of Neto and probably supported the Nitista coup attempt in 1977. The Cubans, on the other hand, played an active military role in foiling the coup attempt and increased their troop presence in Angola shortly thereafter in support of the Neto regime.

Data as of February 1989

Angola - TABLE OF CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION

• Chapter. 1. Historical Setting
  • PRECOLONIAL ANGOLA AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE
    • Kongo Kingdom
    • Ndongo Kingdom
    • The Defeat of Kongo and Ndongo
    • Matamba and Kasanje Kingdoms
    • Lunda and Chokwe Kingdoms
    • Ovimbundu and Kwanhama Kingdoms
    • The Dutch Interregnum, 1641-48
  • ANGOLA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
    • Slave Trading in the 1700s
    • Portuguese Settlers in Angola
  • THE 1800s: TURMOIL IN PORTUGAL, REFORM AND EXPANSION IN ANGOLA
    • The Early Nineteenth Century
    • Abolition of the Slave Trade
    • Expansion and the Berlin Conference
  • SETTLEMENT, CONQUEST, AND DEVELOPMENT
    • The Demographic Situation
    • Military Campaigns
    • Administration and Development
  • ANGOLA UNDER THE SALAZAR REGIME
    • Angola under the New State
    • Salazar's Racial Politics
  • RISE OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM
    • Roots of Discontent
    • African Associations
      • The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
      • The National Front for the Liberation of Angola
    • Organizational Weaknesses
    • Beginning of Revolution
  • ANGOLAN INSURGENCY
    • Ascendancy of the MPLA
    • Emergence of UNITA
    • Liberation Movements in Cabinda
    • Portuguese Economic Interests and Resistance to Angolan Independence
    • The Portuguese Coup d'Etat and the End of the Colonial Era
  • COALITION, THE TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT, AND CIVIL WAR
    • Foreign Intervention
    • Collapse of the Transitional Government
    • South African Intervention
  • INDEPENDENCE AND THE RISE OF THE MPLA GOVERNMENT
    • Transformation into a Marxist-Leninist Party and Internal Dissent
    • Shaba Invasion and the Nitista Plot
    • Strengthening Ties with the Soviet Union and Its Allies
    • Economic Problems and the Implementation of Socialist Policies
    • The UNITA Insurgency and the South African Threat
    • The Final Days of the Neto Regime
  • THE DOS SANTOS REGIME
    • Steps Toward a Stronger Party and Political Discord
    • The Namibia Issue and Security Threats in the 1980s
    • Second Party Congress