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Angola United States and Western Europe
Angola's relations with the United States were
ambivalent. The
United States aided the FNLA and UNITA before
independence. During
most of 1976, the United States blocked Angola's admission
to the
UN, and in late 1988 the two nations still lacked
diplomatic ties.
United States representatives pressured Luanda to reduce
its
military reliance on Cuba and the Soviet Union, made
necessary in
part by United States and South African opposition to the
MPLA-PT
and support for UNITA. In 1988 Angola's government news
agency
quoted Minister of Foreign Relations Afonso Van Dúnem (nom
de
guerre Mbinda) as saying the United States had a "Cuban
psychosis"
that prevented it from engaging in talks about Namibia and
Angola.
Nevertheless, after the December 1988 regional accords to
end the
Cuban military presence in Angola, United States officials
offered
to normalize relations with Angola on the condition that
an
internal settlement of the civil war with UNITA be
reached.
Political and diplomatic differences between the United
States
and Angola were generally mitigated by close economic
ties.
American oil companies operating in Cabinda provided a
substantial
portion of Angola's export earnings and foreign exchange,
and this
relationship continued despite political pressures on
these
companies to reduce their holdings in Cabinda in the
mid-1980s. The
divergence of private economic interests from United
States
diplomatic policy was complicated by differences of
opinion among
American policymakers. By means of the Clark Amendment,
from 1975
to 1985 the United States Congress prohibited aid to UNITA
and
slowed covert attempts to circumvent this legislation.
After the
repeal of the Clark Amendment in 1985, however, trade
between
Angola and the United States continued to increase, and
Cuban and
Angolan troops attempted to prevent sabotage against
United States
interests by UNITA and South African commandos.
Western Europe, like the United States, feared the
implications
of a strong Soviet client state in southern Africa, but in
general
European relations with the MPLA-PT were based on economic
interests rather than ideology. France and Portugal
maintained good
relations with the MPLA-PT at the same time that they
provided
financial assistance for UNITA and allowed UNITA
representatives to
operate freely in their capitals. Portugal was Angola's
leading
trading partner throughout most of the 1980s, and Brazil,
another
Lusophone state, strengthened economic ties with Angola
during this
period.
* * *
John A. Marcum's two-volume series, The Angolan
Revolution, analyzes historical trends in Angolan
politics and
society from the early colonial struggle through the early
years of
independence. Marcum also views the postwar environment
and its
political implications in "Angola: Twenty-five Years of
War," and
he analyzes obstacles to the socialist transformation in
"The
People's Republic of Angola." Keith Somerville's
Angola:
Politics, Economics, and Society provides an extensive
discussion of Angola's variant of Marxism-Leninism and
raises the
question of its implications for the rural majority of
Angolan
people. Kenneth W. Grundy's "The Angolan Puzzle" assesses
Angolan
prospects for peace in 1987 in the context of the regional
struggle.
Gerald J. Bender analyzes Angola's contemporary
predicament
from a historical perspective in "American Policy Toward
Angola"
and "The Continuing Crisis in Angola." Catherine V. Scott,
in
"Socialism and the `Soft State' in Africa," compares 1980s
political developments in these two Marxist states in
southern
Africa. Tony Hodges's Angola to the 1990s,
essentially an
economic analysis, also contains insight into political
trends.
Fred Bridgland's "The Future of Angola" and Jonas
Savimbi
provide critical views of MPLA-PT rule, while Fola
Soremekun's
chapter on Angola in The Political Economy of African
Foreign
Policy, edited by Timothy M. Shaw and Olajide Aluko,
and
Angola's Political Economy by M.R. Bhagavan view
Angola's
1980s leadership from a more favorable perspective. (For
further
information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of February 1989
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