Angola Ascendancy of the MPLA
In 1964 the MPLA reorganized and increased its efforts
to
reinforce its units fighting in the Dembos areas. The
improved
efficiency of the movement's political and military
operations
attracted support from other African countries, the OAU,
and
several non-African countries, all of which had previously
scorned
the MPLA because of its internal problems.
The growing military success of the MPLA in the
mid-1960s was
largely the product of support from the governments of
Tanzania and
Zambia, which permitted the organization to open offices
in their
capitals. More important, Tanzania and Zambia allowed the
transport
of Chinese and Soviet weapons across their territories to
the
Angolan border. Because of the influx of weapons, in 1965
the MPLA
was able to open a military front in eastern Angola, from
which it
launched a major offensive the following year. By this
time, the
MPLA had become a greater threat to Portugal's colonial
rule than
the FNLA.
In June 1966, the MPLA supported an unsuccessful coup
against
President Marien Ngouabi of Congo, whereupon activities of
all
guerrilla groups in Brazzaville were curtailed. After the
MPLA
moved its headquarters to Lusaka, Zambia, in 1968, it
conducted
intensive guerrilla warfare in the Angolan provinces of
Moxico and
Cuando Cubango.
Beginning in 1969, attacks in Lunda and Bié provinces
forced
the Portuguese to resettle many inhabitants of these areas
in
fortified villages. Wherever MPLA guerrillas were in
control, they
created new political structures, mainly village action
committees.
Politically indoctrinated MPLA guerrillas, some of whom
had
received military training in Eastern Europe, ranged all
over
eastern Angola. By 1968 the MPLA was able to hold regional
party
conferences inside the country.
The MPLA had a political advantage over the FNLA
because of the
links of MPLA leaders to the international ideological
left. Its
multiracial, Marxist-Leninist, and nationalist (versus
ethnic or
regional) views appealed to liberals in Europe and North
America.
Because of his radical orientation, however, Neto failed
to get
help from the United States. During the mid-1960s, the
MPLA's ties
to the communist world intensified as MPLA military cadres
traveled
to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria.
Beginning in
1965, the MPLA began to receive training from Cuban
forces.
Data as of February 1989
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