U.S. WEIGHS ANGOLAN REBEL AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R000201100003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2009
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000201100003-8
ON PAGE 19- l
U.S. Weighs
plan
Relwl Aid
Resumption Is Urged
rp Show Resolve
Against' Communism
By David B. Ottaway
Waahiupton Punt Staff Writer
WASHINGTON POST
16 October 1985
way to determine the Soviet role,.
intentions and prospects in Angola,
according to- intelligence and con-
gressional sources.
At issue is whether the United
States should provide either mili-
tary or humanitarian aid to the non-
communist National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi,
.whose guerrillas fighting in south-
ern Angola have recently been un-
der heavy pressure from the Soviet-
supplied and Cuban-aided forces of
the Marxist government. A subsid.
iary question is whether this aid
should be provided through covert
or overt U.S. channels.
Earlier this month, sources said
The Reagan administration is in bot t e UIA and Pentagon seemed
the midst of a major policy review to favor covert military aid similar
to decide whether to resume U.S.
military aid to noncommunist guer-
rillas fighting Angola's Marxist gov-
ernment, according to congression-
al and intelligence sources.
The review has touched off an
acrimonious interagency debate
that pits the administration's global
strategists, intent upon showing
U.S. resolve against the growing
Soviet and Cuban military role in
Angola, against its "regionalists,"
who fear U.S. aid to the guerrillas
will end U.S. efforts to negotiate a
peaceful settlement to the dispute
over Namibia, or Southwest Africa.
The debate takes place amid ad-
ministration preparations' for the
Nov. 19-20 summit between Pres-
ident Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev, and a number
of policy-makers are arguing that
now is the time for Washington to
send a strong message to Moscow
about the U.S. resolve not only to
help noncommunist guerrilla forces
in Angola but elsewhere in the
world.
In addition, they are arguing that
Gorbachev is behind recent offen-
sives by Soviet-allied governments
in Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Ethi-
op against noncommunists fight-
ing in those countries and that -the
United States must respond to hol-
ster its position going into the sum-
mit.
At least two National Security-
Council-chaired meetings have been
held, the latest last Friday. In ad,
dition, a Special National Intellia
geW"e Estimate, a: quick in-depth,
study by the various branches of the
intelligence community, is under
tot8e'A&stance being given to the rebels in
Afi.
Alsa..&ing studied is the possible imposi-
tioiY trade embargo, affecting either U.S.
exports.to Angola, the importation of Angolan
oil?or bath, a step being urged on the admin-
ist>iatiott by conservative Republican groups
like the Conservative Caucus and the Amer-
ican Security Council.
`According to government sources, the
Central Intelligence Agency the Pentagon
atxl the NSC staff all strongly support mili-
taiT aid-perhaps even covert assistance-
whi tithe State Department is said to be just
as vehemently opposing any shift from the
current U.S. policy of no assistance at all.
We still don't think providing arms is the
way to do it," said a State Department
spokesman, adding, "We think negotiations is
the way out." He was referring to U.S efforts
to resolve through negotiations the twin
problems of the withdrawal of Cuban troops
from Angola-now said to number as many
as 35,000, up 5,000 from last year-and in-
dependence for South African-administered
Namilila.
An Administration decision to ask Congress
for overt assistance is likely to touch off an-
otber litter debate there similar to the one
over U.Z. aid to anticommunist forces, known
as thq "contras," in Nicaragua.
A debate over U.S. policy toward Angola
took place in 1975-76 after it was discovered
that the CIA was secretly funneling more
ance to two rebel factions, one of them
UNITA, which were then locked in a three-
way civil war and power struggle ultimately
won by the now ruling Popular Movement for
the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). In January
1976, Congress passed the Clark amend-
ment, which was sponsored by then-Sen. Dick
Clark (D-Iowa) banning any further rovert
military aid to Angolan rebels.
That amendment was repealed by Con-
gress last July, opening the way for the de-
bate now going on inside the administration
over whether to resume aid to UNITA.
Supporters of a renewed American involve-
ment on the side of UNITA say there may be
less congressional opposition this time be-
cause of Soviet and Cuban involvement in
Angola and the fact that the United States
has never had diplomatic relations with the
Marxist Angolan government. In addition,
State Department efforts to negotiate a so-
lution to the Namibia dispute, or a withdrawal
of Cuban troops from Angola, have been un-
successful.
Opponents of such a policy say an open
U.S. alignment with UNITA will inevitably
draw Washington into a closer alliance with
white-ruled South Africa, UNITA's most im-
portant source of support, and undermine the
administration's efforts to pressure Pretoria
to reform its apartheid system. South Africa
is presently the main supplier of arms and the
conduit for other outside military aid to
UNITA.
Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), chairman of
the House Rules Committee, introduced a bill
earlier this month authorizing the U.S. gov-
ernment to provide up to $27 million in hu-
manitarian aid only to UNITA, and Sen. Steve
Symms (R-Idaho) is "seriously thinking" about
sponsoring a similar bill - n the Senate, accord-
ing to an aide.
"We're waiting for word from the White
House," an aide to Pepper said. "We feel
there will be significant developments in a
matter of days."
Savimbi has asked the United States for
military aid, though he has not submitted any
written request to Washington yet, according
to Jeremias K. Chitunda, UNITA foreign af-
fairs secretary.
Chitunda said in an interview that UNITA's
top priority right now was antitank and an-
tiaircraft weapons to counter the Angolan
government's Mig fighters, Hind helicopter
gunships and tanks recently supplied by the
Soviet Union.
He said $50 million in military aid would be
more useful than $100 million in humanitar-
ian aid. "Humanitarian assistance is just a way
of evading ... the issue . . . , " he added.
Chitunda asserted that the Soviets had de-
livered $2 billion worth of arms in the past 18
months, but U.S. intelligence sources said it
was more like $1 billion worth since January
1984.
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