Download or read book The Origins of the Angolan Civil War written by Fernando Andresen Guimaraes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-08 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation of the origins of the Angolan civil war of 1975-76. By looking at the interaction between internal and external factors, it reveals the domestic roots of the conflict and the impact of foreign intervention on the civil war. The formative influence of colonialism and anti-colonialism on the emergence of Angolan rivalry since 1961 is described, and the externalization of that power struggle is analysed from a perspective of both international and domestic politics.
Download or read book Battle For Angola written by Al J. Venter and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the publication of Al Venter’s successful Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa - shortlisted by the New York Military Affairs Symposium’s 'Arthur Goodzeit Book Award for 2013' - his Battle for Angola delves still further into the troubled history of this former Portuguese African colony. This is a completely fresh work running to almost 600 pages including 32 pages of color photos, with the main thrust on events before and after the civil war that followed Lisbon’s over-hasty departure back to the metrópole. There are also several sections that detail the role of South African mercenaries in defeating the rebel leader Dr Jonas Savimbi (considered by some as the most accomplished guerrilla leader to emerge in Africa in the past century). There are many chapters that deal with Pretoria’s reaction to the deteriorating political and military situation in Angola, the role of the Soviets and mercenaries in the political transition, as well as the civil war that followed. With the assistance of several notable military authorities he elaborates in considerable detail on South Africa’s 23-year Border War, from the first guerrilla incursions to the last. In this regard he received solid help from the former the head of 4 Reconnaissance Regiment, Colonel Douw Steyn, who details several cross-border Recce strikes, including the sinking by frogmen of two Soviet ships and a Cuban freighter in an Angolan deepwater port. Throughout, the author was helped by a variety of notable authorities, including the French historian Dr René Pélissier and the American academic and former naval aviator Dr John (Jack) Cann. With their assistance, he covers several ancillary uprisings and invasions, including the Herero revolt of the early 20th century; the equally troubled Ovambo insurrection, as well as the invasion of Angola by the Imperial German Army in the First World War. Former deputy head of the South African Army Major General Roland de Vries played a seminal role. It was he - dubbed ‘South Africa’s Rommel’ by his fellow commanders - who successfully nurtured the concept of ‘mobile warfare’ where, in a succession of armored onslaughts ‘thin-skinned’ Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicles tackled Soviet main battle tanks and thrashed them. There is a major section on South African Airborne – the ‘Parabats’ –by Brigadier-General McGill Alexander, one of the architects of that kind of warfare under Third World conditions. Finally, the role of Cuban Revolutionary Army receives the attention it deserves: officially there were almost 50,000 Cuban troops deployed in the Angolan war, though subsequent disclosures in Havana suggest that the final total was much higher.
Download or read book Political Identity and Conflict in Central Angola 1975 2002 written by Justin Pearce and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the internal politics of the war that divided Angola for more than a quarter-century after independence. In contrast to earlier studies, its emphasis is on Angolan people's relationship to the rival political forces that prevented the development of a united nation. Pearce's argument is based on original interviews with farmers and town dwellers, soldiers and politicians in Central Angola. He uses these to examine the ideologies about nation and state that elites deployed in pursuit of hegemony, and traces how people responded to these efforts at politicisation. The material presented here demonstrates the power of the ideas of state and nation in shaping perceptions of self-interest and determining political loyalty. Yet the book also shows how political allegiances could and did change in response to the experience of military force. In so doing, it brings the Angolan case to the centre of debates on conflict in post-colonial Africa.
Download or read book A Political History of the Civil War in Angola 1974 1990 written by W. Martin James III and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-04 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Portugal's colonial rule in Angola ended in 1974, three liberation groups-UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola), and MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola)-agreed to a tripartite movement for the fledgling nation. Conflicts quickly arose and the MPLA, with Cuban and Soviet assistance, drove its rivals from the capital, instigating a civil war, which continues into three periods (1975-1991, 1992-94, and 1998-2002). This volume covers the first period, focusing on the political history of the UNITA movement and its struggles with the MPLA. The Angolan civil war was the product of personal jealousies, contrasting ideologies, and ethnic animosities. From its inception, the conflict between UNITA and Angola's Marxist government was an international affair involving the U. S., the USSR, China, and many African states: W. Martin James III, who wrote his book near the close of the first period of civil war, contends that despite Gorbachev's "new thinking" and talk of peaceful solutions to regional conflicts, Soviet policy toward Angola marked a reversion to the Brezhnev Doctrine. The biggest MPLA-Cuban offenses occurred during Gorbachev's tenure with Soviet advisers at the brigade level directing an MPLA offensive. American policy toward Angola is also examined here. This is the first book to emphasize the dynamic role of UNITA in the Angolan liberation movement. James acknowledges that the importance of foreign powers in guaranteeing a government of national reconciliation. Just as important are strategies of compromise requiring trust in a political context where it is violated and submission for the common good where defiance is a remnant of the colonial past. Foreign policy analysts, African area specialists, and scholars of post-colonial history find this volume indispensible.
Download or read book War in Angola written by Helmoed-R. Heitman and published by Ashanti Publishing. This book was released on 1990 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Magnificent and Beggar Land written by Ricardo Soares de Oliveira and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnificent and Beggar Land is a powerful account of fast-changing dynamics in Angola, an important African state that is a key exporter of oil and diamonds and a growing power on the continent. Based on three years of research and extensive first-hand knowledge of Angola, it documents the rise of a major economy and its insertion in the international system since it emerged in 2002 from one of Africa's longest and deadliest civil wars. The government, backed by a strategic alliance with China and working hand in glove with hundreds of thousands of expatriates, many from the former colonial power, Portugal, has pursued an ambitious agenda of state-led national reconstruction. This has resulted in double-digit growth in Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy and a state budget in excess of total western aid to the entire continent. Scarred by a history of slave trading, colonial plunder and war, Angolans now aspire to the building of a decent society. How has the regime, led by President José Eduardo dos Santos since 1979, dealt with these challenges, and can it deliver on popular expectations? Soares de Oliveira's book charts the remarkable course the country has taken in recent years.
Download or read book A Far Away War written by Ian Liebenberg and published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. This book was released on 2016-01-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Africa?s armed forces invaded Angola in 1975, setting off a war that had consequences for the whole region that are still felt today. A Far-Away War contributes to a wider understanding of this war in Angola and Namibia. The book does not only look at the war from an ?old? South African (Defence Force) perspective, but also gives a voice to participants ?on the other side? ? emphasising the role of the Cubans and Russians. This focus is supplemented by the inclusion of many never-before-published photographs from Cuban and Russian archives, and a comprehensive bibliography.
Download or read book Cuba and Angola written by Harry Villegas and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When we face new and unexpectedchallenges we will always be able torecall the epic of Angola with gratitude.Without Angola we would not be asstrong as we are today."--RAÚL CASTRO, MAY 1991Beginning in 1975 an epic battle was waged for the future ofsouthern Africa. The Angolan people had just thrown off 500years of Portuguese colonial brutality. Now South Africa'swhite supremacist regime, spurred by Washington, had invadedAngola. Its goal: to impose a government beholden toPretoria and imperialism.Angola's government appealed for help. The response ofCuba's leadership was immediate and decisive. A hard-foughtwar for freedom ended in 1988 at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale,with the crushing defeat of South Africa's army byAngolan, Cuban, and Namibian combatants.This is the story of Cuba's unparalleled contribution to thefight to free Africa from the scourge of apartheid. And how, inthe doing, Cuba's socialist revolution also was strengthened.Harry Villegas is a brigadier general of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.He is known the world over as "Pombo," the nom de guerre given him by ErnestoChe Guevara, at whose side he worked and fought in Cuba, the Congo, and Bolivia.
Download or read book The Ruling Elite of Singapore written by Michael D. Barr and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-01-17 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Barr explores the complex and covert networks of power at work in one of the world's most prosperous countries - the city-state of Singapore. He argues that the contemporary networks of power are a deliberate project initiated and managed by Lee Kuan Yew - former prime minister and Singapore's 'founding father' - designed to empower himself and his family. Barr identifies the crucial institutions of power - including the country's sovereign wealth funds, and the government-linked companies - together with five critical features that form the key to understanding the nature of the networks. He provides an assessment of possible shifts of power within the elite in the wake of Lee Kuan Yew's son, Lee Hsien Loong, assuming power, and considers the possibility of a more fundamental democratic shift in Singapore's political system.
Download or read book The USSR in Third World Conflicts written by Bruce D. Porter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1986-07-25 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a thorough and sophisticated study of one of the most critical current issues in world politics. Bruce Porter examines Soviet policy and behaviour in Third World conflicts in the postwar period, focusing particularly on five examples: the Yemeni civil war, the Nigerian civil war, the Yom Kippur war, the Angolan civil war, and the Ogaden war. Aiming to illuminate various complex tactical and operational aspects of the USSR's policy in local conflicts, the author draws on a wide and eclectic range of sources. He pays close attention to the Soviet role as arms supplier and diplomatic actor in relation to both US policy and the dynamics of the local conflict, and he concludes with a careful consideration of the effectiveness of Soviet policy and of the implications for the United States.
Download or read book Angola s Deadly War written by John Prendergast and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Death of Dignity written by Victoria Brittain and published by Pluto Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Tells the miserable story of a revolution destroyed, analysing the moves of the mighty and speaking up for the millions who have suffered as a result.' Guardian'Few journalists know Angola better than Victoria Brittain. This is an excellent and timely account of a conflict for which we in the West share much of the blame.' Jon Snow
Download or read book The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale written by Leopold Scholtz and published by Africa@War. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The battle for the town of Cuito Cuanavale is a myth. The conduct of Operations Modular, Hooper, Packer and Displace by South African and UNITA forces in the 6th Military Region of southeastern Angola initially prevented FAPLA and its allies from occupying the UNITA town of Mavinga. The success achieved in this endeavor then led to the conduct of offensive military operations to force FAPLA and its allies to relinquish their bridgehead over the Cuito River and to redeploy to the western bank at Cuito Cuanavale. The FAPLA deployment and occupation of Cuito Cuanavale, on the western bank of the Cuito River, was never contested militarily by opposing forces during 1987 and 1988.
Download or read book The War for Africa written by Fred Bridgland and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-06-19 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “gripping” story of the Angolan Civil War and how it evolved into a Cold War struggle between superpowers (New York Journal of Books). Lasting over a quarter of a century, from 1975 to 2002, the Angolan Civil War began as a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the MPLA and UNITA—but became a Cold War struggle with involvement from the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa, and the United States. This book examines the height of the Cuban-South African fighting in Angola in 1987–88, when three thousand South African soldiers and about eight thousand UNITA guerrilla fighters fought in alliance against the Cubans and the armed forces of the Marxist MPLA government, a force of over fifty thousand men. Fred Bridgland pieced together the course of the war, fought in one of the world’s most remote and wild terrains, by interviewing the South Africans who fought it, and many of their stories are woven into the narrative. This classic account of a Cold War struggle and its momentous consequences for the participants and the continent now includes a new preface and epilogue. “Highlights just how much political and social considerations dictate the outcome of war . . . A highly detailed work of military history, The War for Africa can tell us a lot about the nature of counter-insurgency warfare and how small states can become contested battlegrounds between superpowers.” —New York Journal of Books
Download or read book CIA and British Mercenaries in Angola 1975 1976 written by Stephen Rookes and published by Africa@War. This book was released on 2021-02-28 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1974 Carnation Revolution came as a blessing for independence movements in Portugal's African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. As had been the case in a number of sub-Saharan countries suddenly finding themselves free of the colonial yoke, the political vacuum left behind by a previously omnipresent power gave different factions the opportunity to impose their own form of rule. Angola was no different: civil war broke out in 1975 and was to last until 2002. In some ways the Angolan civil war bore similarities to the one which had taken place in neighboring DRC. Too much was at stake for the West not to intervene in some shape or form and in July 1975 President Ford authorized the CIA to provide covert assistance to the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). With South Africa providing military support against a Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), another southwestern African nation became the battleground for a war of ideologies. In 1975-1976, no fewer than nine different armed forces were involved in the fighting. In addition, a large group of British mercenaries were recruited to train FNLA soldiers. The role of these soldiers of fortune would end in ignominy, death and legislative changes intended to rid mercenaries from conflict forever. From Operation IA/FEATURE to Massacre at Maquela examines the dynamics of the Angolan civil war and takes the reader into the inner workings of geopolitical interests, of CIA covert operations and mercenary recruitment. It examines clandestine arms and money laundering networks; takes us from the heart of the Vietnam War to Australian banks, and takes us into dealings between the US and British governments in operations far removed from, but connected to, the Angolan Civil War.
Download or read book Angola s War Economy written by Jakkie Cilliers and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War written by Peter Polack and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating chronicle of the Cold War battle where US and Soviet weapons, as well as Cuban and South African troops, took part in the Angolan Civil War. In the late 1980s, as America prepared to claim its victory in the Cold War over the Soviet Union, a bloody war still raged in Southern Africa, where proxy forces from both sides vied for control of Angola. The socialist Angolan government, stocked with Soviet weapons, had only to wipe out the resistance group UNITA, secretly supplied by the United States, in order to claim sovereignty. But as Angolan forces gained the upper hand, apartheid-era South Africa stepped in to protect its own interests. The white army crossing the border prompted the Angolans to call on their own foreign reinforcements—the army of Communist Cuba. Thus began the epic Battle of Cuito Cuanavale: an odd match-up of South African Boers against Castro’s armed forces. While South Africa was subject to an arms boycott since 1977, the Cuban and Angolan troops had the latest Soviet weapons. But UNITA had its secret US supply line, and the South Africans knew how to fight. As a case study of ferocious fighting between East and West, The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War unveils a remarkable episode in the endgame of the Cold War—one that is largely unknown to the American public.
