In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

10
Advisors, Technicians,
and Foreign Troops
The Marine Corps major, who had assisted the task force with
logistical planning, visited Ambriz (in civilian clothes) and returned
to report: "You would have to see it to believe it. I drove around in
a jeep with Commandant Lukenge, who is supposed to be the
FNLA's best soldier. I picked his M-79 grenade-launcher up one
time and tried to open it; you know it breaks open like a single-barrel
shotgun. It was rusted shut! He had had it only a few weeks and it
was rusted so tight I couldn't force it open. The same thing is
happening to their rifles, mortars, and vehicles. They need help!" Of
over three hundred Panhard armored cars Zaire had received from
France since 1970, less than thirty were still operational at the time
of the Angola war in 1975.
The CIA was delivering adequate quantities of arms and ammunition
but the "friendly" forces were not able to organize the logistical
systems necessary to deploy them or to develop the communications,
maintenance, combat leadership, and discipline to organize an effective
military effort.