In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Advisors, Technicians, and Foreign Troops [183]
Angola program. The conduct of European and South African
mercenaries in previous African civil wars had left them with a
murderous reputation, and the use of white mercenaries at the crest
of the era of black nationalism was a blunder, I felt, which could only
damage United States credibility in the Third World. In addition, the
mercenaries who have appeared in previous African wars have been
a mixed bag, more often self-serving, jneffective, unmilitary. Potts,
Bantam, Nelson, St. Martin, Foster-all lacked enough experience
in Africa to know that. They tended to idealize mercenaries and
exaggerate their capabilities. And they lacked sensitivity for the
disgust the word "mercenary" stirs in the hearts of black Africans.
Nor did Colby know Africa, although perhaps he was in a class by
himself. The mild, likable, church-going, master case officer who had
commanded the PHOENIX program in Vietnam would hardly have
qualms about a few mercenaries fighting blacks in Africa.
I spoke out in staff meetings and in Potts's office everytime the
subject of mercenaries came up. Whenever a memo or buckslip or
cable about mercenaries circulated the office I added my own critical
comment in the margins, and I did have some effect. After several
weeks of my pressure, the word "mercenary" became tabu at headquarters.
Potts forbade its use in cables, memoranda, and files, at
headquarters and in the field. Thereafter the mercenaries who were
hired and sent to Angola were to be called "foreign military advisors."
And so we proceeded to search the world for acceptable "foreign
military advisors." We began the search with no leads whatsoeverastonishingly,
we found that nowhere in the CIA, not even the
Special Operations Group, with all its experiences in Southeast Asia,
was there a file, reference list, or computer run of individuals who
might be recruited as advisors. Anti-Castro Cubans, such as had
been used in the Congo, the Bay of Pigs, and Watergate, were ruled
out because they carried United States green resident alien cards and
hence would fall under the 40 Committee's restrictions against using
Americans. South Vietnamese refugees were approached, but they
were busy rebuilding their lives in the new world, and were unanimously
wary of a CIA adventure in black Africa. They too carried
green cards. The British refused to help. South Koreans were excluded
because of language and cultural problems. Biafrans and
other Africans were rejected out of political considerations, and