In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES
because they wouldn't have the impact of whites. Finally, five
sources seemed to be available: Portuguese, French, Brazilians,
Filipinos, and South Africans.
Portuguese were already being recruited in small numbers by the
FNLA, Colonel Castro, Captain Bento, and their men. We decided
to expand this effort by recruiting three hundred Portuguese Angolans
to support the FNLA. But for UNIT A we needed two dozen
technicians, and Savimbi wouldn't accept Portuguese.
France would not give us regular army troops, but it had no
hesitation concerning mercenaries. The French intelligence service
introduced CIA case officers to onetime Congo mercenary Bob Denard,
and for s 500,000 cash-paid in advance-he agreed to provide
twenty French mercenaries who would "advise" UNIT A on shortterm
contracts. Denard was encrypted UNROBIN/1 and this mercenary
program was UNHOOD. To the waggish the twenty Frenchmen
were "Robin's Hoods" or the "French Hoods" for the duration of
the program.
Brazil seemed also to offer a good source of manpower. Savimbi
and Roberto both thought they could work comfortably with black
Brazilians, who had the advantage of speaking Portuguese. General
Walters, the CIA deputy director, felt sure he could influence the
Brazilian military command to help us recruit. Walters had served
as defense and army attache in Brazil in the mid-196os and was still
somewhat euphoric about that experience. We sent a cable instructing
the chief of station, Brasilia, to query the Brazilians about the
general's desire to visit, but the polite answer came back that Brazil
could not at that time entertain the (highly visible) CIA deputy
director. In Walters's place Dick Sampson, the chief of Latin America
Division, went and returned, empty-handed. The Brazilians politely
declined to permit the recruitment of mercenaries in their
country.
In Vietnam, Filipinos had provided the CIA with extensive help,
keeping radios, vehicles, and air conditioners running, managing
warehouses and tending bar at cocktail parties-all the things that
highly paid CIA staffers could not be expected to do with much
enthusiasm. This support had been managed through a Philippine
company, ECCOI, and, naturally enough, headquarters remembered
and sought the same help for Angola. For five months, beginning in
August, we sent repetitive cables to the Manila station asking it to