In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES
the United States, France saw the Angolan war as a chance to
ingratiate itself with Mobutu. In August French intelligence directors
had met with the CIA's deputy director, Vernon Walters, and
obtained his promise that the CIA would give them s250,ooo as
proof of the United States' good faith in Angola. The money was
delivered, although it was clear to no ope, possibly not even to
General Walters, why the United States had to prove its good faith
in Angola to the French. A liaison evolved in which the CIA briefed
the French intelligence service in detail about its Angola program,
while the French listened carefully but told the CIA nothing about
their own activities in Angola and Cabinda. France did provide
ENTAC antitank missiles, 120 mm. mortar rounds, and ammunition
for Mobutu's Panhard armored cars, which it asked the CIA to haul
from lstres, France, to Kinshasa. In December, France donated four
missile-firing helicopters, which were delivered to Kinshasa by the
CIA without pilots or ground crews.
Black African leaders watched the birthing of the new nation in
their midst with sympathy and jealous interest. By 1975 they had
learned painful lessons about the competition of West and East in
Africa. Almost to a country they had been exploited in civil wars,
coups, arms races, and competitive aid programs by the Soviet
Union, United States, and various European, Asian, and Latin
American countries. They had of course encouraged the Angolan
liberation movements in their struggles against Portuguese colonialism,
and when civil war erupted in July 1975, most had supported
an embargo on the delivery of additional arms to the Angolan factions.
Most were predisposed to resent outside interference in what
they regarded as a purely African matter. The flagrant Soviet arms
program was at first greeted with noisy indignation. All but the
staunchest Soviet allies protested the Soviet interference in Angola.
The new government of Nigeria expressed its concern. President
Nyerere of Tanzania made public speeches criticizing the Soviet
arms program. Idi Amin of Uganda castigated the Soviet Union and
contended with rebels in Chad, and been on call for crises in other areas. French
diplomats and technical advisors have been correspondingly influential in the new
governments, while the French intelligence service has maintained agents throughout
and sent mercenary squads into various situations, the Comoro Islands,
Cabinda, and elsewhere.