In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

12
Business and Money
What role does international business play in operations like Cuba,
and wars like the Congo, Vietnam, and Angola?
In Angola several transnational giants, including Gulf, Boeing,
DeBeers, Mobil, and numerous smaller companies had interests in
the outcome. Before the war Gulf Oil had exclusive access to the
Cabindan oil fields. Boeing had contracted to sell two of its 737
jetliners to T AAG, the Angolan national airline, and to install commercial
radar control systems at the principal Angolan airports. In
September 1975, a New York financier interviewed me for employment
as his company's Angolan representative. The offer was fun but
it was contingent on a quick and satisfactory resolution of the war,
at which time the financier was poised to exploit Angolan diamonds
and other mineral resources.
Since 1968 Gulf had been pumping 150,000 barrels a day from 120
wells off the coast of Cabinda. It was paying s500 million per year
in royalties to the Angolan colonial government for this oil. All that
was interrupted in the fall of 1975. Gulf did make the September