In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Disaster (217)
was depleted, and no more secret funds were available. Further
escalations could be financed only with congressional approval, and
the Congress was not cooperative.
The administration attempted unsuccessfully to "borrow" s28
million from the Department of Defense budget. The CIA's last $7
million reserves were committed, to keep our effort alive while desperate
measures were considered.
These combined circumstances, the lack off unds and an uncooperative
Congress, may have saved our nation from a tragic escalation
in Angola-another Vietnam. The s30-60-roo-million options would
have plunged us in deeper, without reversing the situation. We did
not have a thousand mercenaries to send to Angola, and even if we
had, a thousand undiscipJined adventurers would have accomplished
little against ten thousand organized Cuban regular army troops.
Under great pressure to pull a magic ace out of a losing hand, the
CIA decided to use part of the s7 million to recruit the twenty
Frenchmen and three .hundred Portuguese mercenaries. It was a
senseless gesture, but something, at least, to report to the 40 Committee.
And we requested approval to place American advisors in Angola.*
Incredibly, Henry Kissinger, having ordered us to assure our
allies of our full support, having ordered us to seek every means to
escalate the Angolan conflict, could not be bothered to focus on the
situation. He grunted and went to China.
Inside the CIA, in November and December, we buckled down
and worked ever harder, as though the speed with which we answered
cables and produced memos for the working group could
vindicate our ineptness on the battlefield. Potts became obsessed with
the program, swinging in to work on his crutches in the grey chill
of the autumn predawn, his mind brimming with desperate plans for
the program. His safes were finally locked hours after dark, when he
would slowly make his way down the southwest steps, his face still
locked in concentration. His secretary would remain another two
hours at her desk, sorting, typing, and filing his paperwork. The task
force kept the same pace. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays blended
into Mondays and Fridays.
Case officers in the field responded with a comparable effort. Kinshasa
continued a barage of suggestions to headquarters to escalate
*See Prologue, above.