In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

[218] IN SF.ARCH OF ENEMIES
the war: mine Luanda harbor, use United States submarines to interdict
shipping, introduce American personnel, air drop firecrackers.
Eve~ CIA station involved in the conflict urged official cooperation
with the South Africans and devised joint operations which would
tempt headquarters into escalating CIA involvement with them. The
Kinshasa station, especially;promoted joint South African activities,
and its officers flew to South Africa to discuss the possibilities. The
Kinshasa station urgently recommended that a U.S. Air Force C-141
be provided to fly six additional twenty-five-pounder cannon with
crews from South Africa to Kinshasa for use in northern Angola,
stating that it was "very much in favor of retaining to the fullest
extent possible South African involvement." It received a frustrated
turndown from headquarters. Undaunted, Kinshasa relayed urgent
South African requests for fuel, for more sophisticated weapons, air
support, and trucks. Then it reported a South African plan to fly a
task force into southern Zaire to attack Texeira da Sousa from the
border. Kinshasa station was encouraged in its policy toward the
South Africans by cables from the CIA stations in Lusaka and
Pretoria.
The French contributed more ammunition and four Allouette
missile-firing helicopters, which U.S. Air Force C-141 airplanes
hauled to Kinshasa in early January. Without pikits or ground crews
they were useless, and the CIA desperately sought mercenaries who
might fly them. We also negotiated with the U.S. Air Force for a
C-130 to support the helicopters at the Angolan battlefronts. The
CIA actually intended to deliver these helicopters and the USAF
C-130 to the South Africans, despite United States policy against
such military collaboration. The French were to be mere intermediaries.
But time ran out, and the South Africans withdrew before
pilots and crews could be located.
In November, a security officer hand-carried a report from Kinshasa
to headquarters, charging that the immoral personal conduct
and the insecure operations of CIA personnel in Kinshasa were an
embarassment to the United States charge d'affaires. Such a report
from a security officer would normally carry some weight, but once
again the agency's lack of an effective inspector general was exposed,
as the DDO and director took no disciplinary action.
The program was four months old and TDY officers began rotating
back from the field, bringing with them anecdotes and personal
accounts of the things that don't get written into official cables, the