In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

[222] IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES
A cable shot right back from Paris, energetically relaying Denard's
arguments that he had been burned once before, when
Mobutu had diverted CIA funds and failed to meet his payrolls. Now
he would only work with cash in advance. Once again I balked-this
time Denard was working directly with a CIA case officer and we
could crack the whip at him by asking the French to intervene.
Nevertheless Potts, making reference to mercenary "honorn and
"professional codes," authorized payment of 50 percent immediately
and the remainder when the first mercenaries boarded planes in Paris
bound for Kinshasa. The total had been increased to s425,ooo to
include life insurance for the twenty men. Eventually it would be
increased again, to s500,ooo.
The first eleven "Hoods" arrived in Kinshasa January 10, and for
two days were trained by CIA weapons experts in the use of the SA-7
ground-to-air missile. Then they were flown to Silva Porto in IAFEA­
TURE airplanes. The remainder went into Angola on January 27. One
of them was obviously a French agent.
Our Portuguese mercenary program received even less enthusiastic
support from me. The black Angolans had just won a bloody,
fifteen-year struggle against the Portuguese. To ally ourselves with
the same Portuguese losers, especially when the Soviets were represented
in Angola by popular Cuban revolutionaries, was the height
of foolishness. Nor could we expect our Portuguese force to stand
against the Cuban juggernaut that was forming.
The Portuguese recruitment program nevertheless moved forward.
A CIA case officer met Colonel Castro in Madrid in early
December and with the help of an interpreter, working in hotel
rooms, began to hammer out a program for the recruitment of
three-hundred men. First, Colonel Castro opened a bank account
to which the CIA finance office in Berne deposited s55,ooo for
operating expenses; and then Avery gave him another s55,ooo in
untraceable cash. They signed an agreement, approved by headquarters,
in which Colonel Castro agreed to recruit, pay, and direct
the three-hundred Angolan (refugee) Portuguese commandos
to fight alongside the FNLA in Angola. Colonel Castro would be
reimbursed for all recruiting expenses, three-hundred round-trip
plane tickets to Kinshasa, salaries and bonuses, maintenance in
Angola, and medical expenses up to a grand total of $1.5 million.
The contract obliged the men to fight in Angola for five months.
The salary scale was:
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