In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

CIA Y. Congress [233]
In mid-January the French announced their disengagement. The
Zairian Seventh and Fourth commandos continued straggling across
the border into Zaire.
An OAU summit meeting was scheduled for January 11 and 12,
1976, and the United States became almost desperate to avoid censure
by a majority of the African leaders. William Schaufele, the undersecretary
of state for African affairs, be~an a hasty tour of Africa,
seeking support. President Ford sent personal letters to thirty-two
African chiefs of state. Ambassador Moynihan continued to attack
the Soviet program in the UN. The CIA marshaled every agent it
could muster and sent them to Addis Ababa. A task force officer flew
from Washington to Addis Ababa to bolster the CIA station's behind-the-scenes
efforts to influence the outcome. Even then the
agency was greatly relieved to achieve a 22- 22 deadlock tie in the
voting on the Angolan issue. The relief was only temporary. Within
six weeks, forty-one of the forty-six OAU members had recognized
the MPLA government in Luanda.
The military situation turned from bad to disastrous. Without
South African armor and leadership, UNITA could not stand in the
face of the Cuban/MPLA advances. Savimbi reported one engagement
east of Luso which left him stoically incredulous at the Cubans'
use of helicopters in a vertical envelopment. At night the UNIT A
force had been facing several hundred Katangese troops, he said, and
the next morning they found a full battalion suddenly behind them,
attacking from the rear and blocking their retreat. UNIT A's position
crumbled rapidly throughout central Angola. By February 1,
Savimbi was pushed back to Huambo and Silva Porto, not sure how
long he could hold those.
In Washington the intent of the Senate was clear enough, it wanted
to halt the Angola program. Technically, however, the Tunney
Amendment only restricted future funds, and we still had s5 million
of the original s31.7 million. The CIA urgently tried to use that
money for more arms flights, while the administration sought to
squeeze another $9 million out of the CI A's FY 75 budget. The
administration continued exhorting the CIA; in a 40 Committee
meeting in the White House situation room on January 6, Bill Hyland,
the deputy to the national security advisor to the president,
instructed the CIA to concentrate on winning the war, and urged the
recruitment of mercenaries and the shipment of weapons like the