In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Disengagement (247]
The IAMASKs were given a generous bonus and returned to their
plantation.
Others were not so fortunate. It was of course impossible to count
the total numbers of Africans who lost their lives during the program.
The figures doubtless ran into the thousands. No CIA statf ers
were killed or suffered any discomfort worse than malaria, but this
is normal, as the CIA always operates behind the scenes, letting
others run the serious risks. '
The thirteen mercenaries who were captured in northern Angola
in February included three Americans. Gustavo Grillo, Daniel Gearhardt,
and Gary Akers were tried as war criminals, and sentenced
by an international tribunal in Luanda, in June 1976. President Ford
sent personal messages to President Neto pleading for clemency, to
no avail. Gearhardt was executed in Luanda on July 10, 1976, and the
Italian embassy shipped his body back to his widow and four children
in the United States for burial. Akers was sentenced to thirty
years in prison. Grillo received a lesser sentence.
George Bacon III had been killed in an ambush in February.
At headquarters, the task force was disbanded, its people moving
to other assignments. A nucleus of five was retained for nine long
weeks, in case there was an investigation or follow-up activity. With
little to do, I began jogging at noontime, running out the back gate
and down the George Washington Parkway to Turkey Run Park.
There was too much time to reflect on the program and its appalling
mediocrity.
Nothing had worked. We had delivered into Angola thirty thousand
sidearms for ten thousand troops, but nothing equal to the
enemy's 122 mm. rocket. The Swift patrol craft never saw action,
disintegrating in short weeks of the Zairians' pounding misuse. The
twenty-four rubber boats had been lost. The Sagittarius contributed
nothing. Money was wasted on ice plants and fishing boats. Captain
Bento's commandos never could be persuaded to raid and patrol.
Bob Denard and Colonel Castro had made our case officers look silly
in bargaining sessions. The French Hoods had fled, months short of
contract, at exactly the moment UNIT A needed their skills the most.
The European couple fled after a week in Angola, depriving us of
follow-up intelligence from Savimbi's headquarters. The PAC force
never materialized. The SA-7 rockets misfired, without downing a
plane. The French helicopters were delivered without pilots or