In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Our Little·Known Allies
On Friday, August 8, the 40 Committee met to discuss Angola; we
had spent the day before scrambling to get ready, preparing elaborate
charts for Colby's use in explaining the progress of the program. We
had worked for hours in Potts's office devising a simplified, yet
upbeat presentation, laced with carefully chosen phrases to achieve
a positive tone. The format for each chart was initially handwritten
on scratch paper by Potts himself; then we filled in the blanks with
appropriate figures and details.
The charts were to be typed onto 8-by-n 1/2-inch sheets of paper
and delivered to Graphics, where a layout would be perfected and
a 30-by-40-inch chart produced either by hand or by photographic
enlargement, and mounted on a professional poster board. It was a
laborious, maddening process. Every time a chart neared final form
Potts would rewrite it or change the format and we would start all
over agam.
This routine had continued all day and until 10:00 P.M., with Potts
making major changes in his own originals five or six times. When
he finally relented, I felt that the presentation made a strong case for
what we had done so far. One chart showed, in contrasting colors,
the estimated troop strengths of the three movements: MPLA 20,-
000; FNLA 15,000, with 2,500 attacking Caxito; UNITA 4,000;
white Angolans with the FNLA, 20. Roberto had repeatedly claimed
to have 30,000 troops, but we had arbitrarily halved that figure
because none of us believed him. Anyway, it would sound better, in
view of Roberto's recent defeats, to keep the figure lower. Colby was
to explain that we did not have accurate figures for the MPLA troop
strengths. The "Accomplishments" board was broken into "Military"
and "Political" sections, and included such things as "Mobutu
persuaded to send FNLA nine Panhards and arms for two battalions";
and "Three plane-loads of arms delivered to Kinshasa"­
Colby would mention the size of these C-141 transports for emphasis.
Under "Political" there were items like " World sensitized to Soviet
arms shipments"; and "Mobutu and Kuanda brought onboard."
Another chart laid out our budget for the s14 million. We threw in
an attractive little map of Angola, so Colby could show the committee
members where Luanda and Caxito and Ambriz were. We also
included a briefing sheet of pertinent details for Colby's use. He
ought to do well in front of a sympathetic committee. Potts would
be there to back him up.