In the latest of a series of revelations about the worldwide operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Stockwell, a former CIA official, has provided a detailed firsthand account of the agency's substantial role in the Angolan civil war of 1975-76.*
The American government's "secret" war against the Angolan freedom struggle reached extensive proportions, threatening to escalate into yet another long and bloody American intervention similar to the one that had just ended in Vietnam.
Though many of the details of the U.S. involvement could not be confirmed at the time, it included large infusions of arms and money to Washington's local allies, the provision of a number of American military advisers who actually served in Angola, and close collaboration with the racist South African regime, which had sent several thousand of its own troops into the war-torn country.
Stockwell, whose book In Search of Enemies first appeared in bookstores May 8, was in a position to know the full story. He was not some low-grade field officer, but the chief of the CIA's Angola task force, which was encharged with carrying out the day-to-day operations of the covert war.
Stockwell had been with the CIA for more than a decade, serving three previous tours in Africa and one in Vietnam. He says that he became disillusioned with the agency as a result of his Angola experiences, and subsequently resigned in April 1977. Using some classified material and his own voluminous notes, Stockwell secretly wrote his account of the Angolan war. The book's publication was not announced until the day before it was released, to prevent the CIA from trying to block or censor it.
Noting that he had signed an oath of secrecy when he first joined the CIA in 1964, Stockwell declares that he no longer feels bound by that oath as a result of the agency's patently illegal operations.
Caught by Surprise
Although the CIA had maintained sporadic contact with Angolan nationalist forces before the April 1974 coup in Portugal, Washington's overall policy was to
*John Stockwell, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978). 285 pages. $12.95.
CONGO
250 Miles //// ZAIRE
CABINDA • Ambrizete