Our man in Angola
Angola, a country of some 32 million people along the southwest coast of Africa, endured centuries as a colony of Portugal followed by long years of war to gain independence, then long years of civil war.
At the end of the 1980s, the country was politically divided; the government was supported by the Soviet Union, assisted by Cuban forces, but UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) controlled large swaths of the country, with aid from South Africa and the United States.
In this late phase of the Cold War, the international community wanted to defuse flashpoints that could heat up the situation, such as former African colonies where superpowers supported opposite sides in civil strife.
The United Nations brokered an Angola peace agreement in 1988, culminat...
