Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Angola Essays -- essays research papers
In past centuries, Angola was among the areas most-devastated by the slave trade. In recent decades, it has been afflicted with wars. However, in both eras, much of the violence was driven by powerful external forces. This is because Angola, with an abundance of oil and other resources, could develop into a very prosperous country if led and controlled by the right power. In 1975 Angola was released from colonialism by Portugal. This pivotal event in history sparked the beginning of a massive conflict between many of the key players in world power. These key players included the United States, Cuba, China, and the Soviet Union.      After reading three separate accounts of the crisis in Angola (U.S. Senate hearings led by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a personal memoir by 1975 Assistant Secretary of State Nathaniel Davis, and a biography entitled In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story by John Stockwell), I have come to several conclusions. Although these three men all held important positions in the U.S. government, multiple contradictions exist in their chronologies of events. Of the discrepancies I found, all of them put Stockwell in opposition with Kissinger and Davis. I believe this is due to his position in the Central Intelligence Agency, where the greater availability of information was his advantage. Moreover, since all three accounts agree that the U.S. involvement was essentially a covert operation led by the CIA, I feel the account written by Stockwell was the most valid of the three.      When looking at the differences in chronologies, it is necessary to start from the beginning of the conflict. The first difference I found dealt with CIA involvement in Angola. Stockwell, â€Å"an experienced, senior CIA case officer†(Stockwell, 31), marked early July 1974 as the start of CIA support.      In July 1974 the CIA began funding Roberto without 40 committee      approval, small amounts at first, but enough for word to get around      that the CIA was dealing itself into the race...During the fall of 1974      the CIA continued to fund Roberto, still without 40 committee      approval... (Stockwell, 67). However, Davis describes that covert support did not begin until ... ...ola.      In terms of Henry Kissinger, I believe that his knowledge of covert activity was underestimated. However, his immense focus on the Soviet Union throughout his entire account precluded such information.          With any event of such historical significance you are going to have many different opinions about the order of its events, especially when the event concerns a number of world powers. In this case, all three accounts supplied factual information. However, the explanations of Davis and Kissinger did not account for classified information. Stockwell was at an advantageous position to view the Angola crisis unencumbered. He was a member of the CIA and knew the interworkings of its plan, and for this reason I see his account as the most substantial.                                                  Â
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