Crowded Little War

Like the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the Angolan civil war has become an arena of major-power rivalry. The Soviet Union has shipped large quantities of arms and supplies to the former Portuguese colony--everything from armored cars to electric generators--and giant Antonov 22s fly every day to Luanda, the capital of the Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.). Some 3,000 Cubans have been fighting on the leftist side for weeks, and U.S. intelligence now says Havana has increased its force to something close to 5,000 men. In addition, U.S. officials believe Moscow may have 400 of its own advisers in Angola.

Washington claims that the U.S. has not matched the Russian effort, but the U.S. is nonetheless deeply involved--mainly in support of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.), one of the two factions fighting the M.P.L.A. Since last summer, the U.S. has sent as much as $25 million worth of military supplies to Angola, Washington officials conceded last week, ranging from rockets and antitank weapons to rifles and mortars. Another $25 million has been allocated. U.S. aid is transmitted through Zaire, which has a 1,200-mile border with Angola.

Grabby, Pushy. Outsiders are helping both sides, and an American who says he represents Portuguese interests has advertised for American mercenaries in California. Last week Long Island's Newsday reported that the Congress of Racial Equality has also been trying to recruit black Viet Nam veterans to oppose the M.P.L.A.

"We [are] offering them a chance to fight in one just war for Black Africa," CORE Chairman Roy Innis told Newsday reporters. "I know the aggressive nature of the Soviets. They are grabby and pushy ... We are not mercenaries. We are Africans abroad. The Cubans, the Russians, the South Africans, the CIA--they are the mercenaries." Innis denied that his recruiting drive was being sponsored by the CIA, but the newspaper quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying that, in fact, it was. Innis has ties with Uganda's President Idi Amin, who is opposed to the M.P.L.A., and he may also be trying to ingratiate himself with Amin.

Whatever the U.S. is now doing, the Russians seem to have started earlier with more, and the Soviet-backed force appears to be winning on all fronts.

At a NATO conference in Brussels last week, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the Soviet activity in Angola, which is plainly far outside Moscow's normal range of interests, was a threat to detente. Soviet domination of Angola was inadmissible, Kissinger said. The Russians, however, give their intervention precisely the opposite interpretation, professing surprise that the U.S. should care about a country so far away from its own borders.

Still a third interpretation comes from Iowa Democrat Richard Clark, head of the African subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Clark, who has talked with the leaders of a11 three Angolan factions, believes that they all have much the same goals and that the Russians may just be wasting their money in backing the M.P.L.A. "The history of Soviet intervention in Africa," says Clark, "is one of almost total failure. If the M.P.L.A. wins, the Soviets will be lucky if they can hang on for a year or two."

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