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Abstract
This article examines Cuba's contribution to the independence of Namibia. It focuses on the Cuban response to the massacre of Cassinga in 1978 and the successful Cuban offensive against the South African army in southern Angola in 1988. It is based on documents from the closed Cuban archives, on US documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and on the South African and Namibian press.
Notes
[1] Interview with Claudia Uushona, Havana, 16 January 2004.
[2] “Informe de la conversación sostenida entre Jorge Risquet y Sam Nujoma,” Luanda, 12 May 1978, 3, Archives of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, Havana (hereafter ACC).
[3] MINFAR, “Mensaje trasmitido por el J'RIM Sur,” Centro de Información de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, Havana (hereafter CIFAR); General Menéndez Tomassevich, “Informe de la Comisión del EM de la MMCA sobre la agresión surafricana al poblado de Cassinga el 4 de mayo de 1978,” 6 May 1978, CIFAR.
[4] Neto, in “Notas sobre la entrevista del general de división Senén Casas y el presidente Neto,” Luanda, 19 May 1978, 8, ACC; CitationSteenkamp, Borderstrike!, 90.
[5] See CitationSoiri and Pertola, Finland and National Liberation; CitationEriksen, Norway and National Liberation; CitationSellström, Liberation in Southern Africa; CitationSellström, Sweden and National Liberation; CitationMorgenstierne, Denmark and National Liberation. See also CitationGleijeses, “Scandinavia and the Liberation of Southern Africa.”
[6] See CitationGleijeses, Conflicting Missions.
[7] My discussion of the Angolan civil war and its international ramifications in this and the next four paragraphs is based on CitationGleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 230–396.
[8] Robert Hultslander (CIA station chief, Luanda, 1975), fax to Piero Gleijeses, 22 December 1998, 3.
[9] CitationKissinger, Years of Renewal, 785.
[10] That Havana acted independently and challenged Moscow in late 1975 turns established wisdom about the relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union on its head – so much so that even serious western scholars are tempted to ignore the hard evidence detailed in Cuban and US documents that dovetail with remarkable precision and regularity. In a recent book, Odd Arne Westad writes that between November 1975 and mid-January 1976 the Soviets transported ‘more than twelve thousand soldiers from Cuba to Angola’, even though declassified US documents in the National Security Archive in Washington confirm beyond any doubt that the Soviet airlift began only on 9 January. (See CitationWestad, The Global Cold War, 234–36, 236 quoted; Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions, 367–9; CitationGleijeses, “The View from Havana.”
[11] The outcome in Angola also influenced US policy toward Rhodesia. Fear that the Cubans might replicate their Angolan exploit in Rhodesia forced Kissinger to turn against the racist white regime in Salisbury and helped keep Carter on the narrow good path until Zimbabwe was finally born in 1980. (See 's superb, “Race and Realpolitik: Jimmy Carter and Africa,” forthcoming in 2007, and, by the same author, “Tropes of the Cold War: Jimmy Carter and Rhodesia,” in this volume.)
[12] See, for example, Risquet to Castro, 20 December 1976; MemoConv (Risquet, Nujoma), 29 April 1977; MemoConv (Risquet, Nujoma), 12 June 1977; Risquet to Castro, 9 September 1977; “Sobre la reunión tripartita de Lubango,” 22 September 1977, enclosed in Risquet to Castro, 23 September 1977; “Memorandum para las solicitudes de materiales a la URSS de parte de Sam Nujoma,” 25 September 1977; “Apuntes de la reunión celebrada el 25 de septiembre de 1977 entre Risquet, Sam Nujoma y los generales Ponomarenko y Tomassevich,” enclosed in Vernier to Risquet, 27 September 1977; MemoConv (Risquet, Nujoma), 12 October 1977. For a detailed description of Cuba's relations with SWAPO in 1976–78, see Departamento General de Relaciones Exteriores del CC del PCC, “La SWAPO,” 16 October 1979. (All ACC).
[13] CitationGeldenhuys, A General's Story, 59.
[14] CitationBreytenbach, Buffalo Soldiers, 141–219, 148 quoted; CitationStiff, The Silent War, 186–204; CitationGreeff, A Greater Share of Honour, 86–101; CitationNortje, 32 Battalion, 95–124.
[15] Times (London), 10 May 1978, 7.
[16] Nicolas Bwakira, Juan Ortiz-Blanco and Tor Sellström, “Rapport Conjoint des Réprésentants du Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les refugiés et de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé sur leur visite à Cassinga et aux refugiés Namibiens,” Luanda, 30 May 1978, 1–2. See also UNICEF Area Office, “Report on a Mission to SWAPO Centres for Namibia Refugees in Angola from 10 to 14 April 1978,” Brazzaville, 2 May 1978; Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation, 2: 349–56; CitationHeywood, The Cassinga Event; CitationTruth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Report, 2: 46–55; CitationCollelo, Angola: A Country Study, 46. For South African perspectives of the operation, see Steenkamp, Borderstrike!, 1–141; CitationPaul, Parabat, 22–59.
[17] My comment on the western press is based on my examination of the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Globe and Mail (Toronto), Le Devoir (Montreal), Le Monde, Corriere della Sera (Milano).
[18] See United Nations Security Council Official Records, 2078th Meeting, 6 May 1978, 1–20 and Resolutions and Decisions of the Security Council, Resolution 428 (1978) of 6 May 1978, 9–10.
[19] “Informal Exchange with Reporters,” Portland, Oregon, 5 May 1978, United States General Services Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1978, 1, 855.
[20] “Informe de la conversación sostenida entre Jorge Risquet y Sam Nujoma,” Luanda, 12 May 1978, 4–5, ACC.
[21] Interview with Claudia Uushona. See also MemoConv (Risquet, Nujoma), 11 June 1978, 3, enclosed in Dalmau to Risquet, Luanda, 12 June 1978; MemoConv (Risquet, Nujoma), 5 October 1978, enclosed in Dalmau to Risquet, 6 October 1978; Departamento General de Relaciones Exteriores del CC del PCC, “La SWAPO,” 16 October 1979, 344–7; CitationColina la Rosa et al., “Estudiantes extranjeros en la Isla de la Juventud.” I visited the Namibian schools in Cuba in 1980 and 1981.
[22] The remainder of this essay is drawn from the book I am writing on US and Cuban policy in southern Africa from 1976 through 1994. The first results of my research appear in my essays: “Moscow's Proxy?”, “Kuba in Afrika” and “Conflicting Versions.”
[23] For the best discussion of the international politics of Namibia in the Carter years see CitationDreyer, Namibia and Southern Africa, 105–44 and CitationKarns, “Ad Hoc Multilateral Diplomacy.”
[24] Interview with John (Jay)Taylor, Arlington, VA, 20 April 2006.
[25] US Chargé Walker to SecState, Cape Town, 22 October 1981, Section 1, 1, Freedom of Information Act (hereafter FOIA).
[26] Ambassador Stephen Lewis, United Nations Security Council Official Records, 2588th Meeting, 13 June 1985, 10–11.
[27] Pik Botha, 7 May 1988, Republic of South Africa, Debates of Parliament, sixth sess., eighth parliament, col. 9404.
[28] P. W. Botha, in Business Day, (Johannesburg), 26 March 1987, 1.
[29] Perkins (US ambassador, Pretoria) to SecState, 17 April 1987, FOIA.
[30] Quotations from: General Gleeson, Namibian (Windhoek), 6 May 1988, 5; Star (Johannesburg), 5 May 1988, 3; General Secretary Dr. Abisai Shejavali, “We Will Not Be Consoled,” Namibian, 29 April 1988, 6. The black banner quote is from Namibian, 6 May 1988, 1. Next to Thatcher's England, West Germany was the major opponent of sanctions within the European Community (see CitationBrenke, Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Namibia-Konflikt, and CitationEngel, Die Afrikapolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 185–217).
[31] United Nations Security Council resolution 602, 25 November 1987, United Nations Security Council Official Records, 2767th Meeting, 12–13.
[32] SecState to Amembassy Pretoria, 5 December 1987, FOIA.
[33] Star, 21 January 1988, 1.
[34] For a list of the men and materiel Cuba sent to Angola, see MINFAR, “Buques Maniobra XXXI Aniversario,” nd; MINFAR, “Algunos datos solicitados sobre la operación ‘XXXI Aniversario (Refuerzo)’,” 22 December 1989; MINFAR, “Antecedentes y desarrollo de la maniobra ‘XXXI Aniversario del desembarco del Granma’,” nd. All CIFAR.
[35] “Reunión de análisis de la situación de las tropas cubanas en la RPA, efectuada a partir de las 17:25 horas del 15.11.1987,” 169, 51, 67, 82, CIFAR.
[36] Ibid., 134.
[37] “Orientaciones de FC sobre RPA” [24 January 1988], 11, CIFAR. For a discussion of Soviet–Cuban relations in the weeks following Castro's decision, see CitationGleijeses, “Moscow's Proxy?” 131–5.
[38] “Transcripción sobre la reunión del Comandante en Jefe con la delegación de políticos de África del Sur (Comp. Slovo),” CIFAR. There are no scholarly accounts of the campaign. For the South African perspective, see Breytenbach, Buffalo Soldiers, 272–325; Geldenhuys, A General's Story, 208–51; CitationHeitman, War in Angola; CitationSteenkamp, South Africa's Border War, 149–77; CitationBridgland, The War for Africa. For the Cuban perspective, see CitationJiménez Gómez, Al sur de Angola; CitationGómez Chacón, Cuito Cuanavale; CitationRicardo Luis, Prepárense a vivir. CitationGeorge, The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 213–55, is based entirely on secondary sources.
[39] Breytenbach, Buffalo Soldiers, 308.
[40] Abramowitz (Bureau of Intelligence and Research, US Department of State) to SecState, 13 May 1988, FOIA.
[41] General Jannie Geldenhuys, Star, 27 May 1988, 1; Defense Minister Magnus Malan, Star, 17 May 1988, 1.
[42] Washington Times, 20 June 1988, A7; Star, 17 June 1988, 8.
[43] Quotations from Namibian: 22 April 1988, 1 and 10 (Malan cartoon), 27 May, 1; and from Windhoek Advertiser, 27 June 1988, 3. While the Namibian was sympathetic to SWAPO, the Windhoek Advertiser loathed it. Nevertheless, both papers provided strikingly similar accounts of military developments across the border in those critical months. Like the Namibian, the Windhoek Advertiser said that there were ‘conflicting reports’ on the battle of Cuito Cuanavale (27 January 1988, 1). Like the Namibian, in the late spring it began reporting the Cuban advance – ‘there was a serious and dangerous force moving south in Angola’ (13 May 1988, 3).
[44] The impact of the Cuban victory over the SADF is evident, for example, in the reporting on the war in the Sowetan, which had the second largest circulation among South African dailies (next to the Johannesburg Star), and the largest black readership. For representative articles, see the issues of 2 May 1988, 6; 8 June, 6; 13 June, 7; 12 July, 9–10 (a two-page interview with Risquet); 18 July, 7 (a lengthy article on the schools for Namibian students in Cuba).
[45] Interview with Pedro Ross Fonseca, Havana, 19 January 2006.
[46] For these initial conversations, a representative sample of relevant documents is: MemoConv (Paulo Jorge, Crocker et al.), 4 March 1982, enclosed in Montané to Risquet, 5 July 1982, ACC; SecState to CFR Collective, 14 April, 1982, FOIA; Amembassy Kinshasa to SecState, 7 June 1982, FOIA; DOS, MemoConv (Dos Santos, Walters et al.), 7 June 1982, FOIA; SecState to OAU Collective, 8 June 1982, FOIA; Walters to dos Santos, 1 July 1982, FOIA; Crocker to SecState, 28 July 1982, FOIA; Walters, “Lisbon, Luanda, Rabat, Paris, Istanbul, New Delhi, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo – July 16–Aug. 31, 1982,” FOIA; Departamento General RR.EE., “Algunos elementos sobre la visita del embajador itinerante Vernon Walters a la República Popular de Angola,” 29 July 1982, enclosed in Montané to Risquet, 5 August 1982, ACC.
[47] For the January talks, see: “Conversações Angola – Estados Unidos da América realizadas no Futungo de Belas (Luanda) em 28.01.1988”; “Conversaciones Angola/EEUU, Futungo de Belas, Luanda, 29/1/88”; “Conversaciones Angola-Cuba-EEUU realizadas en Futungo de Belas, 29-1-88 (16:40)”; Risquet to Fidel Castro, Luanda, 28 January 1988, #8, #9, #10; Risquet to Fidel Castro, Luanda, 29 January 1988, #11, #12,#13, #14, #15; “Entrevista de José Eduardo y Jorge Risquet 30-1-88,” enclosed in Risquet to Castro, Luanda, 30 January 1988, #18 (All ACC). For the March talks, see “Conversaciones entre la RPA y los EUA realizadas en Luanda el día 9 de marzo de 1988”; “Reunión conjunta Angola-Cuba,” Luanda, 9 March 1988; “Segunda conversación bilateral,” Luanda, 10 March 1988; “4ta Sesión Bilateral,” Luanda, 11 March 1988; “Conversaciones realizadas entre la RPA y los Estados Unidos del 9 al 11 de marzo de 1988 en Futungo de Belas, Luanda. Tercera Sesión Trilateral, 10.3.88–16:00 horas”; “Acta de las conversaciones realizadas entre la RPA y los Estados Unidos del 17 al 18 de marzo de 1988, en Futungo de Belas, Luanda”; “Conversaciones RPA/Cuba/USA,” Luanda, 17 March 1988; “Tercera Sesión Trilateral,” Luanda, 18 March 1988. See also Alvaro to Alejandro, Luanda, 9 March 1988, #2 and #3; 10 March, #5; 11 March, #9, #11, #12, #13, #15; 16 March, #38; 17 March, #43; 18 March, #50; Crocker to Mbinda, Washington DC, 4 and 14 April 1988 (All ACC).
[48] Malan, quoted in Burger (Cape Town), 7 March 1987, 1. For P. W. Botha, see interviews in Washington Times, 14 March 1988, B8 and Sunday Telegraph, 27 March 1988, 23. For Pik Botha's statement, see Star, 3 February 1988, 1.
[49] Quotations from Business Day, 16 March 1988, 1; Economist, 9 April 1988, 31.
[50] Quotations from dos Santos to Castro, enclosed in Rubén to Alejandro, Luanda, 2 January 1988, CIFAR and “Notas tomadas de la audiencia concedida por el presidente José Eduardo dos Santos al enviado especial de Cuba el día 3 de enero de 1988,” Luanda, ACC. See also dos Santos to Castro, Luanda, 11 January 1988, CIFAR and Castro to dos Santos, Havana, 23 January 1988, CIFAR.
[51] See “Primera Reunión Cuatripartita celebrada en Londres los días 3 y 4 de mayo de 1988,” ACC and Amembassy London to Secstate, 4 May 1988, FOIA.
[52] Amembassy Cairo to SecState, 26 June 1988, FOIA.
[53] “Entrevista de Risquet con Chester Crocker. 26/6/88, 18:30 horas. Hotel Hyatt, El Cairo,” 22–3, 26–7, ACC. I have copies of the minutes of all the sessions of the 1988 quadripartite negotiations, as well as the minutes of separate meetings between Cubans, Angolans and Americans. A short list includes: “Acta das Conversações Quadripartidas entre a RPA, Cuba, Estados Unidos da América e a África do Sul Realizadas no Cairo de 24-26.06.1988”; “Actividades desarrolladas por la delegación cubana a las conversaciones en el Cairo” [27 June 1988]; Morejón, “Entrevista con el general van Tonder de la inteligencia militar sudafricana el 12.7.88”; “Reunión Tripartita Nueva York, Cuba – RPA – Estados Unidos, 10-7-88”; “Reunión cuatripartita,” 11 July 1988, morning session; “Tercera reunión cuatripartita celebrada en Nueva York del 11 al 13 de julio de 1988”; “Reunión cuatripartita,” 12 July 1988; “Ultima reunión,” 13 July 1987; “Resumen de la reunión de delegaciones militares de Angola, Cuba, y Suráfrica, así como de representantes de Estados Unidos, celebrada los días 22 y 23.7.88 en la Isla de Sal”; “Cuarta Reunión Cuatripartita, Ginebra, del 2 al 5.8.88.”; “Quinta Reunión Cuatripartita, Brazzaville, del 24 al 26 de agosto de 1988”; “Sexta Reunión Cuatripartita, Brazzaville, del 7 al 9 de septiembre de 1988”; “Septima Reunión Cuatripartita, Brazzaville, del 26 al 29 de septiembre de 1988”; “Octava Reunión Cuatripartita, Nueva York, del 6 al 9 de octubre de 1988”; “Novena Reunión Cuatripartita, Ginebra, del 11 al 15 de noviembre de 1988”; “Décima Reunión Cuatripartita, Nueva York, del 22 al 24 de noviembre de 1988”; “Oncena Reunión Cuatripartita, Brazzaville, del 1 al 3 de diciembre de 1988.” South Africa and Angola met alone in Brazzaville on 13 May 1988: see PRA, Gabinete do Presidente, “Conversações realizadas entre a RPA e a RSA em Brazzaville no dia 13.05.1988.” All these documents, with the exception of those covering the Cape Verde conversations which are in CIFAR, are in ACC.
[54] “Nota del Comandante en Jefe de fecha 26.6.88,” quoted, CIFAR; MINFAR, “Cronología de las principales acciones realizadas en Tchipa” [20 July 1988], CIFAR.
[55] Alejandro to Rubén-Polo, Havana, 26 June 1988, #25395 and #25394, CIFAR.
[56] Quotations from Bridgland, War for Africa, 361 (quoting Col. Dick Lord) and CIA, “South Africa – Angola – Cuba,” 29 June 1988, FOIA. See also MINFAR, “Cronología de la aviación cubana, Maniobra XXXI Aniversario,” nd., 94, CIFAR; MMCA, “Informe Cumplimiento de Misión;” 27 June 1988, CIFAR; Verde Olivo en Misión Internacionalista (Luanda), 22 December 1988, 1.
[57] CIA, “South Africa – Angola – Namibia,” 1 July 1988, FOIA.
[58] Namibian, 1 July 1988, 7, 11 (ed.).
[59] Alejandro to Rubén and Polo, Havana, 27 June 1988, #25398 and 25397, CIFAR.
[60] See for example Malan, in Burger, 29 June 1988, 1.
[61] Amembassy Brazzaville to SecState, 25 August 1988, 6, National Security Archive, Washington DC.
[62] Quotations from: Namibian, 2 September 1988, 11 (ed.); Washington Post, 31 August 1988, 21; Windhoek Advertiser, 31 August 1988, 2.
[63] See CitationGoulding, Peacemonger, 139–76 and CitationStiff, Warfare by Other Means, 375–412.
[64] The major published source on the 1988 negotiations is the memoirs of Reagan's assistant secretary for Africa, Chester Crocker, who explains the outcome – the New York agreements – largely in terms of US patience, skill and wisdom (CitationCrocker, High Noon in Southern Africa, 353–482). As already noted (see n. 38) there is no adequate account of the military campaign.
[65] For dos Santos' speech, see http://www.angola.org.uk/press_release_11_11_05_pr_speech.htm.
[66] A key, representative example of the relationship between Cuba and SWAPO is provided by the two meetings among SWAPO, Cuba, Angola and the USSR that took place in Havana in April 1982 and in Luanda the following September. For the April meeting, see “Reunión de las delegaciones de Angola, URSS, SWAPO y Cuba, efectuada en el salón de protocolo, en el Laguito, el día 12 de abril de 1982”; “Reunión de las delegaciones de Angola, URSS, SWAPO y Cuba, efectuada en el salón de protocolo, en el Laguito, el día 13 de abril de 1982,” morning and afternoon sessions; “Reunión de las delegaciones de Angola, URSS, SWAPO y Cuba, efectuada en el salón de protocolo, en el Laguito, el día 14 de abril de 1982,” morning and afternoon sessions. For the September meeting, see: “Reunión conjunta entre las delegaciones de Cuba, Unión Soviética, SWAPO y Angola, celebrada en Luanda, el día 7 de septiembre de 1982”; “Reunión conjunta entre las delegaciones de Cuba, Unión Soviética, SWAPO y Angola, celebrada en Luanda, el día 8 de septiembre de 1982”; “Reunión conjunta entre las delegaciones de Cuba, Unión Soviética, SWAPO y Angola, celebrada en Luanda, el día 8 de septiembre de 1982 (Sesión Noche)” (All ACC).
[67] Nelson Mandela, 26 July 1991, Granma, 27 July 1991, 3.