Earlier this month, President Joseph Biden became the first U.S. president to visit Angola.
He announced an "emerging strategic partnership between the United States and Angola," with billions of dollars for the largest ever U.S. rail investment overseas.
While Biden mentioned the history of slavery and the importance of American-Angolan relationships, neither he or the media saw fit to say that, but for President Ronald Reagan's "Reagan Doctrine," the visit would not have been possible and Angola would probably still be under a Marxist-Communist government.
Reagan announced the Doctrine in his 1985 State of the Union address:
"We must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives — on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua — to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth."
The doctrine was based on support for anti-communist resistance movements in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
In Afghanistan and Nicaragua, the "Mujahideen" and the "Contras," respectively, were fighting Soviet-backed governments.
In Angola, the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola — "UNITA" — was fighting the Soviet and Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola ("MPLA") that controlled Angola.
I saw firsthand the impact of the Reagan Doctrine in Angola.
Between 1985 and 1987, following my work with the Reagan campaigns and administrations, I was retained as a Registered Foreign Agent and Washington Counsel for UNITA and worked closely with its representatives and controversial leader Dr. Jonas Savimbi.
In that capacity, I coordinated hotel accommodations for him and his entourage for his visit to Washington to meet with President Reagan and his subsequent trip to New York City. I also arranged successful meetings with Black journalists during his time in Washington.
During that period, I met with him and his military team deep in UNITA-controlled territory in Southeast Angola near the Namibian border.
I later took prominent Black Americans to Angola to meet with Savimbi and see UNITA's operations, including lumber mills, radio stations, clothing factories, schools, and hospital operations, to negate the negative images of Savimbi and UNITA.
UNITA was formed in 1966 and was one of three Indigenous Angolan national liberation movements. The other two were the MPLA, mentioned above, and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA).
They fought the Portuguese, who had controlled Angola for five centuries, in the Angolan War for Independence 1961–1975.
The MPLA prevailed and eventually came to power and formed a one-party Soviet-backed Marxist government.
It enlisted the support of Cuba and the Soviet Union, while the United States and South Africa supported UNITA.
UNITA was fighting not only the Angolan government but also over 50,000 Cuban troops and a $2 billion Soviet war machine, including advisers, MiG jet planes, attack helicopters, and heavy artillery.
Since South Africa also backed UNITA, much of the American Black and white liberal political establishment opposed assistance to UNITA and condemned Savimbi.
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young — whom I debated on CNN about the Angola situation —visited Angola at the invitation of the Marxist government, where he urged global sanctions on South Africa to bring peace to Southern Africa.
Despite the United Nations’ efforts to achieve peace and end hostilities, conflict resumed after the country's first multiparty election in 1992 when Savimbi said the results were tainted with fraud and irregularities.
Rather than participate in a second round of voting, Savimbi refused to participate, resulting in a decade-long renewal of hostilities, which eventually led to his death by government troops on Feb. 22, 2002.
Less than two months later, an agreement between UNITA and the government forces ended 27 years of conflict, and UNITA abandoned the armed struggle and became a decentralized political party. Today, Angola has free and fair elections after a civil war that killed up to 1 million people.
The Angola conflict was of personal interest to me.
One of my very close friends, Jeremias Chitunda, Vice President of UNITA and Savimbi’s second-in-command and Washington representative — who hired me — was assassinated after leaving peace talks in the Luanda Capital on November 2, 1992.
Two other friends, Wilson dos Santos, who assisted me in arrangements for Savimbi's Washinton and New York visits, and Tito Chingungi, who succeeded Chitunda as the UNITA representative in Washington, mysteriously disappeared and were presumed murdered with their families — by whom is still a matter of controversy.
Notwithstanding these events, but for Ronald Reagan’s support of UNITA’s fights against the Marxist government, Angola would still be a Communist nation and Biden’s visit would not have been possible.
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations and training consulting firm in Florida. He is the author of "How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It." Read Clarence V. McKee's Reports — More Here.
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