From: kautaj@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (The Wise Man from the East)
Subject: Re: Racists oppose Afro-Cuban appointee to State Dept.
Keywords: Mario Baeza, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin-American Affairs
Organization: Indiana University, Department of Mathematics.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 20:27:00 GMT

In article <45o2XB1w165w@netlink.cts.com> galan@netlink.cts.com (Greg Gross) writes:
>
>> [.....]
>> >You forgot to mention that they also made excellent cannon fodder in 
>> >Angola...
>> 
>> False. They made cannon fodders out of white South AfriKKKans. Read the 
>> current stuff on s.c.a.
>
>They did? Then why were South African troops raiding Angola almost at 
>will, by air *and* land, while aiding Jonas Savimbi's UNITA guerrillas 
>against the Angolan government? Why, with all this help from the mighty 
>Cuban armed forces, the Angolans were never able to crush Savimbi and go 
>on about their business? Why did they feel compelled to negotiate with 
>the man at all?  The cubans came, and died, and left. Savimbi and UNITA 
>are still there, raising hell. Get real.

We certainly do have completely opposite recollections about that era. 
South Africa is obviously closer to Angola than Cuba, and US has more money
to waste on such a war than Fidel...Having said that, it should be noted that 
Cuba never engaged the South Africans directly at first, choosing instead to
guard strategic installations only. It was much later that they got interested.
And when they did, South Africa was pushed to the boarder with Namibia. That's
when she (SA) seriously begun to consider giving Namibia her independence.
Obviously US and SA claimed they won the war (US made similar noises after
Vietnam war, remember?). Opposition to that war (in SA) started to get 
stronger precisely when the white boys from Pretoria started coming home in 
body-bags, after being whipped shitless by Fidel. There is a famous battle that
really decided the fate of the war (I have forgotten the name of it, but Makala
should know).

Now Angola is without suppliers. SA (and I believe the US as well) are still
helping Savimbi. Old habits never die -- they just smell that way! I am worried
now....I wasn't then...

>
>(As an aside, Mr. Savimbi, whom our CIA was funneling aid to as this 
>supposedly staunch supporter of democracy in Angola, recently proved his 
>love for democracy by rejecting the results of an apparently clean
>election in which the Marxist government won and he lost. His response
>was to return to the bush and restart the war. This is a hero of Western-
>style democracy? Give me a break...)

I have never considered Savimbi a hero of anything. He is a pain in the neck,
not to mention other places!

>> >In a nation whose population is 60 percent black, there's one leading 
>> >political figure...one...in a rubber-stamp legislature? Please...
>> 
>> Er..you made a branket statement saying there are none. I just had to produce
>> a single counter-example. No?? Actually, there are many. But it's hard for yo
>> to notice them since you are still fighting the cold war.
>> 
>Who are these many and what level of Cuban government do they occupy with 
>any real power? As for Fidel's status as a communist, I personally
>couldn't care less, but claims that the Cuban government is 
>representative of its people ring*very* hollow.
>

Still fighting the cold war??


>
>--
>Gregory Alan Gross      Welcome to life, where no good deed goes unpunished.
>San Diego Union-Tribune         (619) 293-1270 (voice)
>P.O. Box 191                    (619) 293-1896 (fax)
>San Diego, CA 92112-4106        galan@netlink.cts.com (Internet)


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