Abstract
Until 1970, the West had never had to deal with a very credible Soviet threat. The Soviet Union’s disastrous attempts to influence the outcome of the Congo crisis reinforced its own weakness. NATO largely forgot that the Soviet bloc had interests in Africa which were in no way served by the predominant position of the Western powers. The days of direct military intervention might have passed, but the West had other weapons at its disposal by which to defend its entrenched privileges.
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Notes and References
Cited David Hall, ‘Naval Diplomacy in West African Waters’ in Stephen S. Kaplan (ed.) The Diplomacy of Power: Soviet Armed Forces as a Political Instrument (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1981).
Ibid. p. 551.
Elmo Zumwalt, On Watch: A Memoir (New York: Quadrangle, 1976) p. 332.
The first phrase is taken from Dr Kissinger’s testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs in January 1976 (US Policy Towards Africa. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Africa, Committee of Foreign Relations, US Senate, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, May 1976);
the second from a speech delivered before the Economic Club of Detroit in November 1975 (Henry A. Kissinger, ‘Building an Enduring Foreign Policy’, Department of State Bulletin, 73:1903, 15 December 1975).
The Guardian, 24 March 1974.
Statement of Donald Easum, Review of State Department Trip Through Southern and Central Africa. Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, 93rd Congress, 2nd Session, December 1974, p. 28.
K. Uralov, ‘Angola: The Triumph of the Right Cause’, International Affairs, No. 5, May 1976, p. 56.
Cited in Arthur J. Klinghoffer The Angolan War: A Study in Soviet Policy in the Third World (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1980) p. 20.
The New York Times, 20 December 1975.
The best account of the whole affair is Arthur Klinghoffer, The Angolan War.
The New York Times, 26 December 1975.
The New York Times, 17 December 1975.
The New York Times, 5 February 1976.
The New York Times, 7 February 1976.
Statement of John Reed, Director of Africa Regional Office of Assistant Secretary of Defence, Disaster Assistance in Angola. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Resources, Food and Energy Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 1976, p. 56.
The New York Times, 4 January 1976.
Ibid.
The Guardian, 13 December 1975.
The Times, 10 December 1975.
Africa Research Bulletin 13:2 March 1976, p. 3900.
The New York Times, 10 December 1975.
General George S. Brown, ‘Current JCS Theater Appraisals: The Strategic Importance of Seven Vital International Areas’, Commanders Digest, 20, March 1977 p. 21.
William H. Lewis, ‘How a Defence Planner Looks at Africa’ in Helen Kitchen (ed.) Africa: From Mystery to Maze (Lexington: Lexington Books, 1976) p. 295.
For the contrary view see Peter Vanneman, ‘Soviet Intervention in Angola: Intentions and Implications’ Strategic Review, Summer 1976 p. 97.
Cited Colin Legum, ‘The Role of the Big Powers’ in After Angola: The War over Southern Africa (New York: Africana, 1976) p. 12.
See Abram Shulsky, ‘Coercive Diplomacy’ in Bradford Dismukes/James McConnell, Soviet Naval Diplomacy (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979) pp. 144–53.
For a general discussion of the naval build-up, see Jiri Valenta, ‘The Soviet—Cuban Intervention in Angola’, US Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1980, p. 55.
James McConnell/Bradford Dismukes (eds.), Soviet Naval Diplomacy from the June War to Angola (New York: Pergamon Press, 1979).
The Times, 8 November 1974.
R. C. Hiemstra, ‘Containing Communism’, Africa Institute Bulletin, 8:9 October 1969, p. 401.
Cited ‘South Africa’s Defence Strategy’, UN Centre Against Apartheid, 2/76, January 1976.
Notes on Africa (Washington Office on Africa; February 1975).
Cited Recent Developments in the Build-Up of the South African Military Forces, Unit on Apartheid Notes and Documents 31/75, September 1975.
Africa Confidential 16:16, 15 August 1975.
Africa Contemporary Record 1976–7 (ed.) Colin Legum (London: Rex Collings, 1977) p. A87.
The Star, 10 January 1976.
The Sunday Telegraph, 30 January 1977.
The New York Times, 29 March 1976.
The New York Times, 29 April 1976.
A. Castagno, ‘A Neutral Somalia’, Africa Report, 6 August 1961.
See also Raymond Thurston, ‘Détente in the Horn’, Africa Report, 24 February 1969.
US Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad: Ethiopia. Hearings before the Subcommittee on US Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad, Committee on Foreign Relations, House of Representatives, 91st Congress, 2nd Session, June 1970.
Brian Crozier, The Soviet Presence in Somalia (Conflict Studies 54), February 1975.
The Soviet Union and the Third World: A Watershed in Great Power Policy. Senior Specialist Division, Congressional Research Section, Library of Congress Report to Committee International Relations, House of Representatives, 1977.
Tom Farar, Warclouds in the Horn of Africa (N.Y.: Carnegie Endowment for Peace, 1979) p. 116.
Africa 74, October 1977.
Richard Remnek, Soviet Policy in the Horn of Africa: The Decision to Intervene (Alexandria, Virginia: Center for Naval Analyses, Professional Paper 270) p. 34.
Africa 78, February 1978.
The New York Times, 13 January 1978.
Cited Africa Contemporary Record 1977–8 (London: Rex Collings, 1978, p. A98).
Newsweek, 26 September 1977.
For US decision, see Robert McGeehan, ‘American Policy and the US-Soviet Relationship’, The World Today, September 1978; for Soviet reaction, see FBIS-50V, 30 March 1978.
Alvin Cottrell/Frank Bay, Military Forces in the Persian Gulf (CSIS Washington Papers 6, 1978), p. 65.
The Guardian, 21 January 1978.
Ibid.
International Herald Tribune, 6 July 1978.
Arab Report and Record, 15 September 1978.
The Times, 21 January 1978. NATO already found it difficult to counter Soviet claims that the responsibility for the Ogaden invasion lay not with the Soviet Union for modernising the Somali armed forces after 1969, but the West for trying to divide the Arab and non-Arab states of the region by enticing Somalia into a Red Sea bloc (Tass, 20 March 1978).
Africa 84, August 1978.
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Coker, C. (1985). NATO and Warsaw Pact Intervention, 1970–78. In: NATO, The Warsaw Pact and Africa. Rusi Defence Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17884-1_4
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