This is the first of two volumes examining the so-called 'Congo Crisis' of the 1960s on the basis of documentation from the CIA's archives. It throws entirely new light upon developments in a country which many US citizens of the time believed would become the next major battlefield.
"The 1974 Carnation Revolution came as a blessing for independence movements in Portugal's African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. As had been the case in a number of sub-Saharan countries suddenly finding themselves free of the colonial yoke, the political vacuum left behind by a previously omnipresent power gave different factions the opportunity to impose their own form of rule. Angola was no different: civil war broke out in 1975 and was to last until 2002.In some ways the Angolan civil war bore similarities to the one which had taken place in neighboring DRC. Too much was at stake for the West not to intervene in some shape or form and in July 1975 President Ford authorized the CIA to provide covert assistance to the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). With South Africa providing military support against a Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), another southwestern African nation became the battleground for a war of ideologies. In 1975-1976, no fewer than nine different armed forces were involved in the fighting. In addition, a large group of British mercenaries were recruited to train FNLA soldiers. The role of these soldiers of fortune would end in ignominy, death and legislative changes intended to rid mercenaries from conflict forever."
Viet Minh goes on the Offensive, 1949-1953
Focusing on the years 1946-1949, this volume explores the escalating tensions of the First Indochina War, a pivotal colonial conflict that set the stage for the later American involvement in Vietnam. It delves into the geopolitical dynamics of the era, highlighting the clash between Eastern and Western powers and the implications for the region's future. This historical account provides essential context for understanding the complexities of the conflict and its lasting impact on Southeast Asia.
The little know story of the CIA-recruited Cuban exiles' covert operation in the Congo during the 1960s. It relies on their personal testimonies, on government archives, on declassified documents, and on piecing together a series of events to form them into a plausible and well-documented whole.
This first volume of a three-part series on the First Indochina War centers on the period between 1946-1949. A time when tensions between East and West were on the rise, the Indochina War was a colonial conflict that laid the foundations for America's war in Vietnam.
This volume presents the role of the Belgian Tactical Air Force, Congo, (FATAC) in the Congo, 1964-1967, and is an addition to the author's previous publications dealing with the Congo Crisis, 1960-1967.
The build-up and operational history of the Force Publique - a paramilitary force established by King Léopold II to secure the Congo Free State, in 1885 - including its deployments elsewhere in Africa, during the First and Second World War, in the Sudan, East Africa, and in Ethiopia.