The siege of Cuito Cuanavale

Abstract

"Between October 1987 and June 1988 in the fiercest conventional battles on African soil since Erwin Rommel was defeated at El Amien in World War II (1942) the troops of the South African Defence Forces (SADF) fought pitched tank and artillery battles with the Angolan army (FAPLA) and her Cuban supporters at Cuito Cuanavale. This small base located in Southeastern Angola became important in the military history of Africa for the South African army, supposedly the best equipped army in Africa, was trapped with its tanks and long range howitzers and were held down more than three hundred miles from their bases in Namibia, a territory which was illegally occupied. Failing to go forward to take Cuito Cuanavale with over 9000 soldiers even after announcing to the world that Cuito Cuanavale had fallen, losing their superiority in the air, faced with mutinies from the black troops of the pressed ganged battalions, the President of South Africa inside Angola, when the operational command of the SADF broke down. It had required the personal intervention of the President to settle a dispute inside the State Security Council of South Africa, whether the apartheid society could afford to send any more troops into Angola."

<p>CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION -- BACKGROUND: UNITA and South Africa -- The United States' many roles -- Towards conventionaI war in Angola -- Angolan economy -- Angolan political history -- SOUTH AFRICA AGAINST HISTORY: The UN plan for Namibia -- South African invasion: Operation Protea -- Cangamba: The battle in Moxico -- Operation Askari -- The Lusaka Accord -- The US back as ally of South Africa -- CUITO CUANAVALE: All resources to the war -- The Cubans and Cuito Cuanavale -- The South Africans were effectively trapped -- "A crushing humiliation" -- CONCLUSION</p>