Table Of ContentRUSI DEFENCE STUDIES SERIES
General Editor David Bolton, Director, Royal United Services Institute
for Defence Studies
Questions on defence give rise to emotion, sometimes to the detriment of
balanced judgement. Since 1831 the Royal United Services Institute for
Defence Studies has been noted for its objectivity, independence and
initiative; the views of its members sharpened by responsibility and
experience. In continuance of the Institute's aims, the RUSI Difence
Studies Series seeks to provide a wider understanding and better informed
debate of defence and national security issues. However, the views
expressed in the books are those of the authors alone.
Published
Christopher Coker
NATO, THE WARSAW PACT AND AFRICA
Christopher Coker
THE FUTURE OF THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE
Christopher Coker
US MILITARY POWER IN THE 1980s
Michael D. Hobkirk
THE POLITICS OF DEFENCE BUDGETING
Clive Rose
CAMPAIGNS AGAINST WESTERN DEFENCE:
NATO's ADVERSARIES AND CRITICS
Forthcoming titles
Richard Clutterbuck
THE FUTURE OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Michael Leifer (editor)
THE EAST ASIAN BALANCE OF POWER
E. S. Williams
THE SOVIET SERVICEMAN
David Greenwood
BRITISH DEFENCE PRIORITIES
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Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ltd,
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 2XS, England
NATO, THE
WARSAW PACT
AND AFRICA
Christopher Coker
ISBN 978-1-349-17886-5 ISBN 978-1-349-17884-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17884-1
© RUSI 1985
Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 1985 978-0-333-37060-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1985
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by
Wessex Typesetters
Frome, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Coker, Christopher
Nato, Warsaw Pact and Africa.-(RUSI defence
studies series; I)
I. North Atlantic Treaty Organization
2. Organizatsiia Varshavskogo Dogovora
3. Africa-Politics and Government
4. Africa-Foreign relations
I. Title II. Series
960' .32 DT31
Contents
Abbreviations Vll
Priface lX
PART I
1 The Past as Prologue: The Western Alliance and
Africa 1949-74 3
The Political Dimension 12
2 The Western Powers and Africa, 1949-74 19
United Kingdom 19
France 29
United States 40
3 The North Atlantic Alliance and Southern Africa,
1949-74 48
NATO and Portugal: The Policies of Ambiguity 49
The Anglo-South African Connection 71
South Africa and SACLANT, 1972-74 82
4 NATO and Warsaw Pact Intervention, 1970--78 87
The Soviet Union and the Defence of Guinea, 1970-74 88
Soviet Intervention in Angola, 1974-76 92
Soviet Intervention in the Horn, 1977-78 103
5 France and Western Security, 1974-83 113
Chad and French U nilateralism, 1969-83 116
Franco-Belgian Intervention in Zaire, 1977-78 122
French Operations since 1978 129
6 NATO and South Africa, 1974-83 134
South African Intervention in Southern Africa 143
v
VI Contents
PART II
7 The Warsaw Pact and Africa, 1959-83 157
Eastern Europe and Africa's Minerals 158
CMEA Shortages 164
8 The Warsaw Pact and Southern Africa, 1974-83 172
Southern Africa: The Looking Glass World 176
9 The Warsaw Pact, East Germany and the Threat of 190
Western Intervention 192
GDR and Southern Africa, 1974-78 196
GDR and the Warsaw Pact since 1978 203
Conclusion
PART III
10 Africa, the Western Alliance and the Soviet
Challenge, 1961-78 207
Bases and Base Rights 212
British Arms Sales to South Africa 222
Africa and Portugal 226
Franco-Belgian Intervention in Shaba, 1978 230
African Attitudes to the Soviet Intervention in Angola 235
11 Conclusion: NATO and the Threat to Africa 241
The Alliance or the Allies? 248
Notes and Riferences 255
Bibliography 287
Index 301
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Ships and aircraft sold to S. Africa 138
Table 2 Capital stock - resource extraction 164
Table 3 Tonnage and value forecast, 1990 170
Table 4 Estimated value of inverted capital 171
Table 5 Polish seaborne foreign trade 181
Table 6 Oligopolistic firm concentration 186
Table 7 Survey - Reaction towards US proposals to
expand Diego Garcia 218
Table 8 Time trend - wars in black Africa 247
Abbreviations
AFLANT Air Force Atlantic
ANC African National Congress
CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
DPC Defence Planning Committee
EFTA European Free Trade Union
EURCOM US European Command
FAZSOC French Indian Ocean Fleet
FNLA National Front for the Liberation of Angola
FREMLIMO Front for the Liberation of Mozambique
FROLINAT Chad National Liberation Front
GDR German Democratic Republic
IBERLANT Iberian Atlantic Command
MAAG Military Assistance Advisory Group
MAP Military Assistance Programme
MIDEASTFOR US Middle East Command (naval)
MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of
Angola
NORAD North American Air Defense Command
OAU Organisation of African Unity
OEEC Organisation for European Economic Co
operation (now: OECD)
PAIGC African independence party of Guinea and
Cape Verde
RDF Rapid Deployment Force
SACEUR Supreme Allied Commander Europe
SACLANT Supreme Allied Command Atlantic
SADCC Southern African Development Coordination
Council
SADF South African Defence Forces
SAN South African Navy
SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Vll
Abbreviations
Vlll
SWAPO South West African People's Organisation
UKMF UK Mobile Forces
UKJATFOR UK Joint Airborne Task Forces
UNITA National Union for the total Independence of
Angola
WEU Western European Union
ZANU Zimbabwe African National Union
ZAPU Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union
Preface
Perhaps, no event generated more criticism of Western interven
tion in Africa than the parachute drop at Kolwezi (1978);
perhaps, no event illustrates better Africa's ambiguous relation
ship with the Western powers. Calling in Western diplomats a
month after the Kolwezi operation, Julius Nyerere, President of
Tanzania, deplored what he saw as an attempt to reassert
Western domination of the continent under the pretext of
defending it against outside intervention. The following month, at
the OAU Conference in Khartoum, Lieutenant-General
Obasanjo, President of Nigeria, rejected the notion that Africa's
collective security could be discussed or determined in Brussels.
He conceded that NATO was concerned about the projection of
Soviet power, but like many African leaders he considered that its
concern was unwarranted. Africa had been colonised by the
Western powers, not the Russians. In its struggle for indepen
dence, it had looked for support to the Warsaw Pact, not the
Atlantic Alliance.
The gloss put on events by Tanzania and Nigeria differed
markedly from the priorities which figured most prominently in
NATO planning. Obasanjo reiterated that for many countries,
his own included, NATO's actions were of more acute concern
than those of the Soviet bloc. In view of its extensive interests in
Africa the West was much more likely to defend them by force. His
concern was prompted largely by historical experience. 'Para
troop drops in the twentieth century', he reminded the OAU, 'are
no more acceptable to us than gunboats in the last century were to
our ancestors. Convening conferences in Europe and America to
decide the fate of Africa (a reference to the NATO summit
meeting in Washington in the wake of the Kolwezi operation)
raises too many ugly spectres which should best be forgotten both
in our own and Europe's interests'.
IX
