Word: cubans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Cuban army suffering from a shortage of recruits because of the African commitment. This year 100,000 Cuban males will turn 17, the age of military service. That is 30,000 more than 10 years...
...financial cost of that involvement is underwritten almost entirely by the Soviet Union (see box). And not just young men apply for African duty. Says Vilma Espin, 46, head of the Federation of Cuban Women and wife of Fidel's brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro: "At the height of the war in Angola, we had thousands of letters from women of all ages, including ones in their 70s, asking to go as cooks. One of the most important changes in Cuba since the revolution is that women who were afraid to go out of their houses 20 years...
...Some Cuban cynics question the ideological purity of the applicants. Says...
...reason is that while a tour in Africa is hardship duty, the odds are still good that a young Cuban will survive the experience. So far the number of Cuban soldiers who have died in Africa is relatively small. The exact statistics are secret, but a top Cuban official says that those killed number "only in the hundreds." Knowledgeable Western sources put the figure at 1,000 or slightly more...
...proportion to its population, Cuba has more of its sons-and daughters-in Africa fighting for international Marxism than the U.S. had fighting against that cause at the height of its involvement in Viet Nam. Yet to date, Cuban battlefield fatalities have been light compared to American losses in Viet...