Word: cubans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...quite that simple. The biggest stumbling block to an accord remains South Africa's insistence that Namibian independence be linked to the withdiawal of an estimated 30,000 Cuban Hoops in neighboring Angola. Although the issue was sidestepped last week, the negotiators had, as Perez de Cuellar put it, made "meaningful progress." The most significant accomplishment, perhaps, was intangible. The low-key Peruvian Secretary-General convinced the South African government that he was not biased in favor of the South-West Africa People's Organization of Namibia (SWAPO), the guerrilla group that has been fighting for Namibian independence...
Perez de Cuellar s visit to Angola later in the week was also mildly encouraging. Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos told the Secretary-General that a Cuban troop withdrawal might be possible under certain conditions. Among his demands: that South Africa halt its military support for guerrillas of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and agree to Namibian independence...
...situation in Angola remains extremely complex. The Dos Santos government relies heavily on the Cubans, not only for military support but for help with a wide variety of government services. Furthermore, the South Africa-supported UNHA rebels have recently been gaining ground in their efforts to destabilize the Dos, Santos government. Two weeks ago they captured the town of Cangamba. which is near the strategic Benguela railroad thai normally carries copper from Zambia to ports on the Atlantic. If UNITA scores further gains, Angola may feel an even greater need for Cuban support...
...superpowers have lived under an arrangement whereby neither side stationed long-range missiles in proximity to the other's territory; if the U.S. upsets that balance, there would have to be both a political and a military response. The mention of 20 years is a reference to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The Soviets seem to be putting the U.S. on notice that they regard 1983 ("the Year of the Missile," the State Department calls it) as offering them an opportunity-indeed, imposing on them an obligation-to make amends...
...looks as though the Soviets may be bent on turning the Year of the Missile into a replay of the Cuban missile crisis, at least in its symbolic dimension, as a clash of wills between the superpowers. While this does not necessarily mean a return to the brink of nuclear war, it certainly does not augur well for an agreement that would secure the nuclear peace, nor for a summit at which such an agreement might be signed. -By Strobe Talbott