Battle Of Cuito Cuanavale

[Karl Marx's Camel]

What do you really think happened in Cuba's war in Angola? Did they really win?

Apparently, despite the official propaganda, it seems that the Angolans and the Cubans lost the battle of Cuito Cuanavale.

Here's one page claiming that the South Africans won:

http://www.rhodesia.nl/cuito.htm

Like the site says: [...] "one of the conditions of the Cubans was that they be allowed to make an honourable withdrawal from the war, an unusual demand to be made by a victorious army, to say the least."

What do you think?

[Severian]

Right....if a racist says it, it must be true. What's up with your willingness to believe anything unfavorable about Cuba, from anyone?

Just look at the URL of that site. Rho-de-sia. White supremacists' name for what's now Zimbabwe. These people can never admit that they lost a war to Black people. It's similar to those who can't admit the U.S. lost the Vietnam War, or the "stab in the back" legend in post-WWI Germany.

It's a measure of the psychological blow to white invincibility that they can't admit their defeat. South African troops pulling out of Angola were met by the sign "Welcome back winners." History was rewritten to claim they were fighting to force a Cuban withdrawal, when in fact they invaded to remove the MPLA at a time when their was no Cuban army in Angola.

In the aftermath of Cuito Cuanavale, Cuban and Angolan forces continued to press southward to within 20km of the the Namibian border. (http://www.klausdierks.com/Chronology/130.htm) Cuba gains air superiority. Airfields in southern Angola put MiGs in striking range of South Africa. As a result, South Africa agreed to a ceasefire in which they pulled out of Angola.

n the peace treaty:: Cuban troops withdrew from Angola, yes. (Technically, that was a separate accord between only Cuba and Angola.)

In exchange, South Africa left not only Angola - but Namibia. That was a provision of the treaty which ended the war. This definitively ended the danger of South African intervention in Angola - they no longer shared a border - and there was no reason for Cuban troops to stay.

The MPLA is still in power in Angola...and what's more, SWAPO is in power in Namibia...and the ANC is in power in South Africa. Who do you think won?

If you want some accurate history of this, I recommend "Conflicting Missions" by Piero Gliejeses. (http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-6109.html) It's primarily about Cuban foreign policy, yet it won a prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Text of the treaty between South Africa, Angola and Cuba (http://www.usip.org/library/pa/angola/angola_cuba_sa_12221988.html)

Text of the side agreement between Angola and Cuba (http://www.usip.org/library/pa/angola/angola_cuba_12221988.html)

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Right....if a racist says it, it must be true. What's up with your willingness to believe anything unfavorable about Cuba, from anyone?

I didn't pay very much attention to the website itself; the material seemed legit.

I don't know much of Africa history, all I knew is that Rhodesia probably was a country in Africa.

The only thing that could be understood that I "believed" surely is that I believed "it seemed like" the Angolans and the Cubans lost the battle of Cuito Cuanavale:


it seems that the Angolans and the Cubans lost the battle of Cuito Cuanavale.

In any case, others have claimed the same thing, that the outcome wasn't as the cuban regime portrayed it. Now, instead of moaning "bla bla bla you believe anything" why not focus on the subject?

This is the history forum.

PS: thanks for the text