Editing UNITA (section)

==Foreign support==
UNITA received support from several governments in Africa and around the world, including the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]],<ref name=d>{{cite book|last=Howe|first=Herbert M.|year=2004|title=Ambiguous Order: Military Forces In African States|publisher=[[Lynne Rienner Publishers|Lynne Rienner]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ambiguousordermi0000howe/page/81 81]|isbn=978-1555879310|url=https://archive.org/details/ambiguousordermi0000howe/page/81}}</ref> [[Egypt]], France, Israel, [[Morocco]], the People's Republic of China,<ref name=Jackson>{{cite journal |last=Jackson |first=S F  |title=China's Third World Foreign Policy: The Case of Angola and Mozambique, 1961–93 |journal=The China Quarterly |date=June 1995 |volume=142 |pages=388–422 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000034986}}</ref> [[North Korea]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Zaire]],<ref name=e>{{cite book|last=Beit-Hallahmi|first=Benjamin|author-link=Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi|year=1988|title=The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris|I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd]]|pages=65|isbn=978-1850430698|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7v-g21ksdVsC&q=UNITA}}</ref> and [[Zambia]].<ref name=f>{{cite book|last=AlʻAmin Mazrui|first=Ali|year=1977|title=The Warrior Tradition in Modern Africa|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Academic]]|pages=228|isbn=978-9004056466}}</ref><ref name=g>{{cite web |url=http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue43/articles/1975_angola.htm |title=1975, Angola: Mercenaries, Murder and Corruption |website=Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade |last=Stockwell |first=John |author-link=John Stockwell (CIA officer) |access-date=28 January 2020}}</ref>

===United States===
{{see also|CIA activities in Angola}}
During the [[Reagan administration]] high ranking security officials met with UNITA leaders. [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Director [[William J. Casey]], [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]] [[Richard V. Allen|Richard Allen]], and Secretary of State [[Alexander Haig]], on 6 March met with UNITA leaders in Washington, D.C. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walker met with Savimbi in March in [[Rabat]], Morocco. Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]], his assistant for International Security Matters Francis West, Deputy Defense Secretary [[Frank Carlucci]], Deputy Director of the CIA [[Bobby Inman]], and Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency [[James A. Williams|James Williams]] met with Savimbi between November 1981 and January 1982. Although the [[Clark Amendment]] forbid U.S. involvement in the civil war, Secretary Haig told Savimbi in December 1981 that the U.S. would continue to provide assistance to UNITA.<ref name=h>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=George|year=1997|title=The Destruction of a Nation: United States Policy Towards Angola Since 1945|publisher=[[Pluto Press]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/destructionofnat0000wrig/page/110 110]|isbn=978-0745310305|url=https://archive.org/details/destructionofnat0000wrig/page/110}}</ref>

The U.S. government "explicitly encouraged" the governments of Israel, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Zaire to aid UNITA. In 1983 the U.S. and South African governments agreed to ship weapons from the [[Honduras]], [[Belgium]] and [[Switzerland]] to South Africa and then to UNITA in Angola. The U.S. also traded weapons with South Africa for intelligence on the civil war.<ref name=h/>

Savimbi benefited from the support of influential American conservatives, including [[The Heritage Foundation]]'s [[Michael Johns (policy analyst)|Michael Johns]] and other U.S. conservative leaders, who helped elevate Savimbi's stature in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and promoted the transfer of American weapons to his war.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E16OC0-475:|title=Congress.gov {{!}} Library of Congress|website=thomas.loc.gov|language=en|access-date=6 July 2017|archive-date=10 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810210840/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E16OC0-475:|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Johns and other American conservatives met regularly with Savimbi in remote [[Jamba, Angola|Jamba]], culminating in the "[[Democratic International]]" in 1985. Savimbi later drew the praise of U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]], who hailed him as a [[freedom fighter]] and spoke of Savimbi winning a victory that "electrifies the world" while others hinted at a much darker regime, dismissing Savimbi as a power-hungry propagandist.<ref name=BBC25022002/>

After the [[1992 Angolan general election]], UNITA lost its support from the United States and was only supported by South Africa. Support ceased after the end of the ''[[apartheid]]'' in South Africa and the election of [[Nelson Mandela]] as President in 1994; Mandela and the [[African National Congress]] had given the MPLA military support through the ANC armed wing ''[[uMkhonto we Sizwe]]''.<ref name=BBC25022002/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGT1zAEACAAJ |title=The Diplomacy of Liberation: Foreign Relations of the ANC Since 1960 |date=1995-12-31 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-85043-993-6 |pages=202–207 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Shubin |first=Vladimir Gennadyevich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5MMAQAAMAAJ |title=The Hot 'Cold War': The USSR in Southern Africa |date=2008-10-20 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=978-0-7453-2472-2 |pages=92–93, 249 |language=en}}</ref>