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The Angola/Namibia Accords

By Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.
Summer 1989
Article Summary and Author Biography

Last December 22, in New York, the chambers of the United Nations were witness to a most bizarre event. As a Soviet deputy foreign minister looked on approvingly, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz presided over the signature by the foreign ministers of Angola, Cuba and South Africa of interlocking treaties accomplishing the removal of foreign forces from southwestern Africa. The three ministers made speeches. The Angolan managed a polite dig at South Africa and the United States. The Cuban was polemically sarcastic about both, and took a barely disguised swipe at the Soviets as well. The South African wound up with remarks that, inter alia, declared his country's solidarity with Third World resentment of Western domination of the global economy.

Chas. W. Freeman, Jr., was principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from April 1986 until May 1989. Copyright (c) 1989 by Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.

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