African Activist Archive

The book review says after five centuries of resistance to Portuguese colonial domination, African liberation armies in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola are making progress towards independence and relief from a ruthlessly multi-faceted exploitation. Guinea-Bissau has already declared its independence; the freedom fighters are far from being contained in Angola; and, the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) has opened new theaters of operation deep in that territory's southland, threatening Rhodesian rail life-lines and, for the first time, imperiling major Portuguese population centers in Mozambique. None of the implications are lost on the remaining white minority rule countries, South Africa and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia); whatever bodes ill for Portugal bodes ill as well for the rest. The review says South Africa, with troops for some time deployed against the freedom forces in Angola and Mozambique, is expected to attempt seizure of the southern-most zones in the two colonies as buffers to her own insecure borders if and when the Portuguese defense collapses. Western powers, initiated by the United States, can be expected to strongly support, and even fiercely pressure Portugal to hold fast in Africa until it is no longer scarcely feasible economically, militarily, or diplomatically for them to have her do so. The review describes Minter's book as readable and thoughtfully researched, setting forth a United States foreign policy designed to anticipate eventual Portuguese military defeat while preserving Western business and military access to Southern Africa through use of more devious means. The report discusses Ian Smith, guerilla attacks, the so-called "free world," white-dominated regimes, international criticism, domestic debate, NATO, Gulf Oil Corporation, General Motors (GM), the Pentagon, Great Britain, West Germany, France, strategic importance, liberation movements, and the Third World.

African Activist Archive

BOOK REVIEW Portuguese Africa and the West by William Minter

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