Apartheid’s ‘Total Strategy’: Arming the Racist State – Part 1
Introduction
On 31 March 1977, the apartheid government released a Defence Force White Paper in the House of Assembly, which called for a “total national strategy” for defence, because South Africa was at war “whether we wish to accept it or not”. The document mentioned Soviet and Cuban intervention in Angola, which it cited as a “clear indication of Soviet imperialism which will confront Africa in the future”.
According to the White Paper, “One can justifiably say that there is a Soviet shadow over parts of Africa … The relative proximity of Soviet influence and its military aid has had its effect on terrorist activities against the northern states of South West Africa and on the internal situation of our country. The general trend of the events following the coup in Portugal in 1974 has led to a state of decreased stability in areas to the north of South Africa.” According to the apartheid regime, “it was obvious that the Angolan Civil War, and particularly the foreign intervention that it had generated, had brought the liberation struggle in southern Africa into the global Cold War”.
Since the 1967/68 historic military confrontation between ANC/ZAPU (African National Congress/Zimbabwe African People’s Union) guerrillas and the forces of racism in the Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns in Zimbabwe – events which were followed by the liberation of Mozambique and Angola –
