South Texas College of Law, The Annotation (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 6, March, 1986 Page: 5 of 12
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March, 1986
THE ANNOTATION —
Page 5
Angola and Oxymora
By Prof. R.J. Graving
Fowler tells us in his Modern English Usage that the rhetorical device of
"oxymoron" — the conjunction of incongruous or contradictory terms,
such as "cheerful pessimist" — needs discreet handling or its effect may be
absurd rather than impressive.
The President has been calling publicly for "covert" aid to Jonas
Savimbi's rebel rump group in Angola. That is oxymoronic. It is also absurd.
The incongruities and contradictions abound:
1. Savimbi's Unita guerrillas are a black nationalist tribal movement overtly
supplied and sustained by the apartheid government of South Africa. Equally
overt is the South African purpose: to prevent the end of South Africa's in-
contestably illegal occupation of Namibia (which lies on the South Atlantic
coast between Angola and South Africa's Cape Province). Oxymoronic.
2. The de jure legitimacy of the present government of Angola has been
recognized by every major nation in the world, except the United States. And
the United States has recognized its defacto authority by joining with it in a
series of bilateral and multilateral discussions over the past five or six years on
the future of Namibia and southern Africa in general. The President has never
said he wanted to "restructure" the government of Angola or make it "say
uncle", as he has with Nicaragua. Yet he would join forces with racist South
Africa to topple a government with whom we are not at war and with whom
we have no serious quarrel — except for one: the presence of some 35,000
Cuban troops (whom the Angolans both detest and need). Oxymoronic.
3. Those Cuban troops help to defend not only the legitimate MPL A gov-
ernment in Luanda but also the American-owned oil installations offshore
the enclave of Cabinda (Chevron-Gulf) and Zaire Province at the mouth of
the Congo (Texaco). Savimbi threatens to blow up these facilities, while do-
ing his best of course to spare American lives. Oxymoronic.
4. When Portuguese Admiral Coutinho sailed forth from Luanda harbor
on November 11, 1975, Angolan Independence Day, he waved a jaunty
adeus and then washed Portugal's hands of the whole business. From the en-
suing chaos the MPLA emerged as the militarily and intellectually dominant
force. They controlled Luanda and Cabinda. A South African column was
stopped just short of Luanda by Cuban troops and Gulf Oil paid over to the
central bank in Luanda the royalties and taxes that had been accumulating in
escrow. Henry Kissinger and the CIA (operating from the station in Kin-
shasa, Zaire) tried but failed to stop the consolidation of MPLA authority.
The failure was so successful that our incumbent President wants another go
at it. Oxymoronic.
5. At the time, Kissinger conceded that Angola by itself was of no stra-
tegic importance to the United States. But it was a square on the global East-
West chessboard. Its loss would lead to the loss of others. No such thing has
occurred. Dr. K was playing on the wrong board. The real conflict in
southern Africa today is not East versus West but South Africa versus black
sub-Saharan Africa. And by intervening on the side of South Africa, the
United States impairs its position in the global contest of East versus West.
Oxymoronic.
6. The State Department opposes apartheid in South Africa. The United
States has imposed some mild sanctions but it has opposed disinvestment —
in South Africa, that is. But not in Angola. Quite the opposite. There, the
State Department has suggested that Chevron-Gulf disinvest and terminate
its $2 billion annual business, conducted jointly and satisfactorily with its
partner, the Angolan state oil company. Disinvest in Angola to stamp out
apartheid in South Africa! Oxymoronic.
7. The chosen vessel for our intervention would be Jonas Savimbi, ex-
vessel for Maoist ideology (in his China period) and the one who changed
Unita's slogan "Fatherland, Liberty, Unity" to its current "Socialism,
Negritude, Democracy, Non-Alignment". The Radical Right in the United
States adores him. Oxymoronic.
8. The incongruities and contradictions extend even to the current com-
mercialization phase, i.e., "freedom-fighter" Savimbi becomes a network
television personality and penetrates the Oval Office at a time when most
Presidential appointments have been canceled because of the space shuttle
disaster. And, on the other side, who are the flacks and lobbyists for the
Marxist government of Angola? An old personal friend of the President's
named Daniel Murphy, who solemnly shares with us the intelligence that "at
least one-third of the Politburo members are practicing Presbyterians".
Oxymoronissimo.
9. The Reagan administration seeks authority to spend additional mil-
lions of dollars on so-called covert aid to the Unita guerrillas, whose purpose
is to overthrow the duly constituted and validly existing government of Angola.
Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, a treaty to which the United States,
Angola and 157 other nations of the world are party, provides:
All Members shall refrain in their international relations
from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or
political independence of any state, or in any other manner in-
consistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
And the United Nations Declaration on Principles of International Law,
adopted unanimously by the General Assembly in 1970, provides:
.... armed intervention and all other forms of interference or
attempted threats against the personality of the State or against
its political, economic and cultural elements, are in violation of
international law .... Also, no State shall organize, assist, fo-
ment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed
activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime
of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another
State .... Every State has an inalienable right to choose its
political, economic, social and cultural systems, without inter-
ference in any form by another state. (Emphasis supplied.)
Oxymoronic. More than that. In terms of the Fowler dichotomy it is not
"impressive". It is "absurd". Absurd practically: there is no way Unita can
win its rebellion. Absurd politically: the side of racist South Africa is not the
side to be on. And absurd legally: aid to the Unita guerrillas is a violation of
international law.
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Yanger, William L. South Texas College of Law, The Annotation (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 6, March, 1986, newspaper, March 1986; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144437/m1/5/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.