Review of "The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War," by Peter Polack

 Review of

The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War, by Peter Polack, ISBN 9781612001951

A major battle rarely mentioned

 The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has largely been misnamed. For during the years from 1946 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, there were major wars pitting the allies of one side against the allies of the other. The United States fought two major wars, in Korea and Vietnam, where American forces fought against proxies of the Soviet Union. Millions of people were killed in both wars and the United States suffered significant numbers of combat deaths and wounded.

 Yet, there is truly a battle between proxies of both sides that can be definitively said to be the last major battle of the Cold War. It took place in Angola, a nation recently receiving independence from Portugal and split into two factions and rival territories. There was the communist MPLA and the anti-communist UNITA. They fought for some time and with help from the Soviet Union and Cuba, MPLA emerged as the de facto government of Angola.

 At the time, the apartheid acting South Africa was engaged in a military occupation of Namibia to the south of Angola and had fears that a communist takeover of Angola would spread to Namibia and eventually into South Africa itself. Therefore, the decision was made by the government of South Africa to send military forces to Angola in support of UNITA. This prompted the Cubans to send large combat forces into Angola, leading to a direct conflict between the two forces. The major point of conflict was the lengthy battle known as “Battle of Cuito Cuanavale,” that took place in 1988. In that battle, Cuban and South African forces engaged each other directly. It was the largest land battle on the African continent since the battle of El Alamein in the Second World War.

 This book is the story of this truly forgotten battle that had major consequences for the region and the world. Although the civil war continued on and off for over ten years, like most proxy wars, there was no such thing as a total victory of one side over the other. There was a negotiated agreement of withdrawal of the Cuban and South African forces, as both sides understood the level of stakes in the direct conflict.

 The explanation of the battle is very detailed in the descriptions of the action, down to lists of specific combatants and their fates. The efficiency of the weapons used, the number of troops engaged by the players and the conditions where the battle took place are all covered.

 A major battle that has somehow become little more than an asterisk in most accounts of the Cold War, the battle of Cuito Cuanavale should be studied in great detail. For while it did not end the civil war in Angola, within two years the Soviet Union dissolved, and South Africa ended the military occupation of Namibia. Furthermore, in less than six years, apartheid ended in South Africa. Therefore, it truly was the peak of communist power as a major player in southern Africa and led to major international changes.