[2][3] The Soviets, well aware of South African activity in southern Angola, flew Cuban soldiers into Luanda the week before independence.

The Soviet leadership expressly forbid the Cubans from intervening in Angola's civil war, focusing the mission on containing South Africa.

[9] On July 5, 1979, Angolan President Agostinho Neto issued a decree requiring all citizens to serve in the military for three years upon turning the age of eighteen.

The government gave a report to the UN estimating $293 million in property damage from South African attacks between 1976 and 1979, asking for compensation on August 3, 1979.

The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Cabinda, a Cabindan separatist rebel group, attacked a Cuban base near Tshiowa on August 11.

The South African government responded by sending troops back into Angola, intervening in the war from 1981 to 1987,[6] prompting the Soviet Union to deliver massive amounts of military aid from 1981 to 1986.

The Angolan government recorded 529 instances in which South African forces violated Angola's territorial sovereignty between January and June 1980.

[11] On June 2, 1985, American conservative activists held the Democratic International, a largely symbolic meeting of anti-Communist militants, at UNITA's headquarters in Jamba, Angola.

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, South African security forces, Abdurrahim Wardak, Afghan Mujahideen leader, Jack Wheeler, American conservative policy advocate, and many others.

The governments of Israel and South Africa supported the idea, but both respective countries were deemed inadvisable for hosting the conference.

The South African government, joined negotiations on May 3 due to the military stalemate at Cuito Cuanavale and the parties met in June and August in New York City and Geneva.

Representatives from the governments of Angola, Cuba, and South Africa signed the Tripartite Accord, granting independence to Namibia and ending the direct involvement of foreign troops in the civil war, in New York City, United States on December 22, 1988.

[24] On August 23, 1989, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos complained that the U.S. and South African governments continued to fund UNITA, warning such activity endangered the already fragile ceasefire.

Dolph Lundgren played Nikolai, a Soviet agent sent to assassinate an African revolutionary in a country modeled on Angola.

[26][27][28] The film has a strongly anti-Communist message, and goes to great lengths to depict the Soviets as violent sadists, including a scene in which chemical weapons are used.

Namibia's declaration of independence, internationally recognized on April 1, eliminated the southwestern front of combat as South African forces withdrew to the east.

[31] Then, in a series of stunning victories, UNITA regained control over Caxito, Huambo, M'banza Kongo, Ndalatando, and Uíge, provincial capitals it had not held since 1976, and moved against Kuito, Luena, and Malange.

The government engaged in an ethnic cleansing of Bakongo, and, to a lesser extent Ovimbundu, in multiple cities, most notably Luanda, on January 22 in the Bloody Friday massacre.