[23] The MPLA's core base includes the Ambundu ethnic group and the educated intelligentsia of the capital city, Luanda.

The following year, the expanded umbrella group Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP) replaced FRAIN, adding FRELIMO of Mozambique and the CLSTP, forerunner of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP).

In the early 1970s, the MPLA's guerrilla activities were reduced, due to the fierce counter-insurgency campaigns of the Portuguese military.

It promptly ceased anti-independence fighting in Angola and agreed to transfer power to a coalition of three pro-independence Angolan movements.

[citation needed] The United States Congress barred further U.S. military involvement in the country, against the wishes of President Ronald Reagan, as the representatives feared getting into a situation similar to the Vietnam War.

[6] After Nito Alves's attempted coup in 1977, Neto ordered the killing of suspected followers and sympathisers of "orthodox communism" inside and outside the party.

[26] Estimates for the number of Alves' followers killed by Cuban and MPLA troops in the aftermath range from 2,000 — 70,000 dead, with some placing the death toll at 18,000.

[27][28][29] After the violent internal conflict called Fractionism, the MPLA declared that it would follow the socialist, not the communist, model.

But it did maintain close ties with the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, establishing socialist economic policies and a one-party state[citation needed].

Several thousand Cuban troops remained in the country to combat UNITA fighters and bolster the regime's security.

Tens of thousands of UNITA and FNLA sympathizers were subsequently killed nationwide by MPLA forces, in what is known as the Halloween Massacre.

[39] The MPLA government hired Samuels International Associates Inc in 2008 to help improve Angola's global image and "'facilitate' its meetings with senior U.S.

The switch was the result of tensions between China and the Soviet Union for dominance of the communist bloc, which almost led to war.