The Prague population reaction in 1968 is pretty obvius, I will shock If I see some guys trowing flowers.
The Soviet involvement in the Angola war is more a F. Castro initiative than a Russian one, offcourse in both cases a comunist one.
(My bold)
Hardly a Castro initiative !
As the Cuban joke went in those days :
Q. - What is the biggest country in the world ?
A. - Cuba. The capital is in Havanah, the government in Moscow and the army in Angola.
Hardly a castro initiative…? Believe or not It was, Angola was part of the “One thousand Vietnams” than the dinamic duo Castro-Guevara want, even more… the intelectual author was Guevara.
Castro wa also responsible for prolonging the Salvador s blood bath whit the suppoit of guns and assesors to the leftist in that region.
Yes Castro and Guevara were both keen to ensure the world was turned into a communist ‘paradise,’ though it shouldn’t be forgotten where their beliefs and indeed their instructions came from.
Long before the Portugese so abruptly pulled out of their overseas provinces, the Russians had got to grips with their own expansionist plans for Africa.
While the majority of foreign troops in Angola were Cuban conscripts, Castro was no more than a willing servant of the masters in the Kremlin.
New thread created.
Very, very good investigative work Dani, thanks a lot!!!
Lancer44
I wondered where this thread had got to.
Dani, your source is from the National Security Archive, who get much of their Int via the FOIA.
This gen includes official transcriptions from Kissinger, who received his information from the various intelligence organisations, in the case of Angola mainly the CIA.
The electronic book mentioned on the first page of your link is edited by one Peter Kornbluh, the NSA’s Director of their Cuba Documentation Project, and pal of Piero Gleijeses who has a definite financial interest in the sales of the printed book as he officially authored it.
The basis of this book comes from declassified docs from US govermental agencies, and those he has obtained from the Cuban authorities - from whom he received the Medal of Friendship from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba…
He has no practical experience of Angola and the book managed to avoid the Soviet influence over the deployment of Cuban troops.
While Castro is/was a hero of the Cuban Revolution, once he’d been taken under the wing of USSR his international independence came only at the acquiescence of the Kremlin.
The interview with Hultslander, former CIA Station Chief in Luanda, was revealing both by what was written and what was not.
In fact the CIA int over the whole episode was woefully poor, and some of their attempts to gain more were nothing short of farcical.
While it is understandable that they want to save face over their involvment, they never had much of a presence and what they did have was generally ignorant and inept.
That the Soviet Union didn’t send quantities of their own troops to Africa should come as a surprise to no-one.
- The Cold War was a serious item on the Sov agenda, and they could hardly afford to have a political showdown with the West as they needed a larger quantity of troops to balance the quality of those ranged against them.
- After their ‘liberation’ of Budapest in '56, (and later Prague in '68) they were aware of the political repercussions should they continue in leading invasions themselves.
- The logistics of moving from their nearest port, (probably Odessa,) to Luanda are far outweighed by the direct 11000 km route from Havana. (In the case of flights, acclimatisation for Cubans would be quicker than for Soviet sldrs.) Forthermore, the regular visits of military and merchant ships to Castro’s ports permitted materiel resupply to their surrogate forces without raising particular interest of the Western int agencies.
The Russian bear did indeed send sldrs to Angola, (though not run-of-the-mill Inf,) as the prescence of ChiCom advisors was a political irritation. Those Sovs that came included some high ranking offrs both to command the forces and to gain further Int, rather than to exchange rds with those they would oppress.
Mind you, it didn’t always work out that way ! 
Maybe we’ll move it in a possible future section of small wars/conflicts.
Also some points are issued here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/STP.htm