The First Casualty of War
An article in our biggest circulation newspaper two weeks ago was a eulogy of Cuba's involvement in the SA/Angola war of the 80's. I wrote an answering letter to the editor as follows. Dear Editor,
Bongani Madondo writes in “Next steps in Obama’s Cuba tango” that “It (Cuba) achieved this by making nonsense of Pretoria’s perceived military invincibility on the continent, defeating the Boers and their minions, UNITA, at Cuito Cuanavale, among the bitterest battles in modern warfare.”
Bongani has been listening to people like Ronnie Kasrils, who have also attempted to re-write history to cover up the pitiful performance of the Communist cabal in Angola and Namibia during the Bush War.
Firstly, to address the Cuito misinformation, a snippet from my letter to Ronnie Kasrils on the subject in this same esteemed newspaper:
"When establishing who the victors are in any battle, one needs to examine the aims of the parties involved, the casualties and the consequence for the military leaders after the battle.
Firstly, the broader aim of the Cubans and MPLA/FAPLA and their comrades in SWAPO and the ANC was to eventually seize power in Namibia and South Africa and install a One Party, Communist Dictatorship in both countries. If, as Ronnie Kasrils maintains, Cuito was the turning point and a great victory for the Communist MPLA/FAPLA, Cubans and ANC, and their laughable “Military wing”, MK, these aims were not achieved. Both Namibia, and ultimately South Africa became multi-party democracies which was in fact the aim of the Apartheid regime.
Secondly, looking at the casualties on either side, Cuito produced the following entirely one-sided figures.
Cuban/Fapla Killed 4 785 vs SADF Killed 31
Cuban/Fapla light armour destroyed +200 vs SADF light armour destroyed 11
Cuban /Fapla Tanks destroyed 94 vs SADF Tanks destroyed 3
Cuban/Fapla Fighter Jets destroyed 9 vs SADF Fighter Jets destroyed 1
If this looks like victory to Mr Kasrils, I wonder what defeat looks like?
Lastly, while the South African generals were sometimes criticised for not following up the victory of Cuito by routing the FAPLA /Cuban forces and annihilating them to a man, the generals were feted as conquering heroes on their return to the Republic. The “Victorious” Cuban general Gen. Arnaldo Oshoa Sanchez was executed by Fidel Castro on his “triumphant” return to Havana.
How on earth anyone can turn these rather embarrassing facts into a victory for Cuba (and the rest of the gang) without blushing, is a mystery.”
Another demonstration of Cuban military might was seen at the battle for Cassinga in 1978. A group of 367 South African Paratroopers attacked the fortified SWAPO/PLAN base at Cassinga. Despite losing the element of surprise,due to an inaccurate drop, the South African lightly armed Paratroopers managed, after a full day of fierce battle, to obtain the surrender of the base.
Over a thousand SWAPO/PLAN soldiers were killed and thousands surrendered. During the last hours of the battle, a force of 20 tanks and armoured vehicles, manned by Cuban soldiers, sped to the rescue from Techematute, a nearby Cuban base. The lightly armed South African paratroopers, helped by a Mirage and an out-of-ammo Buccaneer, managed to almost entirely destroy the armoured column. This caused Cuba’s biggest single-day loss in the whole bush war. The loss on the South African side was three KIA and one MIA.
It would therefore seem that these two milestone battles showed up who were the real victors and who the vanquished. No amount of wishful thinking or Communist propaganda can cover up the real truth of the matter.
Yours sincerely,
Michael McWilliams
The letter was published by the communist controlled paper as First Casualty of War. I think they sneakily edited the letter to minimise the damage to their cause.
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