ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the impact of local contextual variables on US-Soviet conflict in the Angolan and Rhodesian crises. By mid-December it was apparent that the South African intervention and the US covert aid program would have to be quickly and dramatically increased if they were to achieve the desired objectives. African armed struggle against the Smith regime had also made little progress before 1974, primarily because of the overwhelming military superiority of the Rhodesian army. In early 1976, the drift toward conflict among Zimbabwean liberation movements was partially offset by the increasingly assertive role of the African Frontline Presidents. African terrain variables do not entirely explain why the Angolan conflict became a US-Soviet confrontation with global implications but the Rhodesian conflict did not provoke a bilateral superpower crisis. The Carter administration confronted a more favorable set of African circumstances in the Rhodesian conflict.
