ABSTRACT
U.S. policy toward southern Africa has evolved considerably since the mid-1970s, when an unexpected coup in Lisbon led to the abrupt demise of Portuguese colonialism, sparking a civil war in Angola. Developments in the region, changes in the state of US-Soviet relations, and domestic politics have altered the ways in which US officials define US interests and the strategies they have chosen to promote and protect those interests. The prospect of independence in Angola sparked a tripartite civil war, which quickly escalated into a regional conflict involving the United States, Zaire, and South Africa on one side, and Cuba and the Soviet Union on the other. Officials in the Carter administration emphasized human rights rather than geopolitics in explaining US interests in southern Africa. The Carter administration viewed Cuba's role in southern Africa somewhat differently than had the Ford administration. Unrest in South Africa and political developments in the United States precipitated the collapse of constructive engagement.
