ABSTRACT
Cuba's massive— and decisive— intervention in the Angolan civil war resulted in a victory for the Soviet Union and a sharp setback for the United States and China. The continuing growth of Cuban influence and prestige in the Third World was demonstrated by the Cuban participation in the first conference of heads of state of nonaligned countries, held in Belgrade during September 1961. Algerian independence in 1962 marked the beginning of a new period in Cuban-African relations. In mid-October the Algerian Prime Minister, Ahmed Ben Bella, visited Havana after addressing the United Nation General Assembly and meeting in Washington with President Kennedy. The only extensive account of the Cuban intervention in Angola was written by the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an outspoken admirer of Castro and of the Soviet Union. The Cuban military intervention proved to be only the beginning of the Cuban involvement in the Angolan crisis.
