1990s in Angola - Savimbi Wounded in Combat

Savimbi Wounded in Combat

In early 1990, the MPLA sought to overrun UNITA militarily in southern Angola in several major military offensives, coordinated with Soviet and Cuban troops and military advisors. While UNITA ultimately repelled the offensives, Savimbi sustained bullet wounds twice in battles in January and February 1990, though they did not restrict his mobility In Washington, D.C., Savimbi's supporters warned that continued Soviet support for the MPLA was threatening U.S.-Soviet relations in global affairs and undermining Mikhail Gorbachev's promises of "new thinking" in Moscow's foreign policy. The Heritage Foundation's Michael Johns wrote that, "If there is 'new thinking' in Soviet foreign policy and if Gorbachev is, as he claims, very different from Leonid Brezhnev, then Moscow will call off the Angolan offensive. If not, then Gorbachev's 'new thinking' will fail its first regional test, forcing America to reconsider its new relaxed attitude toward the Soviet Union."