Africa’s Plight Among Warring Nations

Re “Angola’s Jonas Savimbi Was No Freedom Fighter,” Commentary, March 11: Piero Gleijeses is to be commended for bringing Africa’s tragic problems to the fore in a media world obsessed with the Middle East and for raising a much-needed alarm about the U.S. proclivity for supporting vicious warlords just because it seems a good idea at the time.

However, his attempt to burnish the regressive Fidel Castro’s image as a genuine revolutionary is a major disservice. When a usurper like Castro has his revolutionary credentials certified by the likes of Henry Kissinger, you know he’s a phony. Jonas Savimbi, his competitor Agostinho Neto and Castro were nothing but a triad of jockeying warlords proxying for the rival superpowers in Angola, an unfortunate country whose natural wealth has carried the curse of attracting voracious international predators.

Gilbert Dewart

Pasadena