NAMIBIA: Hitting SWAPO Where It Lives

To win its way in South West Africa, Pretoria gambles

South African military commanders likened it to the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, and so it was—on a much smaller scale. Shortly after dawn one morning last week, some 200 South African paratroopers landed by helicopter at the Angolan town of Cassinga. The town lies 155 miles north of Angola's border with Namibia—the vast territory also known as South West Africa that Pretoria has ruled for almost 60 years under an international mandate. The assault force's goal: to deliver a crippling blow to...

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