Cuba in President talks of Iran, nonalignment and his troops in Africa
Before Afghanistan there were Angola and Ethiopia. The use of Cuban forces to shore up revolutionary regimes in those countries was seen in the West as Soviet intervention in the Third World through surrogates. The Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan with their own troops abruptly changed the situation and challenged Fidel Castro's claim to leadership of the Third World. In the United Nations, nonaligned states attacked the Soviet imperialist thrust, while Cuba's representative lamely endorsed the Soviet action without specifically mentioning Afghanistan....