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Yet the record of Soviet efforts to influence Africa includes a number of expulsions and humiliations—in Ghana, Sudan and most recently Somalia, for example. In the Horn of Africa they acquired considerable political capital by helping the Ethiopians drive the Somali insurgents out of the Ogaden. But the war in Eritrea is a different matter. The province's secessionist movement, in the eyes of many nonaligned and radical Arab states, is absolutely legitimate, since Eritrea was unilaterally incorporated into Ethiopia by the late Emperor Haile Selassie in 1967. Both the Soviets and, particularly, the Cubans are doing their best to keep from getting dragged into the righting there. They apparently realize that Eritrea could trap them in a Viet Nam- like debacle, at the same time laying to rest once and for all what Henry Kissinger calls "the myth of the invincible Cubans."
During the recent crisis in Zaïre, Western leadership was assumed by France. Indeed, with an estimated 10,000 troops and advisers now deployed in Africa, France has the second largest foreign contingent there, earning for the French the unflattering sobriquet, "the West's Cubans."
In fact, the French have long maintained an intensive web of cultural, economic and occasionally military relationships with their former colonies as well as several other African states. In recent months their troops have been reinforcing governments in Chad and Mauritania against guerrillas. Last year they provided air support to halt the first Shaba invasion. This time, with Belgian help, they quickly organized the airlift to rescue the 3,000 Europeans trapped in Kolwezi.
The reason for this involvement is the long-held French view that the economic destinies of Europe and Africa are inextricably linked; Europe lacks adequate natural resources to survive, and Africa is the obvious source. For this reason French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing is prepared to take occasional military action to maintain African stability. "We cannot oppose cannons with cannons or bazookas with bazookas," says a ranking French official, "but it is amazing how much you can do with a little push in the right place at the right time."