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The purpose of this article is a critique of the strategic approach to the so-called Battle of Cuito Cuanavale by the leadership of the South African Defence Force (SADF). The article starts with an analysis of South Africa's strategic position on the eve of the campaign in 1987. It concludes that the country was internationally isolated, and that it would have to fight basically alone against FAPLA (the Angolan Army), PLAN (Swapo's army), and possibly also the Cuban forces in Angola - in other words, an overwhelming force. At the same time, the white South Africans viewed the war as an existential struggle which they could not afford to lose.
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