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Africa's longest civil war, and one of the many proxy struggles conducted during the Cold War by the United States and the Soviet Union. An estimated one million Angolans died during the four-decade-long struggle. In 1956, a Marxist group, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola, MPLA), was formed to fight for independence from Portugal. Through the 1960s, the MPLA conducted a guerrilla war against the colonial administration and a rival group, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertacao de Angola, FNLA). A third group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola, UNITA), emerged in 1966 under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi. The MPLA was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba, while the FNLA received aid and assistance from the United States and UNITA was backed by South Africa. Cuban troops and military advisors helped the MPLA gain control of most of Angola, including the rich oil-exporting coastal regions.

When Angola became independent in 1975, the MPLA seized control of the government. Antiapartheid rebels used Angola to launch attacks on the South African–controlled province of Namibia, prompting Pretoria to launch military incursions into Angola. The FNLA and UNITA conducted an armed insurgency against the MPLA regime. Successive peace agreements through the 1970s failed. UNITA emerged as the main opposition, as the FNLA became increasingly marginalized. As a result, Washington began to provide aid to Savimbi and UNITA, although a 1980 law prevented the deployment of military advisors or U.S. forces in Angola. Meanwhile, Cuba maintained 50,000 troops in Angola throughout the 1980s.

In 1989, a peace agreement brokered by Washington and Moscow called for the withdrawal of Cuban and South African forces and pledged an end to foreign military aid. Although the cease-fire arrangement paved the way for an end to outside intervention, fighting continued between the government and UNITA. A second major peace agreement was signed in 1991 and allowed elections in 1992. In the balloting, the MPLA won 53 percent of the vote, UNITA 34 percent, and the FNLA 2.4 percent. In concurrent presidential elections, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the leader of the MPLA, won the polling with 49 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Savimbi. UNITA rejected the election results and resumed fighting. However, the United States stopped all military aid and recognized the MPLA-led government. The administration of President William J. Clinton supported the deployment of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers following another cease-fire accord in 1994. Through the 1990s, illicit diamonds funded UNITA's continuing guerrilla campaign. In 1999, the United States sponsored a UN resolution to ban the export of gems, commonly called conflict or blood diamonds, from the region.

Savimbi was killed during fighting in 2002, and UNITA finally agreed to disarm and renounce violence. Beginning in August 2002, some 350,000 UNITA fighters and their families were demobilized and reintegrated into society...

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