Abstract
M.A.
In January 1981, the Reagan administration entered office. Its
dominant trend of thinking focussed on Angola - not Namibia - as
the Southern African issue that demanded urgent attention.
It was against this background that the concept of 'linkage' was
introduced. This elevated the question of Cuban forces in Angola
to the centre stage of negotiations. This question, the removal of
Cuban forces in Angola, became the pretext for preventing the
implementation of UNSCR 435, 1978. The destiny of Namibia was
caught up in a powerful legacy of East - West conflict. However, as early as March 1986, the Soviet Union, under Mikhail
Gorbachev, pronounced its readiness in finding a political solution
to the Angolan conflict as part of a broader policy decision to
seek negotiated solutions to all regional conflicts. The Soviet Union
came to regard its involvement in distant regional conflicts as an
unnecessary expensive luxury, in that they fuelled the arms race
and deprived it of access to Western investment and technology. A
window of opportunity for the settlement of Southern Africa 's
problems was opened up by Gorbachev 's perestirofika. The Reagan
administration took full advantage of this glorious development,
since it wanted to wrap up the Namibia - Angola question before
its time ran out. This was coupled with a desire to prove that
'linkage' had been a success .
The Angolan war was unwinnable. No one was winning on the
ground . Therefore , everyone wanted to win at the table. Each
side had good reasons for wanting to see the war ended, but no
one was prepared to admit it. Eight months of almost continuous negotiations between Angola
Cuba and South Africa, with the United States acting as a
mediator, on a regional peace settlement involving Namibian
independence, culminated in the signing of the Tripartite Agreement
on 22 December 1988. This finally established April 1, 1989 as
the date of starting the implementation of UN security council
Resolution 435 of 1978, involving a transitional phase leading to
full independence of Namibia.