Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (1934 - 2002) was a Maoist-inspired rebel leader in Angola, who founded Angola's Unita rebel movement in 1966. With support from the United States and several African nations, Savimbi spent the majority of his life battling Angola's Marxist, Soviet-aligned regime. The Angolan regime, in turn, was supported by weapons and military advisors from the Soviet Union and Cuba.The war was an extremely bloody and costly one, causing the deaths of many thousands.
Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist regime became a sub-plot to the Cold War, with both Moscow and Washington viewing the conflict as important to the global balance of power. In 1986, for instance, Savimbi was invited by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to the White House. Reagan spoke of Unita winning "a victory that electrifies the world...." Equally important, Savimbi also was strongly supported by the extremely influential Heritage Foundation. Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Michael Johns and other conservatives visited regularly with Savimbi in his clandestine camps in southern Angola and provided the rebel leader with ongoing political and military guidance in his war against the Angolan regime. Savimbi's U.S.-based supporters ultimately proved successful in convincing the Central Intelligence Agency to channel covert weapons to Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist regime.
After a cease-fire, Savimbi ran for president in 1992, but he questioned the legitimacy of the election when he lost, and resumed fighting. In 1994, Unita signed a new peace accord, but Savimbi declined the vice-presidency that was offered to him and again renewed fighting in 1998.
Four years later, in March 2002, Savimbi was killed in a battle with Angolan government troops. He remains an extremely important figure in Angolan history, viewed by some as a "freedom fighter" and by others as a war-monger who perpetuated a lengthy Cold War conflict.