Description
Book Synopsis
This is the first book on U.S. policy in Angola during the 1980s. Elaine Windrich shows how the Reagan administration and U.S. media inflated the importance of Jonas Savimbi and helped inflame the civil war in Angola. Pinpointing media strengths and weaknesses in shaping and in reporting on a major crisis in Africa, this ground-breaking work analyzes Savimbi as a cold war guerrilla, the role of different media segments in the dirty war in Angola, and the right-wing influence of the Reagan and Bush administrations into the 1990s. This moving and well-researched account, providing insights into how the U.S. media covers African and Third World issues, is a good text for foreign correspondents and for courses dealing with U.S. foreign policy, journalism and communications, and with Africa.
The image of the Angolan rebel leader as a freedom fighter is shown to be a product largely of the U.S. media and the collaboration of right-wing lobby groups closely linked to the
Table of Contents
Preface "Meet Jonas Savimbi" The Road to Jamba--and Washington The Cult of the "Freedom Fighter" The Savimbi Lobby War Propaganda: Hot and Cold "A Place for Savimbi" Poison Gas Propaganda Lobbying against Human Rights Lobbying against Peace "End of the Affair"? Saving Savimbi Peace through War Winning the Peace Bibliographical Essay Index
