U.S. Advocates Support for Angolan Rebel

The Reagan Administration said Tuesday that it is important to the United States to prevent the Marxist government of Angola from defeating Jonas Savimbi’s rebel army, although it conceded that Savimbi’s insurgents have little chance of gaining a military victory.

Speaking at a news conference shortly before Savimbi arrived in Washington for a two-week visit, Assistant Secretary of State Chester A. Crocker called for “effective and appropriate support”--apparently a euphemism for covert military aid--for the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

At the same time, Crocker applied pressure on U.S. business firms operating in Angola, chiefly Chevron Corp., which owns 49% of the Cabinda oil facility that produces most of the Luanda government’s hard currency revenues.

Crocker said the government has warned U.S. firms that “they are in the middle of a war zone, that they’re also in the middle of a rather hot political debate in this country and that they should be thinking about U.S. national interests as well as their own corporate interests as they make their decisions.”

Oil, Foreign Exchange

He refused to be more explicit, despite repeated questions, but he said the Chevron operation “helps to generate foreign exchange which can be used for imports of military hardware.”

Last year, the State Department said that U.S. business participation in Angola “is in the long-term interest of both our nations and of all Angolans.”

Meanwhile, 25 conservative organizations, led by Conservative Caucus Chairman Howard Phillips, called a news conference to urge a consumer boycott of Chevron and its subsidiary, Gulf Oil. The Cabinda oil facilities belonged to Gulf, which was bought by Chevron in 1984.

“We are here . . . to urge President Reagan to support overt military assistance to Dr. Savimbi’s brave anti-Communist freedom fighters and to demand that the Chevron Corp . . . stop furnishing fuel and revenues to the Soviet war machine,” Phillips said.

Chevron Replies

San Francisco-based Chevron, in a statement issued by its Washington office, said that Phillips “and his extremist organization have embarked on an irresponsible crusade against us that is based on their rather twisted and biased version of reality.

“Chevron/Gulf is conducting a straightforward commercial oil exploration and production operation in Angola and has done so for 30 years,” the company added.

Crocker said the U.S. government has taken no position on the boycott.

Savimbi, who enjoys strong support from conservative groups in the United States, plans a high-visibility effort to obtain U.S. support for his fight against the Luanda government.

Some American conservatives long have seen Angola as an example of Soviet expansionism, and Savimbi as an anti-Communist fighter.