Slavery in Angola within the first six months of 1961. The Portuguese Army and Air Force put down the uprising and blacked out the incident to the press. The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) said the Portuguese military killed ten thousand people in the massacre. Conservative estimates are around 400 casualties. These events are considered the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974). After the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Angola was offered independence from Portugal. After independence in 1975, during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), both the largest opposition group, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
Cuban intervention in Angola fighting was taken up throughout the whole country. The independence movements attempted to seize key strategic points, most importantly the capital on the day of independence. In a meeting of the United States National Security Council (NSC) on 27 June 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford said that, in spite of planned elections, it was important to get "his man" in first, referring to then UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi being in control of Luanda before the elections. Arthur Schlesinger pointed out at the same meeting that the U.S. "might wish to encourage the disintegration of Angola. Cabinda in the clutches of