 
africa has always been a continent where foreign powers have competed with 
each other to gain influence. 
in the 1970s the country making the greatest effort to expand its 
influence throughout africa has been the soviet union. 
in this effort the soviet union is assisted by cuba. 
to a lesser degree other communist countries, mainly in eastern europe, 
have sent special units to africa to serve soviet foreign policy interests. 
these countries are east germany, czechoslovakia, hungary, poland and 
bulgaria. 
in 1978 there were over 40,000 cuban troops in africa, 20,000 in angola, 
17,000 in ethiopia and about 4,000 scattered in places like mozambique, the 
congo, equatorial guinea, guinea-bissau, libya and tanzania. 
in the past africa was never given top priority in soviet foreign policy 
plans. 
in the 1970s, however, the soviet union has become increasingly interested 
in africa. 
there are several reasons for this new interest. 
africa is an excellent location for soviet air and naval bases. 
these bases can help the soviet union extend its control to the indian and 
atlantic oceans. 
the soviet union and china are engaged in a worldwide competition to win 
underdeveloped countries to their own form of communism. 
the soviet union would like the african nations to follow the direction of 
moscow rather than peking. 
africa, with its wealth of natural resources, is very important to western 
europe, which lacks many of these resources. 
this situation makes africa valuable to the soviet union as well. 
since the soviet union does not have a history of colonialism in africa 
as western nations do, it is in a position to support african liberation 
movements such as the one in angola. 
