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Mercenary Shot in Angola: No Tears for Daniel

By VVAW

Recently, Daniel Gearhart, an American soldier-for-profit was sentenced to die and executed in Angola, along with three British mercenaries, for their participation in Angola's civil war. Gearhart, a Vietnam veteran with a low-paying job, decided to sell his skills as a soldier to the highest bidder. Unconcerned about who he would be fighting for, Gearhart placed an ad in Solider of Fortune magazine asking for unemployment as a mercenary anywhere in the world. He was hired on in Angola.

The political situation in Angola was complicated. For centuries the Angolan people had been a colony of Portugal, suffering the oppression and poverty that goes along with being someone else's colony. But all over the world, from Vietnam to Africa, colonies and neo-colonies have been rising up in revolution against their colonial and imperialist oppressors and liberating their land for their own use. This tide of liberation and revolution wept Angola, and the people of the three major Angolan tribes rose up together and threw out the Portuguese.

However, that was not the simple and glorious end of the story because of what's going down in the world situation as a whole. The United States and the Soviet Union are in contention for economic, political and military domination throughout the world. For them, Angola was a big prize not to be lost to the Angolan people. Angola is a country rich in natural resources and is in a vital military position next to the sea lanes around southern Africa. So after the Portuguese were out on their ass the Soviet Union began to heavily arm one of the tribes and the US switched their support from Portugal to the other two tribes. Both the US and the Russians played on the tribal differences to precipitate a civil war. The three tribes that had risen up together to throw out the Portuguese now fought each other with the US and the Russians each hoping that "their" side would win and Angolan would fall into their camp.

The Russians went further. Hiding their rotten capitalist designs under the name of socialism (a name which they once deserved) and claiming to support freedom fighters from around the world, they were able to send foreign troops to Angola (their own, and the faithful Cubans). The US was in no position to do that since it had been exposed to the people of the world as well as at home through its intervention in Vietnam. Thus the US could only send arms and help recruit and pay for mercenaries like Daniel Gearhart, or secretly encourage the involvement of the racist government of South Africa. This US blood money went to pay directly for the Gearharts or was used indirectly such as the CIA money given to the Congress of Racial Equality to recruit jobless Black Vietnam Veterans who were told that in Angola they could earn some cash and "fight for the liberation of Africans."

It is unclear why Daniel Gearhart chose to become a mercenary. It have been financial problems at home or from some vague political beliefs or because he was a mixed up veteran. Whatever his motives were, the fact is that Daniel Gearhart sold himself as a paid hitman in southern Africa. He became an enemy of the people of the Angola and of working people throughout the world. He chose to fight for slavery, for foreign intervention and against liberation.

During the life of the Gearhart case and before his execution the news media carried stories about Gearhart being a misguided, confused individual who would be leaving behind a wife and family. President Ford and other politicians pleaded his vase in the "name of humanity." Such heavy tears they shed when one of their own bites the dust. It is a sad thing that the Daniel Gearharts of the world abandon their families, but as a killer for hire, selling his skills to the highest bidder, he got what he deserved for his crime of serving imperialism.