We are your children of the native quarters
which electricity never reaches men dying drunk
abandoned to the rhythm of death 's tom-toms.

The 10-year-old X-ray machines at Agostinho Neto provincial hospital sometimes don't work 100 percent.

Sometimes, they don't work at all.

Just as residents on this island nation tinker with their 1950s Chevrolets to keep them running, the staff at Agostinho Neto jury-rigs medical equipment when replacement parts are in short supply.

On September 10, 1979, 30 years ago, the noble heart of Antonio Agostinho Neto ceased beating. We received the news from a tearful Kundy Paihama, who was leading the Angolan delegation to the 6th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which had concluded in Havana the previous day. Fidel, Raúl, Almeida, and President Samora Machel of Mozambique who, at that moment, was talking with us about the historic event, were filled with profound dismay.

Robert Hultslander served as the last CIA station chief in Luanda, Angola from July 1975 through to the evacuation of U.S. personnel in early November 1975 as MPLA troops moved to take power over rival factions in the Angolan civil war. As part of his research for Conflicting Missions, in 1998 Piero Gleijeses sent a set of questions and drafts of sections of the book to Mr. Hultslander regarding CIA analysis and operations in the Angolan conflict. Hultslander's responses, sent via fax, along with the questions, which have been reconstructed for the purpose of this posting, are excerpted below.