To supply their favored nationalist movements with weapons, the Soviet Union and United States together had spent more than $1 billion.
	With the MPLA now in control of the government, UNITA continued to fight guerilla warfare in the Angolan bush, although with only limited support from the US and South Africa where new administrations partially withdrew from the conflict. By 1983 his army had reached the large diamond fields of northeastern Angola. Diamonds would become a major source of revenue for UNITA, bringing in enough money to make the organization less dependent on foreign support. 1983 also brought renewed support from South Africa, with another SADF-led invasion. Throughout the 80s UNITA, with the help of the SADF would continue to fight battles with the Cuban-backed MPLA all across Angola. US arms shipments also increased under the presidency of Ronald Regan. Political change in South Africa and the coming end of the Cold War led to the withdrawal of most South African and Cuban troops in 1988. Violence between the MPLA and UNITA continued through 1991, when the Bicesse Accords were signed, setting up the framework for multi-party democracy and elections in the country. Upon the actual elections, which pitted Jonas Savimbi against the José dos Santos, president of MPLA, dos Santos got 49.6% of the vote against Savimbi’s 40.1%. Under the agreement run-off elections were supposed to take place, but were cancelled by the MPLA after hostilities flared up again. 
Though the elections were judged by UN authorities to be fair, UNITA alleged that they were fraudulent, and soon embarked on a renewed military campaign against MPLA. Fighting would continue off-and-on until Savimbi’s death in 2002. Without its charismatic leader, UNITA could not maintain its cohesion and disbanded, bringing over forty years of conflict to an end.
	From the mid-fifteenth century expeditions along the West African coast, to the independence of its colonies in 1975, the Portuguese were in some ways both the first and last European colonizers of Africa, maintaining a presence on the continent longer than any other European power. The legacy of nearly five centuries of Portuguese rule lies at the root of many of the problems that have plagued Angola in the modern period. Though many of these features are common to the European colonization of Africa in general, some belong to the peculiar brand of colonialism practiced by Portugal, which often ran counter to the experience of other European countries. The Portuguese themselves acknowledged these differences with the theory of lusotropicalism, particularly under the régime of António Salazar.
	Lusotropicalism held that Portugal was uniquely egalitarian and benevolent among the colonial powers. Proponents of this theory asserted that because of their unique history and character, the Portuguese did not have the exploitative tendencies of other Europeans and racism was absent among them. The example of Brazil was regarded as proof of the theory, due to its racially-mixed nature and large mestiço population. 