The South African Border War in Namibia was fought between 1966 and 1990 as part of the Cold War and the Decolonisation of Africa. The battle was closely linked to the Angolan Civil War. These wars were pitched as a battle between 'Anti-Communist' and 'African-Nationalist' forces. Namibia had been governed as a colony of Germany till World War I, and was then given as a mandate to South Africa, 'until the local population was ready for self-rule'. Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975 (The authoritarian regime in Portugal was overthrown in 1974). Post World War II, the conflicting ideals of self-determination, and the ideological battle between Capitalism and Communism, used the developing world as the battlefield. South Africa was viewed by the Soviets as a bastion of neocolonialism. The Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December 1991. It isn't a coincidence that Apartheid ended in 1994, and Mandela was released in 1990. It also isn't a coincidence that parties on the left view free markets with skepticism.
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