Editing Mercenary (section)

=====Angola=====
In 1975, [[John Banks (mercenary recruiter)|John Banks]], an Englishman, recruited mercenaries to fight for the [[National Liberation Front of Angola]] (FNLA) against the ''Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola'' ([[MPLA]]) in the [[Angolan Civil War|civil war]] that broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In the United States, David Bufkin, a self-proclaimed mercenary hero started a recruiting campaign in ''Soldier of Fortune'' magazine calling for anti-Communist volunteers, especially Vietnam veterans, to fight in Angola as mercenaries, claiming to be funded to the tune of $80,000 by the Central Intelligence Agency.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Kyle |title=Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War |date=2018 |publisher=University of North Carolina Pres |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1469640747 |page=114}}</ref> Bufkin was in fact a former U.S. Army soldier "who has gone AWOL several times, has been tried for rape, and been in and out of jail several times", did not have $80,000, was not supported by the CIA, instead being a con-man who had stolen most of the money paid to him.<ref name="auto2"/> Bufkin managed to get a dozen or so American mercenaries to Angola, where several of them were killed in action with the rest being captured.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Kyle |title=Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War |date=2018 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1469640747 |page=115}}</ref>

One of the leaders of the mercenaries was [[Costas Georgiou]] (the self-styled "Colonel Callan"), who was described by the British journalist Patrick Brogan as a psychopathic killer who personally executed fourteen of his fellow mercenaries for cowardice, and who was extremely brutal to black people.<ref name="Brogan, Patrick p. 6">Brogan, Patrick (1989), ''The Fighting Never Stopped'', New York: Vintage Books, p. 6</ref> Within 48 hours of his arrival in Angola, Georgiou had already led his men in disarming and massacring a group of FNLA fighters (his supposed allies), who he killed just for the "fun" of it all.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 76">Axelrod, Alan (2014), ''Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies'', Washington: CQ Press, p. 76</ref> At his trial, it was established that Georgiou had personally murdered at least 170 Angolans.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 76"/> Inept as a military leader as he was brutal, Georgiou notably failed as a commander. It was believed in 1975–76 that recruiting white mercenaries to fight in Angola would have a similar impact that the mercenaries had in the Congo in the 1960s, but in Angola the mercenaries failed completely as Brogan described their efforts as a "debacle".<ref name="Brogan, Patrick p. 6"/> If anything, the white mercenaries with their disdain for blacks, or in the case of Georgiou murderous hatred seemed to have depressed morale on the FNLA side.<ref>Axelrod, Alan (2014), ''Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies'', Washington: CQ Press, pp. 76–77</ref>

Many of the mercenaries in Angola were not former professional soldiers as they claimed to have been, but instead merely fantasists who had invented heroic war records for themselves. The fantasist mercenaries did not know how to use their weapons properly, and often injured themselves and others when they attempted to use weaponry that they did not fully understand, leading to some of them being executed by the psychopathic killer Georgiou who did not tolerate failure.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 77">Axelrod, Alan (2013), ''Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies'', Washington: CQ Press, p. 77</ref> On 27 January 1976, a group of 96 British mercenaries arrived in Angola and within a week about dozen had accidentally maimed themselves by trying to use weapons that they falsely claimed to be proficient with.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 77"/> The MLPA forces were better organized and led, and the dispatch of 35,000 Cuban Army troops in November 1975 decided the war for the MLPA.<ref>Brogan, Patrick (1989), ''The Fighting Never Stopped'', New York: Vintage Books, pp. 5–6</ref> Cuban accounts of the Angolan war speak of the efforts of the mercenaries in a tone of contempt as Cuban veterans contend that the mercenaries were poor soldiers who they had no trouble defeating.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan p. 77"/>

When captured, John Derek Barker's role as a leader of mercenaries in Northern Angola led the judges to send him to face the firing squad following the [[Luanda Trial]]. Nine others were imprisoned. Three more were executed: American Daniel Gearhart was sentenced to death for advertising himself as a mercenary in an American newspaper; Andrew McKenzie and Georgiou, who had both served in the British Army, were sentenced to death for murder.<ref name="bbc_june28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/28/newsid_2520000/2520575.stm 1976: Death sentence for mercenaries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510154328/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/28/newsid_2520000/2520575.stm |date=10 May 2018 }} [[BBC]] On this day 28 June</ref> Georgiou was shot by firing squad in 1976.<ref name="Brogan, Patrick p. 6"/> Costas' cousin [[Charlie Christodoulou]] was killed in an ambush.

[[Executive Outcomes]] employees, Captains Daniele Zanata and Raif St Clair (who was also involved in the [[1981 Seychelles coup attempt]]), fought on behalf of the MPLA against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ([[UNITA]]) in the 1990s in violation of the [[Lusaka Protocol]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}