Thanks to freetree64 for his post:
Scary Letter From Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro mentioned in a recent blog (Reflections) that nuclear weapons had almost been used against the Cuban troops in Angola at the Battle of
Cuito Cuanavale.
Here is a piece of history that most people never knew even happened:
For six months the SADF threw everything they had at the town [Cuito Cuanavale]. In December 1987, 1500 Cubans joined the defenders.
With the full power of the SADF aimed at Cuito Cuanavale, Cuban, Angolan and SWAPO forces prepared for a counter-attack. Fifty thousand Cuban
volunteers went to Angola to help the fight.
Angolan and Cuban MIG 23 pilots swept the South African Air Force from Angolan skies. But SADF artillery superiority meant they could still rain
20,000 shells onto Cuito Cuanavale every day.
In major battles in January, February and March of 1988, the South Africans failed to take the town. Campbell claims that at this point, press-ganged
black SADF soldiers began rebelling and SA president P.K. Botha flew to the front to stop the military command collapsing.
South Africa even considered the use of tactical nuclear weapons, according to Campbell.
Link1
Another source:
Failing to take Cuito Cuanavale with over 9,000 soldiers even after announcing to the world that Cuito Cuanavale had fallen; losing its superiority in
the air; and faced with mutinies from the black troops of the pressed ganged battalions, the operational command of the SADF broke down and the
president P.W. Botha had to fly to the war zone inside Angola. Botha, it was later revealed had flown in to intervene in a dispute among the South
African military high command on whether the apartheid army should use tactical nuclear weapons. Botha decided against the use of nuclear weapons
because at that time apartheid South Africa was a pariah state.
Link2
I think it was quite a close thing - the military almost used nuclear weapons, and it was only with the intervention of Botha that this scenario was
avoided.
Is this the real reason he resigned so suddenly, leaving the way for the South Africa to finally shed the burden of apartheid?
Another Source:
Link to PDF
