NBC WHITE PAPER, NUMBER 7: ANGOLA: JOURNEY TO A WAR (TV)
Summary
One in this series of irregularly scheduled documentaries. This program examines the growing revolutionary war in Angola through the firsthand reports of two NBC correspondents who present opposing views. First, narrator Chet Huntley provides background information on the colonial history of Angola as well as on current Angolan-Portuguese relations. Huntley then explains the United Nations reaction to the Angolan war, and the project assigned to NBC correspondents Robert Young and Charles Dorkins to inform a U.N. Security Council subcommittee of the situation that the Angolan government has kept hidden from the international community. Next come reports by Robert Young as he and Dorkins join a small group of Angolan nationalists on a 300-mile journey through the country. YoungÕs report includes a visit to the headquarters of the Popular Union of Angola in Leopoldville, where nationalist leader Holden Roberto responds to Portuguese accusations of communism; scenes of deserted and ruined Angolan villages and Portuguese outposts; a visit to a community of Angolans hiding in the jungle, where the journalists give rudimentary medical treatment to the many sick and wounded who lack supplies; villagersÕ accounts of brutality and executions by the Portuguese military and police; scenes of the mass graves and remains of the executed; accounts of the forced labor of Angolan men, women, and children by Portuguese colonists; and images of some of the 125,000 Angolan refugees traveling to the Republic of Congo. Next, after the Angolan government has lifted the ban against foreign news coverage, NBC correspondent Robert McCormick travels to Luwanda to report on the Portuguese angle of the war. McCormickÕs coverage includes pre-war statistics on population, education, and the economy; scenes of Portuguese soldiers arriving in the country and from the battlefields; scenes of Portuguese offensive missions into the Angolan countryside; visits to Portuguese refugee communities; and images of peaceful interactions between Portuguese military personnel and Angolan citizens. In the final portion of the program, YoungÕs and McCormickÕs reports are juxtaposed as they examine the activities of the Portuguese and Angolan soldiers and the destruction caused by the war. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: September 19, 1961 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:41
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T79:0155
- GENRE: News; Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Angola - Revolution, 1961-1975; Massacres - Angola; Portugal - Colonies; United Nations
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1960-1980
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Irving Gitlin … Executive Producer
- Al Wasserman … Producer, Writer
- Young, Robert (See also: Young, Robert M.) … Director, Writer
- Chet Huntley … Narrator
- Robert McCormick … Reporter
- Young, Robert (See also: Young, Robert M.) … Reporter
- Charles Dorkins
- Holden Roberto