Southern Africa Treaty Organization
Proposed Member States
Total: 5 |
The Southern Africa Treaty Organization, or SATO for short, was a theoretical concept developed by ex- Wehrmacht major general Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin in 1960 for a military-political study to supplement NATO in South Africa .
The suggestion was that the South African states Mozambique ( Portuguese territory ), Angola (Portuguese territory), Rhodesia and the South African Union (according to some information also South West Africa ) should form the SATO based on the example of NATO, as it was at the time of the African year (1960 ) were considered to be the only reliable partners of NATO in (South) Africa. From this base, units that were always ready for action - which von Mellenthin called "Commandos" according to Boer tradition - should be ready for operations and actions against "rebellious" (supposedly communist ) "native states " .
In its 34/1960 issue, Der Spiegel published a short article about von Mellenthin's proposal for the SATO.
A video explaining the SATO can be seen in the GDR documentary The Laughing Man from 1966.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich-Wilhelm von Mellenthin . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1960, pp. 63 ( online ).