AHC / WI: African Domino Effect and US war

The AHC is to produce a U.S. intervention in the style of - if not on the scale of - Vietnam in a sub-Saharan African country by, say, 1980. Such intervention must be for the express purpose of containing Communism (or whatever nationalistic reinterpretation of it) in Africa and possibly the Third World as a whole. This can either be to the exclusion of or in tandem with the similar US interventions in Korea, Indochina, and Latin America. Bonus points for producing the same "world of shit" culture that came about during the Vietnam war: an impression that the war was not an ordinary one, was ultimately unwinnable or far too great a sacrifice, and a resulting massive loss of U.S. military prestige.

Is such a thing plausible? Did First World strategic interests extend to Africa in such a way as to make the rise of Communism in any given a threatening contingency? And if it had happened, how would that affect wartime American culture - especially with regard to African-American soldiers and civilians?
 
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Wasn’t there already some low-level American involvement in the Congo/Katanga in the 1960s? If so, it would certainly be possible to escalate that into a major American war.
 

Lusitania

Donor
The US played a huge part in attacking the colonial powers and forcing them to grant the African countries independence thinking it would be easier to deal with independent African countries. It was a great shock and surprise to them that so many looked upon Soviet as better model and trading partner than US. So it be very hard in the 1980s when the continent had already either sided with Soviets. If the US wants to intervene it would of needed to be in the 1960s and 1970s the 1980s too late.
 
The main strategic concern would be, by far, South Africa. Which however would entail American troops fighting to defend apartheid. Quite a hard sell.
 
OTL, Angola was probably the place that the US got most directly involved, and even that was via local proxies, not direct intervention. The standard theory seems to be that the recent trauma of Vietnam made other large scale interventions unappealing.

Maybe if the ANC, in alliance with a flock of extraterrestrial winged mammals, took over South Africa and pushed it into the Soviet bloc, you'd see the US get involved, but they'd be highly unlikely to fight for a direct re-imposition of white rule. More likely, they'd support some black-led Inkatha type group as their prefered faction.
 
IMO, the most likely scenario would have been for the MPLA to have been more successful in the Angolan Civil War and routed UNITA more quickly and decisively with the Eastern Bloc and Cuban support provided. If the MPLA had secured Angola without question earlier it is possible that this would have given reason for their allies to extend the fight the the surroundung countries. This would create the scenario that is being asked.

My knowledge of the Angolan Civil War is limited, so I could be really wrong in this being a plausible scenario.
 
Wasn’t there already some low-level American involvement in the Congo/Katanga in the 1960s? If so, it would certainly be possible to escalate that into a major American war.

If you want a Vietnam-level conflict in Africa, I think the obvious answer is Soviet-aligned and supported Lumumba Congo versus US-aligned Katanga.
 
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