I'm not sure, but I believe by 89 the Cubans had left Africa.

I've always been disturbed by the idea of private military contractors--mercenaries. They remind me of lawyers, arms merchants, and public relations firms, they'll fight for either side. Mercenary forces have been around for a long time (the ancient Greeks used them and they were common in medieval and renaissance warfare) and they have had a huge influence on history, not usually a benign one.

But I suspect in a world of vast multinational corporations, the declining influence of the nation-state, and an obsession with "security", we may be seeing a new form of international institution arising: the armed corporate state. And like all private organizations with no political or ideological commitments, the need to stay in business will eventually migrate them from participating in conflicts to provoking them.

Places like Africa, with their endless conflicts, are a goldmine for outfits like this, and their own survival and prosperity does not provide any incentive for private armies to disband quietly after establishing a peace. They act as a fomenter of further conflict not only through direct participation, but also by establishing and training local forces (even a small mercenary presence can set in motion a lot of violence without getting its hands dirty in actual combat).

There are also dirty little wars were major governments prefer to prosecute through proxies, and quasi-mercenary forces. There were several European countries besides France who had Foreign Legions, (the "foreign" refers to the nationality of the legionnaires, not their overseas assignment). They are military forces which can be committed to difficult missions without the nation risking any of its own citizens.

Its easy to romanticize these people, or admire them for their competence, but they are not nice folks at all, they are brutal conscienceless killers for hire.