The FNLA soldiers [were] slathering animals." Though consistently armed by the US and China and supported by troops and artillery from Mobutu's Zaire, the FNLA was not able to maintain military success against the Cuban-backed MPLA and ceased to be a major force in Angolan politics after 1976,  . The Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was a latecomer in the independence struggle, formed in 1966 by Jonas Savimbi.  A Swiss- and Portuguese-educated Angolan emigre of Ovimbundu descent, Savimbi was for a time a member on the FNLA but left the organization in 1964.