(FORTUNE Magazine) – Chevron took some uncomfortable heat for pumping oil in Marxist Angola. First, Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker suggested that Chevron's conduct might not be in the national interest. Then Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi visited Washington, where he accused Chevron of lobbying against aid for his pro-Western insurgency and threatened to attack the company's Angolan facilities. ''If they don't want to get hit, they don't make politics,'' he said in an interview with the Washington Post. Chevron has a 49% stake in Cabinda Gulf Co., which produces most of Angola's oil and consequently most of its foreign exchange. The Angolan government owns the other 51%. Chevron inherited the operation in 1984, when it bought Gulf Oil, which had been in Angola for three decades. Chevron spokesmen denied lobbying against Savimbi and were at first surprised by Crocker's statement. Later the Administration assured the company that it was not being forced out of Angola. The real target of Crocker's remarks was probably the government in Luanda. Washington has been trying to negotiate the withdrawal of some 28,000 Cuban troops from Angola, but the talks are stalled. By pressing Chevron, the U.S. is indirectly pressing Angola. ''The Administration appears to believe that multinationals constitute a tool for manipulating foreign policy,'' says Donald Easum, president of the African-American Institute and Crocker's predecessor in the Ford Administration. ''But this will fortify Angola's mistrust of the U.S. role as an intermediary and retard the negotiating process.'' Such tactics can be short-lived. Barely a month after ordering U.S. companies out of Libya, Washington is having second thoughts. Pulling out the oil companies, it seems, would simply mean a $1-billion windfall for Libya. Accordingly, the Administration plans to issue licenses that would allow the oil companies to stay on. Their profits would be placed in escrow in the U.S. until they can leave Libya without undue financial pain.