Within 24 hours of the Alvor Agreement, fighting broke out in Luanda amongst the FNLA and MPLA with further violence on 23 March when the MPLAs Lopo do Nascimento was subject to an assassination attempt by the FNLA. The transitional government's failure to work was also said to be the result of a lack of interest by the Portuguese government in Angola as it tackled a failed counter-coup in Lisbon by General Spinola and the lack of will of the Portuguese troops to serve in Angola and end the violence between the MPLA and FNLA. The final straw was the dismissal in August of the Portuguese High Commissioner Antonio da Silva Cardoso whose attempt to reign in the MPLA had the support of the FNLA. The FNLA saw its only alternative as a military one after having been expelled from Luanda. On 29 August 1975, the Alvor Agreement was suspended by Portugal except for independence in November, and withdrawal of its troops that signal an escalation of violence for the control of Angola prior to that date. US covert aid to the FNLA increases The US government did not believe the Portuguese plan would work and that the MPLA would seize power and install a Soviet-backed regime in power. In late January 1975, the 40 Committee, part of the executive branch of the US government, met and reviewed a proposal from the CIA to fund the FNLA with $300,000 and UNITA, $100,000. The committee approved the funding for the FNLA but not for UNITA. The money was to be used by the FNLA to purchase newspapers and radio stations. In addition to the money, the US supplied weapons to Zaire which, in turn, passed them on to the FNLA, and also supplied several thousand troops. With this funding, Roberto believed any future coalition could be abandoned and in doing so the Soviet Union would begin to increase its aid to the MPLA. By June 1975, the CIA requested a meeting with the 40 Committee in which it proposed increased aid for the FNLA. A decision was not made for a month as the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) and U.S. State Department wished to consider the proposal. Assistant Secretary of State Nathaniel Davies objected to further aid, as he believed it would not help the FNLA to become as militarily strong as the MPLA except with massive amounts of money;