Covert Operations and Murder

Abstract

Covert intervention in the Congo Crisis of 1960-61 has long been a taboo subject. At the time of the Crisis, little was publicly known about the efforts of the CIA and other Western intelligence services to manipulate events in the country. Academics and journalists almost unanimously avoided the topic. But overtime, details of secret operations have gradually leaked out, and the Congo Crisis is now considered one of the best documented covert actions of the Cold War.1 And it is well established that both U.S. and Belgian agents plotted to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, the democratically elected prime minister. Death in the Congo explores these covert operations. The basic facts are presented: after gaining independence from Belgium, the Congo immediately fell into a state of disorder, with an army mutiny and the secession of two key provinces, Katanga and South Kasai. The disorder generated extensive interventions by several foreign powers, as well as the United Nations, and the interventions were for the most part undertaken covertly. To be sure, these events have been described many times before, most authoritatively by Ludo De Witte’s 2002 book, The Assassination of Lumumba. By contrast, Gerard and Kuklick’s Death in the Congo presents little that is new—but the story remains interesting nonetheless.