Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba

In 1960, when Belgium grudgingly ceded power, Lumumba became prime minister of the Republic of the Congo (L%C3%A9opoldville) and the first democratically-elected head of the former Belgian colony. But historians Gerard, of the University of Leuven, and Kuklick, of the University of Pennsylvania, reveal how the geopolitical neophyte was unequipped to deal with his compatriots or the ex-colonial overloads who actively sought ways to undermine him and regain control. As the country quickly descended into chaos, his regime was further undercut by rivals bent on secession and ethnic tensions among the various politicians jockeying for power. Lumumba and his allies turned to the United Nations for help restoring stability, unaware that the U.S. effectively controlled the organization. Although Lumumba was more a nationalist than a communist, the Americans feared he would steer the Congo%E2%80%94and the rest of the continent%E2%80%94into Soviet Union's orbit. The CIA moved to discredit and captured the Congolese leader before carrying out one of the most chilling and successful assassinations of the Cold War. Though marred by stilted prose, the authors provide wealth of detail in this worthy primer to the events that plunged the nation into decades of dictatorship under Joseph Mobuto (Mobutu Sese Seko). (Feb.)