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The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

(Hardback)

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Publishing Details

Full Title:

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

Contributors:

By (Author) Stuart A. Reid

ISBN:

9781524748814

Publisher:

Alfred A. Knopf

Imprint:

Alfred A. Knopf

Publication Date:

7th November 2023

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

General

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Other Subjects:

Politics and government

Dewey:

967.51031

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

624

Dimensions:

Width 168mm, Height 242mm, Spine 49mm

Weight:

992g

Description

A spellbinding work of history that reads like a Cold War spy thriller-about the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent Congo It was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. Congo was at last being set free from Belgium-one of seventeen countries to gain independence in 1960 from ruling European powers. Just days after the handover, however, Congo's new army mutinied, Belgian forces intervened, and its leader Patrice Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in saving his newborn nation from what the press was already calling "the Congo Crisis." Dag Hammarskj ld, the tidy Swede who was serving as UN secretary-general, quickly arranged the organization's biggest peacekeeping mission to date. But chaos was still spreading. Frustrated with the fecklessness of the UN, Lumumba then approached the Soviets for help-an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. To forestall the spread of communism in Africa, the U.S. sent word to the CIA station chief in Leopoldville, Larry Devlin- Lumumba had to go. Within a year, everything would unravel. The CIA plot to murder Lumumba would fizzle, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup and shot dead by Congolese assassins. Hammarskj ld, too, would die, in a mysterious plane crash, en route to negotiate a ceasefire with Congo's rebellious southeast. And a young, ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba, would seize power in Congo with U.S. help and misrule the country for more than three decades. For the Congolese people, the events of 1960-61 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. For the U.S. government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.

Author Bio

STUART A. REID is an executive editor of Foreign Affairs. He has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Politico Magazine, Slate, and other publications. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

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