Interesting Congo crisis movie

[David Andrews]

The Siege of Jadotville (2016), about the Irish peacekeeping force in the Congo. Can't think of another film that cared enough to have Dag Hammarskjold as a character. Ignore the phony "Hyena Road II" monicker intended to evade YouTube takedown. And bring up the Vickers gun.

Edited October 31, 2016 by David Andrews

[Robert Prudhomme]

What has this got to do with the assassination of JFK?

[David Andrews]

Frankly, more than The Package with Gene Hackman.

[Steve Thomas]

David,

The Siege of Jadotville (2016), about the Irish peacekeeping force in the Congo. Can't think of another film that cared enough to have Dag Hammarskjold as a character.

I watched the movie to see if there were any references to Jean-Rene Souetre.

Didn't see any that I remember.

The antagonist in the movie was Moise Tshombe, I think.

I have a thought that the mercenary who opposes the Irish force is based on the life of Bob Denard.

Souetre was one of the mercenaries working with Denard in the mid 1960's.

Steve Thomas

[James DiEugenio]

Bob:

You obviously do not go to CTKA enough and read the articles. There is a way of looking at the JFK case besides rifles, sabots, and bullet trajectories.

To understand why David posted this link, you might begin by reading this article:

http://www.ctka.net/2016/jfk-hammarskjold/hammarskjold-and-kennedy-vs-power-elite.html

[James DiEugenio]

Was that supposed to the the assassination of Lumumba at the beginning?

I agree, its a rare film that depicts Dag H. and Conor Cruise O'Brien along with Tshombe.

I never saw the movie bio called Lumumba.

[David Andrews]

Do see the film Lumumba, Jim - there's much to appreciate in its biography/history, which I admit is more accurate than the sensationalistic two-minute capsule at the beginning of The Siege of Jadotville.

Jadotville is somewhat important in raising consciousness about cold war imperialism, and Europe may be the place that happens in film, rather than the America of Bridge of Spies. I hope so.

EDIT: And here's Lumumba, through the miracles of digital democracy and covert titling. Better pirated than unseen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UkAFGecf-E

Edited November 1, 2016 by David Andrews

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks for the link David.

This picture below explains why Congo is so important to the JFK case.

http://orwelltoday.com/jfkcongophone.jpg

Its Kennedy getting the news of Lumumba's death. Which had been deliberately concealed from him for about three weeks. Dulles accelerated the assassination plots in order to make sure he was dead before Kennedy took office.

That picture for me encapsulates the JFK murder. Why? Because neither what came before him--Eisenhower--or what came after him--LBJ and NIxon--would have reacted like that, or anything close to it.

Edited November 1, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

BTW, I am glad that Congo is finally getting some attention after all these decades of neglect.

With these two films and with the Susan Williams book and the UN reopening the Dag H case, finally its getting some exposure.

I was always disappointed that JFK assassination books ignored this issue.

I mean, three government chiefs were murdered while it went on--Lumumba, Dag H and JFK. They were all on the same side. And when they were killed, the other side won. Does that not tell you something?

[Paul Brancato]

Exactly right. The hand of Allen Dulles is apparent.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Paul Brancato

[James DiEugenio]

Well, the case for Dulles in the first two is pretty evident. Especially since the documents that Williams used in her book which named Dulles in on the Hammarskjold plot have now been confirmed to be genuine.

Talbot tries for the JFK instance.

[David Andrews]

I heard an interesting reference to the Hammarskjold killing in another film.  I watched on DVD last night a 1980 comedy called Hopscotch, with Walter Matthau as a CIA officer gone rogue (in a good way) by writing an Agee-Marchetti style tell-all book. In his book proposal is the question, "How much did the Office of Dirty Tricks have to do with the plane crash of Secretary Hammarskjold?"  Reading that sends blustering boss Ned Beatty up the wall.

Hopscotch isn't a very good movie and I didn't finish it, but the reference shows that the Hammarskjold rumor had been kicking around in the golden age of conspiracy film.  I no longer remember if it got a mention in Agee's or Marchetti's books.

Edited April 1, 2017 by David Andrews

[Thomas Graves]

"This video is unavailable."

[David Andrews]

40 minutes ago, Thomas Graves said:

"This video is unavailable."

I got it at the public library.  Released by The Criterion Collection, which ought not to release a film directed by Ronald Neame after 1969.

Edited April 1, 2017 by David Andrews

[James DiEugenio]

It really is time for someone in Hollywood to do a really big movie about Lumumba.

Talbot did a nice job summing up the story in The Devil's Chessboard.  It has so many classic elements to it.

But I guess the reason they do movies about Mandela and not Lumumba is that the latter ends tragically.  With the USA holding some culpability for it.

But at least Congo is getting some attention now.  I mean I wrote about it 20 years ago.  And at that time, our readers thought it was the dark side of the moon.  They didn't even know Kennedy had an African policy.  Even though it harked back to his great Senate speech of 1957, where he essentially pronounced his disdain for both parties in their attitude toward the Third World.