Kennedy and Congo: The Battle for Africa

[James DiEugenio]

This is going to be probably a three parter at my substack.

Its a relatively little discussed policy area which Kennedy broke from Foster Dulles on, re Lumumba.  But I will go more into his whole attitude toward Africa.

What LBJ and Nixon did in Africa caused not just a reversal but a disaster.

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/kennedy-and-congo-the-battle-for

[Greg Wagner]

Thanks Jim. Can't wait to read it! 

Edited September 6 by Greg Wagner

[Ron Bulman]

Great article.  I don't know where part's two and three will lead.  But what Dulles does to Lumumba is a tragedy for the Congo and Africa.  Amazingly some thought it the right thing to do with the persuasion of him, his brother before he died and the MSM.

A worthy topic for a song in 1957.

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks to you both, and I never heard that song before.

Ron, Part 2 will begin with an overview of Kennedy's policy in Africa and how it changed from Ike. Something that almost no one deals with.

We will then get into the whole tragic fate of Patrice Lumumba.

As Jonathan Kwitny wrote, he became the first modern  hero in Africa by getting himself killed for his country's democracy.

What  most people forget, or do not know, is that he was freely elected and that was a republican government with a constitution.

Per Kwitny,  that could have been a great example for Africa.

But Ike and Allen Dulles said, heck no. Patrice has got to go.

And go he did.

And they did not even tell JFK.

Edited September 6 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

To this day, as many times as I have written about it and read about it, this story is still shocking.

In my opinion, it does not get nearly enough attention considering the horror of the crime, what the CIA did, and the immense aftermath of its impact.

I quotes a very able writer on the subject, Jonathan Kwitny on the last.  If we had supported Lumumba, which Kennedy wanted to do, the fate of Africa and Congo could have been much different.

 

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/kennedy-and-the-congo-the-battle

[James DiEugenio]

This is part 3, and it deals with:

1.) the famous picture of JFK when he gets the news of Lumumba's death

2.) The murder--and that is what it was--of Dag Hammarksjold

3.) How Kennedy literally took over the Congo crisis as Dag would have wanted it done.  Gullion cabled DC and said, it was not an accident.

This is a disgracefully ignored subject. At the end I preview how it all changed upon Kennedy's death.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-148860682?source=queue

[James DiEugenio]

My concluding chapter on this subject, which is so overlooked by  the critical community.

The murders of Lumumba, Hammarskjold and Kennedy sealed the deal for Congo.

It was a disaster after that.  If you can believe it, the Cuban exiles were running missions against the last of Lumumba's followers. This started to turn Africa and the Third World against the USA.  As I note, Lumumba, Hammarskjold and especially Kennedy now became heroes on the Dark Continent.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-149043049?source=queue

[Ron Bulman]

On 9/7/2024 at 5:58 PM, James DiEugenio said:

To this day, as many times as I have written about it and read about it, this story is still shocking.

In my opinion, it does not get nearly enough attention considering the horror of the crime, what the CIA did, and the immense aftermath of its impact.

I quotes a very able writer on the subject, Jonathan Kwitny on the last.  If we had supported Lumumba, which Kennedy wanted to do, the fate of Africa and Congo could have been much different.

 

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/kennedy-and-the-congo-the-battle

I didn't notice this was part II.  Just now read it.  Very informative so far.  On to parts III & IV.

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Ron, I hope you and Greg at least enjoy this.

I discovered some mew material that is in Pt. 4.

What an epic tragedy for Congo and Africa.

[James DiEugenio]

One of the reasons I thought this was an important subject is this:

This Congo crisis, topped off by Operation Dragon Rouge, which almost no one has ever heard of, was the beginning of Africa and the Third World turning away from America.  That turning away would be multiplied by Johnson's massive escalation in Vietnam which came around the same time, end of 1965.

The determination to go to war with the last of Lumumba's followers was not just a reversal of Kennedy's African nationalism policy.  It was counter to a doctrine that JFK pronounced in his Algeria speech: America should not be on the wrong side of history.  But that is what was now going to happen, and it would be accelerated  once the Neocons took power. 

It was this switch that I believe led to the beginnings of the BRICS movement.  Kennedy was well aware of this danger.  And in Part 4, I outline some of the genesis of this as a result of how the Congo crisis ended.  Things that we think are not related, actually are.

Edited September 20 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

Just about to start III.   Another thought from II.  It had to be Dulles that ok'd QJ WIN, WI ROGUE, and Sideny Gottlieb to assassinate Lumumba.  After all that they turn to Mobutu, give him millions for the deed.  Then support him for 30 years while he rapes the country on behalf of his benefactors.  I wonder what Mr. Talbot thinks about that, hope he is doing better. 

[James DiEugenio]

Talbot had a very nice section on Lumumba in Devil's Chessboard.

I gave him kudos for that.  

[Gene Kelly]

Jim

I enjoyed reading your Congo articles and agree that this episode certainly exposes who JFK's true enemies were, leading to his murder.  Here are Talbot's memorable words:

Allen Dulles’s ascendency brought furtive characters, such as gun-toting William Harvey and cadaverous James Jesus Angelton into a powerful global apparatus. Cold War ideology brooked no nationalist aspirations in any country wishing to control domestic politics and natural resources. A post-colonial era was emerging. But democratically elected nationalist leaders such as Mossadegh in Iran and Arbenz in Guatemala were conveniently portrayed as Communists. In both countries the CIA orchestrated coups ensuring protection for profitable corporate oil interests and United Fruit. The Agency contributed to the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the charismatic Congolese leader who only wanted self government for his beleaguered people. President Kennedy had to hear the news second hand from his United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. Hence, from the start of the Kennedy Administration Dulles kept secrets from his new boss. No episode better illustrates Dulles's separate agenda than his agency's planning and execution of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961...  Dulles and his top aides set up the Bay of Pigs to fail in order to force the young president's hand in bombing the island and sending in the Marines.

Talbot also cites a letter to President Kennedy from Averell Harriman (FDR's Ambassador to Moscow) which refers to the CIA's undermining Kennedy's neutrality policies in Laos and Vietnam. Clearly JFK's foreign policy stands cost him his life ... and at the hands of Dulles and his cabal. Just like your recent Substack articles, a reviewer of Devil's Chessboard summed all of this cogently and nicely:

The reader will come away with a deeper understanding of the "crime of the century" that synthesizes the most relevant details that fifty years of scholarship and investigation have provided.

Gene

 

[James DiEugenio]

Gene:

I think that understates it.

Talbot spends 14 pages on Lumumba, beginning on p 375.

He begins this with Lumumba's escape from house arrest and his attempt to make it back to Stanleyville, the seat of the alternative government his followers had set up for him.

He then goes back to what Lumumba's election meant to the history of Congo.  And how his independence day speech rubbed certain people in Washington the wrong way, including Dulles and Dillon, who had an investment interest in mining there. Therefore they branded Lumumba a communist, which he was not. Washington then decided to dispose of him. And Talbot describes the plots and plotters as I did in my article.

Talbot goes into the escape attempt by Lumumba and how the Americans helped his African enemies track him down. Even when captured he almost got his captors on his side.  The 2 Americans on the scene who he blames most for the death of Lumumba are Paul Hofmann a reporter for the NY TImes who wrote many biased stories about him when he was caught, and Larry  Devlin CIA station chief, who aided and guided his capture. Devlin went on to run the CIA Africa Division and pursued a career in the Congo's very rich diamond industry.

A truly sorry story.  It was really the end of Congo, which was a constitutionally defined and democratically elected republic. Is that not what America is supposed to be supporting?

Edited September 20 by James DiEugenio

[Gene Kelly]

And then they murdered the UN Secretary general ... even former president Harry Truman acknowledged it: “Dag Hammarskjold was on the point of getting something done when they killed him”.  This leaves no doubet as to who JFK's murderers were ... and the US and Belgium later sponsored a mercenary force (Operation Dragon Rouge).  No wonder no one wants to reopen the remaining JFK files ... it reflects poorly on our history.