Congo/Zaire Unpatriotized History

The Belgian Congo was the site of one of the world's worst atrocities, the ivory and rubber extraction project of King Leopold II of Belgium during the period of his "Etat Independant du Congo" from 1885 to 1908. Leopold used forced labor, torture, maiming, mass slaughter, and kidnapping of the population to accomplish his goal of extracting as much ivory and rubber as possible in the shortest time. Many millions of people were killed. Tens of thousands were kidnapped, beaten, raped, had their hands cut off, or were otherwise brutalized as a way of forcing others to meet demanding rubber extraction quotas. Of course this also meant that many died from starvation as there was no one left to grow food in many areas, with the population forced into rubber extraction. During this period Congo was effectively Leopold's personal property; in 1908 Congo became a colony of Belgium. The abuses lessened, but were still severe, especially during World War I as Belgium pushed rubber extraction.

In the 1950s the people of the Belgian Congo demanded independence, and were at first brutally suppressed by the Belgian colonial administration. But in 1960 Belgium finally granted Congo its freedom after 75 years of Belgian rule. Parliamentary elections had been held shortly before, and Patrice Lumumba had become the first prime minister. He spoke out against colonialism and acquired the enmity of Washington. Washington funnelled money to the man that Lumumba had appointed to head Congo's new military, Colonel Joseph-Desire Mobutu. Belgian troops facilitated the secession of mineral-rich Katanga province, in an attempt to create a Belgian puppet state that would enable continued Belgian exploitation of Katanga. The CIA helped Mobutu stage a coup, and Lumumba was overthrown, passed into the hands of his enemies in Katanga, and killed.

CIA-manipulated chaos followed. In the words of the former head of the CIA's Angola program, John Stockwell, the CIA's Larry Devlin "shuffled new governments like cards, finally settling on Mobutu as president" (Stockwell 1978, 136). In 1965 Mobutu, with more US backing, staged another coup and rose to power, to rule with continued US backing for 30 years. In the mid 1970s the US worked with Mobutu to back Angolan and South African forces fighting against Angolan and Cuban forces in Angola. Later US president Carter sent money and military aid to put down risings against Mobutu; Mobutu was also financially supported and publicly praised and welcomed by Reagan and George H.W. Bush. In the early 1990s the US changed its policy of favoring Mobutu. He instituted anti-Tutsi policies and was finally ousted by Laurent-Desire Kabila and a coalition of pro-Tutsi forces in 1997.

A quote on the Mobutu-US relationship by Adam Hochschild:

Early on, the Western powers had spotted Mobutu as someone who would look out for their interests. He had received cash payments from the local CIA man and Western military attaches while Lumumba's murder was being planned. . . . [Mobutu] later met President Kennedy at the White House in 1963. Kennedy gave him an airplane for his personal use - and a U.S. Air Force crew to fly it for him. With United States encouragement, Mobutu staged a coup in 1965 that made him the country's dictator. And in that position he remained for more than thirty years.

Further U.S. military aid helped Mobutu repel several attempts to overthrow him. Some of his political enemies he ordered tortured and killed; some he co-opted into his ruling circles; others he forced into exile. The United States gave him well over a billion dollars in civilian and military aid during the three decades of his rule; European powers - especially France - contributed more. For its heavy investment, the United States and its allies got a regime that was reliably anti-Communist and a secure staging area for CIA and French military operations . . .

. . . With American and European approval, the country's wealth flowed mainly into the pockets of the Messiah [Mobutu] and foreign mining companies. Mobutu's loyalty to his Western backers made him a popular visitor to Washington . . . Ronald Reagan received him at the White House several times, praising him as "a voice of good sense and good will." George Bush greeted him as "one of our most valued friends." He added, "I was honored to invite President Mobutu to be the first African head of state to come to the United States for an official visit during my presidency."

(Hochschild 1998, 302-303)

Sources:

Adam Hochschild. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin 1998.

John Stockwell. In Search of Enemies. New York: Norton, 1978. (Page numbers listed are from the 1997 Replica Books reprint.)

For a few notes and quotes on the assassination of Lumumba, click Patrice Lumumba Assassination: A Few Quotes and Sources.