Patrice Lumumba: American foreign policy and cover-ups

Kristin C.

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Patrice Lumumba: American foreign policy and cover-ups

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Abstract

Historically, the foreign policy of the United States has been such that one event has integrated itself into effecting the majority of events to follow. The case of the United States foreign policy in the Congo and, specifically, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba is no exception. This particular assassination occurred and, simultaneously, created a domino effect of reactions, disapprovals, cover-ups, and overall change in policy. In addition to the significant after effects of Lumumba's assassination, numerous actors played a role and provided contributing factors in the implementation of the event in general. The combining efforts of President Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Belgian government proved to be what instigated the events in question. In addition, the implications of the past factors and United States' foreign policies associated with the Cold War played a role in the before and after math of Lumumba's detainment and assassination. With the exploitation of President Eisenhower's, the CIA's, and the Belgian government's sequence of actions and events leading up to Lumumba's assassination, one can see whom is to blame as well as the after effects such an event had on American foreign policy

Introduction
The history of the Congo
1. Understanding the implications
2. The history and rise to power of Patrice Lumumba
The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
Circumstances that led up to Patrice Lumumba's assassination
1. President Kasavubu's firing of Lumumba's government
2. The role of President Eisenhower
3. The CIA's role in the assassination
4. Negatively advantageous role of the Belgian government
Conclusion

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Extract

[...] The United States has been involved in the Congo for decades and has integrated ideals, aid, and questioned intentions. In relation to the assassination event of Patrice Lumumba, it seems to be that the United States first got involved when they showed support for Colonel Mobutu's military. United States policies during the Cold War, as discussed before, sparked the beginning of the display of what faulty intelligence and the loss of our morality can do. Since the assassination of Lumumba, the Congo has been arguably sustained by the United States supporting the regime of Mobutu and plagued by regional and civil war. [...]

[...] It can be argued that a couple of the contributing factors with regards to the Cold War and the policy involved integrate themselves into the United States' role in Lumumba's finality. Firstly, the concept of the containment of communism strewn out by the United States during the policies of the Cold War played a role in Patrice Lumumba's assassination. As a precept to this, the Katanga province in the southern area of the Congo declared independence with the support of the Belgian government and received the aid of troops from the United Nations to counteract unrest. [...]

[...] Lumumba was a man who, from the background of his checkered career, had grown to valiant magnitude in the eyes of most of his people by first freeing the Congo from Colonel Mobutu's wavering grip and later by rejecting those who saw him as a pawn thereby becoming a symbol of Congolese pride and patriotism[3]. Lumumba's belief in a single, strong central government being the only way to build an effective modern state free from the narrowness of tribal loyalties joined the issues surrounding the Congo as well as creating both the oppositionists and supporters of him and his system. A number of characteristics played an influential role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba as well as the foreign policy that followed. [...]

[...] Although no concrete evidence was found, it is clear that the Belgian government was unconcerned with the well-being and physical integrity of Patrice Lumumba while he was being brutally captured and detained by the Congolese officers in Leopoldville and elsewhere. As one governmental document states, the leader of the Belgian Labor Party claimed that Belgium was “accused of being unpatriotic was told that they were assisting an English campaign against the Congo state and that the testimony they invoked was exaggerated or untrue”[15]. [...]

[...] The United States foreign policy during the Cold War significantly altered the events to follow and instigated the covertness and the cover-ups to come later. The vast necessity of hegemonic greed and power implements tragic events in history and leaves negative footprints in the foreign policy to follow. By allowing these great powers to away” with cruelty such as Lumumba's assassination, the effects linger on and activate instability for years to come. Purity Njeru, “Democratic Republic of Congo-A Brief History,” The African Executive, November 2008, http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=359. [...]

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