Congo Crisis

Colonial Era

1885

• Leopold II claims personal colony of Congo Free State

1908

• Belgium takes over due to abuses of Leopold’s administration
• renamed the Belgian Congo

1940s-1950s

• Belgium makes the Congo a “model colony”
• development of the “Evolues”

1950s

• Nationalist Movements form

Congo Crisis, 1960-1964

Causes

• Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba
  • leader of Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)
  • Pan-Africanist
  • Non-aligned
  • between Warsaw Pact and NATO
  • Appointed PM after his party won the first election after independence in May 1960
  • “positive neutralism”
• leader of Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)
• July 5, 1960
  • Congolese enlistees begin mutinying against Belgian officers claiming nothing will change in military despite independence
  • mutinies spread and only quielled when
• Katanga, resource-rich province, delcares its independence under Moise Tschombe on July 11
• Supported by Belgian companies
• Lumumba requests UN peacekeeping forces
• Withdraw Belgian forces
• Suppress Katanga rebellion

Independence

January 4, 1959

• Leopoldville Riots
• nationalist influence spreads
• whites radicalize and plan a coup

January 1960

• Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference
• June 30, 1960 was set as independence date

June 30, 1960

• Independence Day
• Lumumba gives an unscheduled speech following King Badouin

Crisis Begins

July 5, 1960

Force Publique Mutiny

• Several units protest against Lt.-Gen, EMile Janssens “before independence = after independence” at Camp Hardy

July 6, 1960

• Lumumba dismisses Jansses and promotes all black soldiers at leat one grade
• mutinies continue to spread

July 9, 1960

• Belgian paratroopers deploy ostensibly to protect white civilians
• Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu split on the invasion

July 11, 1960

• Belgian ships bombard Matadi, inciting more violence against whites
• Belgian civil servants flee, leaving the administration in disarray

Secessions and UN Intervention

July 10, 1960

• Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu request UN aid

July 11, 1960

• Moise Tshombe declares independence for the Katanga province
• Belgium supported this
• they had the uranium

Cold War Expansion

July 27, 1960

• Lumumba requests military from the US Secretary of State and is rebuffed
• Lumumba requests aid from the Soviet Union and 1,000 military advisors arrive

August 8, 1960

• President Albert Kalonji declares independence ofor South Kasai
• August 1960 CIA agents in Congo reported to their agency that Congo is the “classic communist…takeover” as in Cuba

Course

• July 14, 1960 - send of Operation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC)
• immediate removal of Belgian troops
• Lumumba speaks to US Secretary of State Christian Herter who says US will help as part of the UN
• Lumumba contacts Khrushchev for aid
• causes a split between between Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu
• US is ceding power to the UN which legitimizes the UN
• August 9, 1960 - South Kasai declares secession
• Mobutu leads Congolese troops and puts down rebellion
• devolves into ethnic violence
• Catholic Church and Kasa-Vubu criticize and turn on Lumumba
• Kasa-Vubu is scared Lumumba will carry out a coup
• Lumumba declares Kasa-Vubu deposed
• Lumumba keeps is position but the Parliament does not ratify Kasa-Vubu’s deposing
• Colonel Mobutu orchestrates his own coup and captures Lumumba
• Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold insists Lumumba be treated to due process

Lumumba’s Fall

September 5, 1960

• Kasa-Vubu dismises Lumumba

• Both order Mobutu to arrest each other

• September 14, 1960

• Mobutu launches a bloodless coup deposing both

• later Kasa-Vubu is reinstated in February

• UN Security Council called into session to address Soviet demands

• Lumumba reinstated

• Mobutu disarmed

• Hammarskjoled dies in a plane crash in Rhodisia while on hiw way to Congo

Fouga CM,170 Magister

• 50s era Belgian jet trainer
• Katangese purchased 9 and got 3
• armed with machine guns and locally made bombs
• used against Irish ONUC forces in September 1961 at the Siege of Jadotville and destryed a DC-3 and 2 DC-4s
• alleged to be involved in the crash of the DC-6 carrying Hammarskjold

Post Lumumba

September 1961

• Operation Morthor and Siege of Jadotville
• September 18. 1961
• Hammarskjold’s plane crash in Rhodesia
• U Thant Succeeds him

Significance

The UN

• had the power to use force if requested by the legitimate government
• Secretary General empowered to make policy
• UN humanitarian aid proved to be critical

The US

• Eisenhower and the CIA considered Lumumba a communist despote the fact that Lumumba approached teh United States 1st
• Dulles ordered Lumumba’s assassination
• supported UN troops Belgain troops
• Increased trust in the peacekeeping ability of the UN
• Supported Mobutu despite his “shortcomings”

The USSR

• arms and supplies given to Lumummba
• Ghana wins out when US outbribes the Soviets
• troika idea for UN is shot down
• Hammarskjold isn’t going anywhere until he dies