The Congo 1960

Winner of the 2013 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title Battleground Africa traces the Congo Crisis from post-World War II decolonization efforts through Mobutu's second coup in 1965 from a radically new vantage point. Drawing on recently opened archives in Russia and the United States, and to a lesser extent Germany and Belgium, Lisa Namikas addresses the crisis from the perspectives of the two superpowers and explains with superb clarity the complex web of allies, clients, and neutral states influencing U.S.-Soviet competition. Unlike any other work, Battleground Africa looks at events leading up to independence, then considers the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the series of U.N.-supported constitutional negotiations, and the crises of 1964 and 1965. Finding that the U.S. and the USSR each wanted to avoid a major confrontation, but also misunderstood its opponent's goals and wanted to avoid looking weak or losing its political standing in Africa, Namikas argues that a series of exaggerations and misjudgements helped to militarize the crisis, and ultimately, helped militarize the Cold War on the continent.

Based on interviews and on documentary collections in Britain, Sweden and the US, this book describes and analyses Britain's often-tortured response to the crisis which occurred in Congo immediately following its independence. Principally, it throws much fresh light on British policy. But it also examines the impact of the crisis on Britain's status as a great power; reveals important new material about the UN's conduct of its peacekeeping operation in the Congo; and draws lessons about the conduct of contemporary peacekeeping.

Belgian Congo 1960. A time of great upheaval and uncertainty at the height of the Cold War, African independence movements, political assassinations, provincial secessions, the quest for pure uranium and white mercenary movements. A revolutionary time, largely forgotten today, that shaped the future of the world's most tragic country.

This book offers a forthright and discerning evaluation of American foreign policy and its impact on the political system of an important Third World country. After assessing the situation in the Congo when independence was achieved in 1960, Mr. Weissman compares the policies of the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations. He throws new light on such questions as the role of the United States in the overthrow of Patrice Lumumba, the UN action in Katanga, and the repression of the 1964 rebellions. Weighing various influences—economic, administrative, congressional, international—on U.S. policy, he concludes that the major factor was ideological. American actions, he maintains, were based on certain mistaken assumptions that were held in common by key American decision-makers whose backgrounds and training blinded them to the realities of Congolese life. Based on extensive research, including interviews with nearly all important figures who contributed to the making of American policy, this book effectively challenges some fashionable interpretations of the causes and results of American intervention in the Third World.

Decolonisation and Regional Geopolitics argues that as much as the ‘Congo crisis’ (1960-1965) was a Cold War battleground, so too was it a battleground for Southern Africa’s decolonisation. This book provides a transnational history of African decolonisation, apartheid diplomacy, and Southern African nationalist movements. It answers three central questions. First, what was the nature of South African involvement in the Congo crisis? Second, what was the rationale for this involvement? Third, how did South Africans perceive the crisis? Innovatively, the book shifts the focus on the Congo crisis away from Cold War intervention and centres it around African decolonisation and regional geopolitics.

"This book ... attempts to trace the role of law in influencing the decisions taken in a situation of appalling complexity.""--Back cover.

It is widely acknowledged that Congo became an East- West battlefield during the first half of the decade of the 1960s, yet the participation of Cuban exiles in the struggles is rarely noted. In this absorbing volume Villafaña details the contribution made by Cuban exiles to the preservation of democracy in Congo. When Congo was given its independence by Belgium in 1960, most of its people believed their new government had been installed by the West and opposed it. Anti-colonial, anti-government Congolese patriots started fighting. Some were pro-communist, some anti-communist, and most didn't know the difference. Many countries were involved on both sides of this conflict: Cuba, the Soviet Union, The People's Republic of China, the United States (represented by military advisors, the CIA and Cuban exiles), Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and several African nations. The Cold War made the involvement of some of these countries predictable, but not the Cuban involvement. Villafaña explores reasons for Castro's involvement in Congo. He considers whether Castro was operating with a master plan, of which Africa was a key. He discusses why Castro chose Che Guevara to head the ill-fated military expedition. He contemplates why the United States allowed Castro to freely export his revolution, and why it used Cuban exiles to prevent the mineral riches of Congo from falling into the hands of international communism. Villafaña shows that CIA-sponsored Miami Cuban exiles were instrumental in thwarting Castro's plans for Congo, which were believed to have included a confederacy with Tanzania and Congo (Brazzaville), to gain control of Central Africa and its vast resources.

In 1960 the Republic of Congo teetered near collapse as its first government struggled to cope with civil unrest and mutinous armed forces. When the UN established a peacekeeping operation to deal with the crisis, the Canadian government faced a difficult decision. Should it support the intervention? By offering one of the first detailed accounts of Canadian involvement in a UN peacekeeping mission, Kevin Spooner reveals that Canada’s involvement was not a certainty: the Diefenbaker government had immediate and ongoing reservations about the mission, reservations that challenge cherished notions of Canada’s commitment to the UN and its status as a peacekeeper.

This volume provides a multidimensional assessment of the diverse ends of the European colonial empires, addressing different geographies, taking into account diverse chronologies of decolonization, and evaluating the specificities of each imperial configuration under appreciation (Portuguese, Belgian, French, British, Dutch).

This book chronicles foreign political and military interventions in Africa from 1956 to 2010, helping readers understand the historical roots of Africa's problems.