Stuart A. Reid
251 posts
@stuartareid
Senior Fellow for History and Foreign Policy at @CFR_org. Author of The Lumumba Plot. Formerly of @ForeignAffairs.
A new SpyCast episode is out now! 🚨 It's 1960 in the Congo, a democratic leader turns to Moscow after the US refuses to help. The CIA's response? Assassination. 💻 Watch here: youtu.be/8BEtDpHtPIQ 🎧 Listen here: spymuseum.org/podcast/ The Congo was just gaining its independence from Belgium when its first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, faced an existential crisis: mutiny in his new army, followed by an unwelcome intervention by Belgian forces. Lumumba had hoped the US would help, but when Washington turned its back, Lumumba turned to Moscow. And so began a CIA operation to assassinate the leader and stop the feared spread of Communism in Africa. In this episode, SpyCast Host @SashaIngber discusses the assassination and its impact with @stuartareid, author of The Lumumba Plot. #SpyCast #Congo #CIA #ColdWar
Sixty-three years ago today, Congo's first post-independence leader, Patrice Lumumba, was taken from a military prison and flown to Elisabethville, the capital of the breakaway province of Katanga. Here's the scene from my book, The Lumumba Plot, about that deadly trip:
