The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A spellbinding work of history that reads like a Cold War spy thriller—about the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent Congo A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Economist, Financial Times “This is one of the best books I have read in years . . . gripping, full of colorful characters, and strange plot twists.” —Fareed Zakaria, CNN host It was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. The Congo was at last being set free from Belgium—one of seventeen countries to gain independence in 1960 from ruling European powers. At the helm as prime minister was charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Just days after the handover, however, the Congo’s new army mutinied, Belgian forces intervened, and Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in saving his newborn nation from what the press was already calling “the Congo crisis.” Dag Hammarskjöld, the tidy Swede serving as UN secretary-general, quickly arranged the organization’s biggest peacekeeping mission in history. But chaos was still spreading. Frustrated with the fecklessness of the UN and spurned by the United States, Lumumba then approached the Soviets for help—an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. To forestall the spread of Communism in Africa, the CIA sent word to its station chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin: Lumumba had to go. Within a year, everything would unravel. The CIA plot to murder Lumumba would fizzle out, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup, transferred to enemy territory in a CIA-approved operation, and shot dead by Congolese assassins. Hammarskjöld, too, would die, in a mysterious plane crash en route to negotiate a cease-fire with the Congo’s rebellious southeast. And a young, ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba, would seize power with U.S. help and misrule the country for more than three decades. For the Congolese people, the events of 1960–61 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. For the U.S. government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.

Clippings of Latin American political, social and economic news from various English language newspapers.

than any of the others in this collection. They represent a merging of academic interest with a commitment to environmental activism which occu"ed after several years of research conducted under the wing of the New York State Senate Select Committee on Crime created in the 1960s to investigate organized crime. I had the rare opportunity to work with this committee under the direction of counsel leremiah McKenna at the time attention was focused on organized criminals moved into the hazardous waste disposal industry. Much of my data came [rom committee investigations, hearings and reports. In addition, contacts outside of New York were eased by this affiliation. My long association with the committee inexorably led to an integration of research findings with an involvement in the formation of public policy. Part W presents another usually hidden dimension of organized crime; its mesh with transnational political movements, intelligence services, and political murder. Two essays dealing with assassinations a decade apart form this section. One was the murder of Carlo Tresca in 1943, the other of Jesus de Galindez in 1956. The former reveals the inte"elationships between Italian American organized criminals and the Fascist party, the latter the netherworld of professional criminals, private detectives, intelligence operatives, working together in the interests of dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic.

This work on organized crime encompasses methodological problems in the study of organized crime itself, crime as a way of life in America, a family case study, arson and urban economy, corruption in agencies of social control, Canadian reflections on the Finsbury Park experience and drugs.

Stephen Rabe examines President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Latin American policy and assesses the president's actions in the light of recent 'Eisenhower revisionism.'