Note: This is the first half of a two-part interview.
In 1960, the Congo was set free from Belgium, one of seventeen countries to gain independence from ruling European powers. It was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. But chaos was soon to follow, in the form of a mutiny, a coup, and a bevy of foreign interference. Within a year, everything would unravel.
In his new book, The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination, Stuart A. Reid tells the sordid story of the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent Congo: charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba. The results are a work of history that often reads like a Cold War spy thriller.
Stuart A. Reid is an executive editor of Foreign Affairs. He has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, and many other publications. The Lumumba Plot is his first book.
