Word: hammarskjold
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...other African leaders as well. Since Lumumba refused to disappear politically, U.S. strategists concluded that he could no longer be ignored. Last week, after summoning U.S. Ambassador Clare Timberlake for urgent consultations, Washington seemed prepared to throw its weight behind a sweeping new proposal of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold...
Opening the Jails. As a first step, Hammarskjold proposed to disarm all the Congolese troops. This would mean disarming not only Mobutu's central Congo army, but also the army of Katanga's Moise Tshombe and the Lumumbaist rebels in Eastern and Kivu provinces; perhaps overoptimistically, Hammarskjold hoped they could be induced to stack arms and retire to training camps. Next, the scattered legislators of the Congo's Parliament would be brought together to form a new government under U.N. supervision. The U.N. would ask all factions to free all political prisoners, a step which admittedly would...
...Already Hammarskjold had approached India to supervise the disarming of the Congolese troops, and he hoped to win support for his plan from Ghana, Nigeria and other African nations. But would the squabbling faction leaders go along? Exploded General Mobutu: "We will never allow it. The U.N. is playing with fire...
...Hammarskjold's new plan was full of dangerous risks. The major problem was how to prevent any further meddling by outsiders. The U.S. was prepared to admonish Belgium against contributing any more bombs, planes or pilots to Tshombe. But the real danger was Soviet Russia. Was Nikita Khrushchev sufficiently eager for warmer relations with the U.S. to agree to keep hands off in the Congo? Russia's first big grab had been halted last September. But, though Kasavubu and Mobutu had ordered the Russians out, the Russians have gone on clandestinely helping pro-Lumumba forces...
...Lumumba is released and regains power, who is to stop him from inviting the Russians back into the Congo, bearing arms, aid and advice? Could Hammarskjold's balky U.N. troops? From past experience, it seemed unlikely. Then the U.S. would be confronted by the very situation it sought to prevent-Soviet power firmly planted in the heart of Africa...