Word: mobutu
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With the CIA's help, Mobutu stepped into the power vacuum that followed the Belgian Congo's chaotic independence in 1960. Staging a bloodless coup, he took power, only to hand it back to a civilian President. The next year, ousted Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who had turned increasingly to the Soviet Union for support, was assassinated in an operation that benefited both Mobutu and the CIA. "I received instructions to see that Lumumba was removed from the world," recalls Devlin. "I received poison toothpaste, among other devices, but never used them." Mobutu seized control for good in a second...
...During Mobutu's early years as President, he was hailed as an exemplar of the new breed of postcolonial African leader. He brought a fragile unity to his country, built schools and hospitals and forged a nonaligned approach to foreign policy. But as Zaire reeled under his economic mismanagement, compounded by the 1973 oil shock and a sharp drop in the price of copper exports, Mobutu resorted to calamitous improvisation. Following a trip to China, he launched a showy "authenticity" campaign designed to reduce Western influence and return his country to its African roots. Many foreign assets were nationalized, giving...
...Mobutu still managed to cut a dashing if reptilian figure on the international stage. Resplendent in his leopardskin toque, symbol of his authority as a traditional tribal chief, the jovial dictator has had little difficulty charming nearly all U.S. Presidents stretching back to John Kennedy. Political friendships with a long line of leaders in China, Romania, France, North Korea, South Africa and Israel (where he trained as a paratrooper) made him a widely traveled statesman. Some were seduced by Mobutu's eagerness to serve as a bulwark against Soviet expansion in the heart of Africa, others by Zaire's natural...
...Mobutu never tires of saying, whenever the U.S. needed a favor, he was usually delighted to oblige. He turned over facilities to the CIA in support of Jonas Savimbi, an American client in the still festering Angolan civil war, and helped train forces loyal to Hissene Habre, the West's ousted candidate for leadership in Chad. Zaire chaired the U.N. Security Council in January 1991 when the crucial votes were taken to approve military action against Iraq in the Gulf War. A senior U.S. official says Washington suggested to Kuwait that Mobutu's vote in favor of allied military strikes...
Impulsive and generous to a fault with relatives and friends, Mobutu must contend with their incessant demands for money and favors. One major distraction has been a feud between children of his late first wife Marie- Antoinette and those of his second, Bobi Ladawa. Another has been rivalry between Bobi Ladawa and her identical twin, a widow whom Mobutu took as a mistress some years ago and with whom he promptly had several children. Though such behavior has roots in African tradition, it has led to raucous family turmoil that represents a significant drain on the time Mobutu devotes...