The Congo Cables; The Cold War in Africa--From Eisenhower to Kennedy

New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 1982. First Edition. First Printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. xxviii, [2], 466 pages. Map. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Foxing to fore-edge, some soiling to rear DJ, DJ in plastic sleeve. The author is the wife of Marvin Kalb. She earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is a U.S.-Russian/U.S.-Soviet relations specialist. Derived from a Kirkus review: The centerpiece of this almost day-to-day account of the 1960s Congo crisis is the US effort to get rid of firebrand Patrice Lumumba, by ""Fair Means or Foul""--as came to light in the hearings of the 1975 Select Committee on Intelligence Activities and was published in the Committee report. The ""Congo cables"" are some 2500 other, recently declassified documents--mostly State Dept. cables--which Kalb utilizes to fill out the story. What is interesting is her observation that the Congolese effort to dispose of Lumumba may have been stepped up for fear that the incoming, more Africa-minded Kennedy administration would be less hostile toward him. The second, part of the book deals with the Kennedy policies that kept the Congo pro-Western and resulted in the US choice, Mobutu, coming out (and remaining) on top. Here, again, the evidence demonstrates the degree of US involvement. Specialists will be interested in the detail. Readers of last year's excerpt in the New York Times Magazine have already had a taste of the best of it.