Office of the Historian

97. Dispatch From the Station in the Congo to the Central Intelligence Agency1

Leopoldville, October 12, 1961.

SUBJECT

  • [cryptonym not declassified]/Suggested [cryptonym not declassified] Program for Leopoldville Station

Reference(s): A. Leop 2176, 2 Oct 61;2 B. Leop 2180, 3 Oct 61;3 C. Dir 11649, 11 Sep 61;4 D. Leop 1748, 29 Jul 61;5 E. [less than 1 line not declassified].6

1. Summary. Independence in the Congo has resulted in chaos, great difficulties for the West and an opportunity for the Soviet Bloc to exploit the situation to its own ends. The time for ad hoc KUBARK action to meet the emergency must now give way to a detailed and organized plan of action which looks beyond today to the eventual form that ODYOKE wishes to see the future take in the Congo and, for that matter, in Central Africa. This dispatch is an attempt to place on paper certain “talking points” which will serve as a basis for further discussion in the development of such a long-term program of action. Because the need is so great and the problems are so huge, ODYOKE responses and initiatives must likewise be in heroic proportion. Halfway measures will not suffice and there will be no monetary or personnel shortcuts to whatever victory it may be possible to achieve in the Congo over the next several years. The following paragraphs outline a program divided into two arbitrary time phases. In Phase One, we suggest the implementation of operations which (we believe and hope) are within our capacity to accomplish. The accomplishment of Phase Two will require a beefing up of considerable proportions which is beyond our current capacity (both budgetary and personnel). It is our intent to establish an operational framework, wherein boundaries can be established for the future judging of new operations and for the continued [Page 128] implementation of already-existing operations. Flexibility must be the touchstone of our work, however, since the Congo—as has been seen in the past several months—is capable of infinite changes of direction and varieties of disintegrative forces. The following outline embraces almost all elements of political and psychological action, [4 lines not declassified]. In essence this dispatch represents a distillation of Leopoldville Station’s experience and frustrations of the past 15 months as well as our earnest hopes for the future.

[Omitted here is the body of the dispatch.]

  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency Files, Job 78–00435R, DDO/ISS Files, Box 1, Folder 8, [cryptonym not declassified] Operations. Secret; Rybat; Priority.↩
  2. Telegram 2176 from Leopoldville to CIA, October 2, transmitted a message from Ambassador Gullion to Assistant Secretary Williams, drafted by the Station, supporting short-term and long-term steps CIA was prepared to take to strengthen the moderates in the Congo and to enable them to counter actions already launched by the extremists. (Ibid.)↩
  3. See footnote 2, Document 98.↩
  4. Not found.↩
  5. Document 91.↩
  6. Not found.↩