January–August 1961: The Problem of Lumumba and the Gizenga Regime


2. Special National Intelligence Estimate

Source: Central Intelligence Agency Files. Secret. National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) and Special National Intelligence Estimates (SNIEs) were interdepartmental reports drafted by officers from agencies represented on the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC), coordinated by the Office of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), approved by the IAC, and circulated to the President, the National Security Council, and other appropriate officers of cabinet level. A note on the cover sheet reads in part as follows: “Submitted by the Director of Central Intelligence. The following intelligence organizations participated in the preparation of this estimate: The Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence organizations of the Departments of State, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and The Joint Staff. Concurred in by the United States Intelligence Board on 10 January 1961.” The representatives of the AEC and FBI abstained because the subject was outside their jurisdiction.


3. Telegram From the Embassy in the Congo to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–1061. Secret; Priority. Also sent to USUN and repeated to Brussels, Elisabethville, Paris, and London.


5. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the United Nations

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–1261. Secret; Priority. Drafted by William I. Cargo, Director of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs (UNP), Joseph J. Sisco, Deputy Director of that office, and William B. Buffum, Officer in Charge of United Nations Political Affairs; cleared by Deputy Under Secretary of State Raymond A. Hare and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Joseph C. Satterthwaite; and approved by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Woodruff Wallner. Repeated to Léopoldville.


7. Briefing Paper Prepared in the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.11–KE/1–1861. Secret. This briefing paper, unsigned and undated, was prepared for a January 19 meeting between President Eisenhower and President-elect Kennedy. It was enclosed with a memorandum of January 18 from Director of the Department of State Executive Secretariat Walter J. Stoessel, Jr., to Staff Secretary to the President Brigadier General Andrew J. Goodpaster, which states that it had been approved by the Secretary. Kennedy’s adviser Clark M. Clifford and Secretary of Defense-designate Robert S. McNamara both summarized the discussion at the meeting in separate memoranda to Kennedy, both dated January 24; neither memorandum records any discussion of the Congo. (Ibid., Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, White House Correspondence, 1/61–11/63, and Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 65 A 3464, respectively)


8. Telegram From the Consulate in Elisabethville to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2061. Confidential; Priority. Repeated to Léopoldville.


9. Telegram From the Embassy in Belgium to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2361. Secret; Priority; Limit Distribution. Repeated to Léopoldville.


11. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2661. Secret. Drafted by James R. Ruchti. Participants not previously identified include Deputy Assistant Secretaries of State for African Affairs James K. Penfield and Henry J. Tasca, Director of the Office of West African Affairs C. Vaughan Ferguson, U.N. Adviser in the Bureau of African Affairs Martin Herz, Officer in Charge of Congo Affairs Arthur Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Office of Western European Affairs William L. Blue, Director of the Office of Research and Analysis for Africa Richard H. Sanger, and William B. Edmondson, Acting Chief of the West Africa Division in that office.


12. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2661. Secret; Priority; Limited Distribution.


13. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Belgium

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2861. Confidential. Drafted and approved by Director of the Office of Western European Affairs Robert H. McBride and cleared by Donald B. Easum of the Executive Secretariat. Repeated to Léopoldville and USUN.


14. Telegram From the Embassy in the Congo to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–2861. Secret; Priority. Received at 8:12 a.m. on January 29 and repeated to Brussels, Elisabethville, and USUN.


15. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/1–3161. Secret; Priority.


17. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Congo. Secret. The source text includes no drafting information, but a copy filed with a covering memorandum of the same date from Wallner to Rusk indicates that the memorandum was drafted by Sisco. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.70G/2–161)


19. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in India

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–261. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Ferguson and Rene Tron of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs; cleared by Williams, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs G. Lewis Jones, Rusk’s Special Assistant Emory C. Swank, and Peter A. Seip of the Executive Secretariat; and approved by Wallner. Also sent to Lagos and repeated to USUN.


20. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–461. Confidential. Drafted by Penfield on February 6 and approved in S on February 7. The time of the meeting is taken from the Secretary’s appointment book. (Johnson Library)


21. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Belgium

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–461. Secret. Drafted by McBride, cleared by Seip, and approved by Wallner. Repeated to USUN and Léopoldville.


22. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in France

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–561. Secret. Drafted and approved by the Officer in Charge of French-Iberian Affairs L. Dean Brown and cleared by Cargo and Seip and in substance by Ferguson. Repeated to Léopoldville, Brussels, London, and USUN.


23. Telegram From the Embassy in the Congo to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–661. Secret; Niact. Received at 1:32 p.m. and repeated to Brussels, Paris, USUN, and London.


24. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–661. Confidential; Priority.


26. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–1061. Secret; Priority. The source text does not indicate the time of transmission; it was received at 10:28 p.m.


27. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Belgium

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–1061. Top Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Officer in Charge of Swiss-Benelux Affairs Philip H. Chadbourn; cleared by Hare, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Foy D. Kohler, Williams, Wallner, McBride, and Frank A. Mau of the Executive Secretariat; and approved and signed by Rusk. Repeated to Léopoldville.


28. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–1461. Confidential; Priority.


29. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–1561. Secret; Priority. Drafted and approved by Wallner and cleared by Swank and Mau. Repeated to Brussels, Léopoldville, New Delhi, Paris, and USUN.


30. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Congo

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/2–1561. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Ferguson, cleared by Wallner, and approved by Penfield. Repeated to USUN, Brussels, and Elisabethville.