Office of the Historian

83. Telegram From the Consulate in Elisabethville to the Department of State1

Elisabethville, July 20, 1961, 4 p.m.

94. Reference: Deptel 54, sent Léopoldville 72.2Convinced Struelens’ request pointless, indicates bad faith and represents attempt to involve USG in intricate and dangerous maneuvers currently undertaken by Katangans to maintain their separatism. O’Brien assures me that Tshombe, under prodding of Tom Kibwe,3 refused during final [Page 166] meeting with Khiari to go to summit conference at Léopoldville4 and that Munongo lied to press in saying UNOC preventing summit in Léopoldville. O’Brien told me one hour ago UN prepared to escort Tshombe to meeting at Léopoldville at any moment. Tshombe’s disappearance from scene (he officially ill) puzzling and leads to belief he may already be in Léopoldville or Brazzaville.

Munongo launched “new-look” Katangan policy at his morning press conference when he made public exchange of telegrams with Gizenga calling for solution to Congolese problem “in African manner”. Munongo said Katangan delegation will visit Stanleyville and, since free world refuses to support Katanga, latter will not hesitate to accept aid from Soviets. Munongo added that “This is not mere blackmail threat”.5

Katangan leaders attempting by every device to split prospective unity of Congo in order to save this province from forceful reintegration into central government system. In their desperation they becoming active menace to US and Western interests in Africa.

Canup
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/7–2061. Secret; Niact. Also sent to Léopoldville and repeated to Brussels, USUN, Paris, and London.↩
  2. Telegram 54 to Elisabethville (72 to Léopoldville), July 18, stated that Michel Struelens of the Katanga Information Service in New York had given a Department of State officer a message from Tshombe: Katanga was willing to participate in a summit conference anywhere in the Congo in order to establish an agenda for a parliamentary meeting and to discuss the composition of a government. Such a summit conference was an indispensable condition of Katangan attendance at a parliamentary session, and if the United Nations or Léopoldville authorities rejected this, Katanga would send a delegation to Stanleyville to contact Gizenga. The telegram requested the views of the Consulate and the Embassy as to the wisdom of discussing this with Léopoldville leaders. (Ibid., 770G.00/7–1861)↩
  3. Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, Katangan “Vice President” and “Finance Minister.”↩
  4. For O’Brien’s account of Khiary’s meeting with Tshombe and other Katangan leaders, see To Katanga and Back: A UN Case History, pp. 186–187.↩
  5. For an extract of this statement, see ibid., p. 191.↩