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The C.I.A. in Africa: How Central? How Intelligent?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The virtuousness of the intentions conveyed by David Newsom's homily is indeed difficult to reconcile with the staggering evidence to the contrary recently disclosed through senatorial investigations, press reports, and various other sources. In the context of the post-Watergate era – when Americans have been told of the massive and direct involvement of the C.I.A. in the Angolan civil war, of the assassination plans against the late Patrice Lumumba, and of clandestine activities in Gabon and Madagascar – the least that one can say of such a statement is that it strains credulity.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 401 note 1 Department of State, Office of Media Services, Current Foreign Policy (Washington), May 1973, p. 4.

page 401 note 2 See, in particular, Marchetti, Victor and Marks, John, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (New York, 1974)Google Scholar, and Borosage, Robert L. and Marks, John (eds.), The CIA File (New York, 1976)Google Scholar. Other works of interest, but of a lesser calibre, include McGarvey, Patrick, CIA: the myth and the madness (Baltimore, 1972)Google Scholar, Tully, Andrew, CIA: the inside story (New York, 1962)Google Scholar, and Wise, David and Ross, Thomas, The Espionage Establishment (New York, 1967)Google Scholar.

page 402 note 1 I became vividly aware of this issue in 1965 when, shortly after my return from Burundi, I was contacted by the C.I.A. through its representative in Miami, Florida, and later was asked to cite specific names of Burundi office-holders whom I could identify as being particularly friendly towards Chinese diplomats. I categorically refused to give this information which, I was told, was only solicited ‘in the interest of the U.S. and the free world’. For further thoughts on this matter, see the mock issue of Africa Report produced by the Harvard-based Africa Research Group, Africa Report: a tribal analysis of U.S. Africanists (n.d.); though highly polemical, much of the information should be taken seriously enough to promote debate and discussion among Africanists.

page 403 note 1 The phrase is borrowed from the much-quoted work by Zolberg, Aristide R., Creating Political Order: the party-states of West Africa (Chicago, 1966)Google Scholar.

page 403 note 2 Murphy, Charles J. V., ‘Unlocking the C.I.A.,’ in Fortune (New York), 06 1975, pp. 88 and 91Google Scholar.

page 404 note 1 Chairoff, Patrice, B…Comme Barbouzes (Paris, 1976), especially pp. 6991Google Scholar; see also, ‘Les Pions de la France à Cabinda’, in Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris), 20 January 1976, p. 27.

page 404 note 2 See Marchetti and Marks, op. cit. Appendix 1, p. 362.

page 405 note 1 Oudes, Bruce, ‘The CIA in Africa’, in Africa Report (New York),0708 1974, p. 49Google Scholar.

page 405 note 2 Ibid.

page 406 note 1 The origins of the Service d'action civique and its relationship to the S.D.E.C.E. are vividly described by Chairoff, op. cit. pp. 11 ff. The determining rôle played by Jacques Foccart in the implantation of French intelligence networks throughout French West and Equatorial Africa – partly through fake corporations, personal connections, and the infiltration of development agencies, such as the Bureau pour le développement de la production agricole — emerges with special clarity from Chairoff's narrative, pp. 83–94.

page 406 note 2 See Hohne, Heinz and Zolling, Hermann, The General Was a Spy (New York, 1972)Google Scholar; the quote is from the preface by Andrew Tully to the American edition, p. 2.

page 407 note 1 Inyenzi, meaning ‘cockroach’ in Kinyarwanda, was the term commonly used in Rwanda to refer to the armed raids mounted by Tutsi refugees in exile against the Government of Grégoire Kayibanda. For further information on the etymology of the term, see Rodegem, F., ‘Sens et rôle des noms propres en histoire du Burundi’, in Études d'histoire africaine (Brussels), VII, 1975, pp. 79Google Scholar. For the historical background, see my Rwanda and Burundi (London and New York, 1970).

page 407 note 2 See the comments by Braden, Ted B., himself hired in Brussels through C.I.A. agents to serve in Zaïre in the mid-1960s, in Ramparts (San Francisco), 10 1967Google Scholar; further references to W.I.G.M.O. are found in Congo 1967 (Brussels, 1968), pp. 341, 350, 356, 362, and 510.

page 408 note 1 Frédéric Vandewalle's rôle during the rebellion is made abundantly clear by his candid and highly instructive account of mercenary activities, L'Ommegang: odysée et reconquêie de Stanleyville, 1964 (Brussels, n.d.).

page 408 note 2 Bender, Gerald, ‘Angola: a new quagmire for US?’, in Los Angeles Times, 21 12 1975.Google Scholar

page 409 note 1 Oudes, loc. cit. p. 51.

page 409 note 2 An example of the activities in Zaïre by a French intelligence operative was the abortive plot against Mobutu by a former O.A.S. (Organisation de l'armée secréte) commando, known under the nickname of ‘Petite soupe’; for further details, see Chairoff, op. cit. pp. 78–9.

page 410 note 1 New York Times, 1975 passim.

page 410 note 2 Roger Morris and Richard Mauzy, ‘Following the Scenario: reflections on five case histories in the mode and aftermath of CIA intervention’, in Borosage and Marks (eds.), op. cit. p. 35.

page 410 note 3 Tully, op. cit.

page 410 note 4 Particularly to Lawrence Devlin who has since emerged as one of the wealthiest men in Kinshasa. For an excellent background discussion of C.I.A. involvement in Zaīrian politics since independence, see Weissman, Stephen R., American Foreign Policy in the Congo, 1960–1964 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1964)Google Scholar.

page 411 note 1 Barnet, Richard J. and Müller, Ronald E., Global Reach: the power of the multinational corporations (New York, 1974), p. 102Google Scholar.

page 411 note 2 Kolko, Gabriel, The Roots of American Foreign Policy (Boston, 1959), p. 20Google Scholar.

page 411 note 3 See Albright, Joseph P., ‘How to Get a New Plane (and its Maker) Off the Ground’, in New York Times Magazine, 8 February 1976Google Scholar; also Crittenden, Ann, ‘Closing in on Corporate Payoffs Overseas’, in New York Times, 15 February 1976.Google Scholar

page 412 note 1 Oudes, op. cit.

page 412 note 2 Quoted in Saint Petersburg Times, 12 October 1975.

page 413 note 1 I met Sidney Gottlieb in Bukavu during August 1960: he introduced himself as a Canadian businessman who knew Lumumba, and who was eager to displace Belgian interests in the Kivu.

page 413 note 2 Morris and Mauzy, loc. cit. p. 38.

page 414 note 1 See Szulc, Tad, ‘Kissinger's Secret Empire,’ in Penthouse (New York), 06 1975, p. 50Google Scholar.

page 414 note 2 Referring to the rôle of the C.I.A. in Zaïre, an unidentified Foreign Service Officer reportedly admitted to Morris and Mauzy, ‘It's been a good exercise in nation-building’ ibid. p. 36.

page 414 note 3 These two quotations are from Kennedy's 1962 Foreign Aid Message to Congress and his 1963 State of the Union Address, respectively. See Packenham, Robert, ‘Political Development Doctrines in the American Foreign Aid Program’, in World Politics (Princeton), XVIII, 01 1966, p. 211Google Scholar.

page 415 note 1 Ibid. pp. 212 and 214.

page 415 note 2 O'Brien, Donal Cruise, ‘Modernization, Order and the Erosion of a Democratic Ideal,’ in Journal of Development Studies (London), VIII, 4, 07 1972, pp. 352–78Google Scholar.

page 416 note 1 See The Manchester Guardian Weekly Edition, 4 January 1976.

page 416 note 2 Marchetti and Marks, op. cit. p. 365.

page 417 note 1 O'Brien, loc. cit. p. 370.

page 417 note 2 The idea is articulated with special forcefulness and cogency in Huntington, Samuel, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, 1968), pp. 124Google Scholar.

page 419 note 1 Letter to the editor of the Gainesville Sun, 28 December 1975.

page 420 note 1 The Lisbon newspaper Expresso, 24 January 1976, contains an extraordinary account of the so-called ‘Operação Safira’ mounted by the Portuguese secret service (P.I.D.E.) against the P.A.I.G.C. in Guinea-Bissau in 1973. The aim of the operation was to encourage the capture of the party leadership by pro-Portuguese Guinean elements, and subsequently to foment a coup against Sékou Touré. See also the account of ‘Operação Mar Verde’ directed against the Guinean régime in 1970, with the active co-operation of the P.I.D.E. and General Spínola, in Expresso, 3 January 1976.

page 420 note 2 Marchetti and Marks, op. cit. pp. 367–8.

page 421 note 1 Coleman, James S., ‘The Development Syndrome: differentiation, equality, capacity’, in Binder, Leonard et al. (eds.), Crises and Sequences in Political Development (Princeton, 1971), p. 99Google Scholar.

page 421 note 2 Huntington, op. cit. p. 12.

page 421 note 3 Marchetti and Marks, op. cit. p. 364.

page 422 note 1 See, however, the instructive discussion by Jules Gérard-Libois and Benoît Verhaegen, ‘La Révolte des mercenaires’, in Congo 1967, and Vandewalle, op. cit.

page 423 note 1 For a more detailed discussion, see Young, M. Crawford, ‘Political Systems Development’, in Paden, John N. and Soja, Edward W. (eds.), The African Experience, Vol. I, Essays (Evanston, 1970), pp. 467–8Google Scholar.

page 423 note 2 See LaPalombara, Joseph, ‘Penetration: a crisis of governmental capacity’, in Binder (ed.), op. cit. pp. 205–32.Google Scholar

page 424 note 1 Bauer, P. T., ‘Western Guilt and Third World Poverty’, in Commentary (New York), 61, 01 1976, pp. 31–8Google Scholar.

page 424 note 2 In O'Brien, Conor Cruise and Vanech, William Dean, Power and Consciousness (London and New York, 1969), p. 16Google Scholar.

page 425 note 1 Arendt, Hannah, ‘Lying in Politics’, in New York Review of Books, 18 11 1971, p. 32.Google Scholar

page 426 note 1 Kilson, Martin, ‘Political Science and Afro-American Studies’, University of Iowa Conference on ‘Political Science: the teacher and the polity’, 17–19 10 1974, p. 9.Google Scholar

page 426 note 2 Ibid.