Worrying About Communism I: Lumumba

Abstract

When the Congo crisis broke, it was an article of faith in Western official circles (and well beyond them) that the Soviet Union was a deeply malign influence in international affairs. The threat which it was deemed to pose took a very immediate form in Europe, where the prevailing assumption was that the westwards expansion of the Soviet ‘empire’ was deterred only by the armed might of the United States and its allies. Peace was judged to be the product of terror. However, there was concern that in space technology and the missile systems which it was beginning to spawn, the Soviet Union was pulling ahead. In Asia, the association between the Soviets and People’s Republic of China — ‘Communist China’ — was still widely summed up as monolithic, and hence ominous. And in respect of the Third World, as of all non-communist areas, it was virtually unquestioned that Moscow was directing an ideological campaign which posed great dangers to the West.

‘I see only two possible solutions to the [Lumumba] problem. The first is the simple one of ensuring [his] removal from the scene by killing him.’ (Foreign Office official)¹