American Involvement
US dealings with Africa do not go very far compared with those of the ex-colonial powers. It was only in 1958 that a Bureau of African Affairs was set up with its own Assistant Secretary of State and, even so, it was relegated to marginal operations. Yet, in 1962, the United States played an unusually large role in ending the secession of Katanga. On December 11, the Defense officials of the Pentagon recommended that the UN be offered a ‘U.S. military package consisting of one Composite Air Strike Unit with necessary support elements and the requisite base security force. If this were insufficient to end the secession, more U.S. force should be committed.’
According to Stephen T. Weissman, America's sudden involvement in Congo was to a great extent motivated by an ‘access interest’. Like other Western countries, the United States had a vested interest in the mineral activities of the Katanga-Rhodesia Copperbelt: in 1960, the U.S. imported from Katanga alone three-quarters of its cobalt and one half of its tantalum- two minerals used in the aerospace industry. However Larry Devlin, the CIA chief station in Congo, in his book, Chief of Station, Congo, sheds light on ‘a more sinister threat’ that attracted the attention of the U.S. government on Congo. He notes that, by mid-1960, ‘personnel from the Soviet Union … and Communist China began to flood into the country.’ Chaos in the Congo, in this reading, was to be feared above all, not so much for its economic consequences, but for the opportunity it would present to the Russians. This was highly relevant as the Republican, business-oriented “Europeanists” of the Eisenhower administration were part of a generation that had seen and internalised post-War Communist expansion, making anti-communism a norm in American governing circles. The Congo, because of its wealth, size and location, was seen as a valuable prize for communism. When Lumumba confirmed America’s worst fears by seeking Soviet assistance, the Eisenhower Administration started to look at Katanga, whose declaration of independence had professed its intention to fight Soviet penetration, as the last anti-Communist bastion in Congo. As a result the Eisenhower Government kept a benevolent attitude towards Katanga and the American consul in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) was instructed to tell Tshombe that the American decision not to recognise his government, ‘should not be interpreted as hostility.’
Two coincident events marked an important shift in American policy towards Congo: the assassination of Lumumba and the investiture of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States on February 20, 1961. The Kennedy Administration policy was informed by an intention of dealing with African countries as States on their own right –as opposed to neo-colonial states- and of creating mutually benefiting and lucrative relations with those countries. In this context, a neo-colonial Katanga did not win good press. The elimination of the ‘communist’ leader, Lumumba, and the formation, undertaken under America’s aegis, of a moderate government under Cyrille Adoula further erased the need for an anti-Communist Katanga. Katanga then came to be seen as the main source of division and chaos, and therefore as facilitating, if not encouraging, Communist penetration. Therefore, Kennedy decided to back the UN action in Katanga.
However, by the time fighting started again in early December 1961, a lively campaign had been launched in the press against the military acts and methods of the UN, causing Kennedy to adopt a more peaceful strategy of 'quiet diplomacy' and to support cease-fire demands.
Shortly afterwards, the National Security Council decided to give the UN ‘whatever equipment was necessary to reintegrate Katanga by force.’ Following the end of the Katangan secession, on January 17, Kennedy was thusly able to declare publicly that:
‘The end of the secession … is warmly welcomed by the United States and all who are concerned with the future of the Congo and the whole of Africa, This secession has been a serious source of contention and an obstacle to progress in the Congo for the past two and a half years.’
Read more about this topic: State Of Katanga
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