Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, served for less than a year before being killed.

“A Castro or Worse”

Patrice Lumumba won the Congo independence in 1960, but his suspected Soviet sympathies led to his overthrow. A new book reveals the man behind the myth—and the C.I.A.’s role in his murder

By Stuart A. Reid

Patrice Lumumba: to the extent people today have heard the name, it evokes vaguely leftist memories. A postal clerk turned anti-colonial agitator, Lumumba was the first leader of the Congo after it became independent from Belgium, in 1960. He took the helm as prime minister with high hopes, only to watch his country almost immediately spiral into chaos. The army mutinied, Belgian troops intervened, and two rogue provinces broke off.

For help saving his fledgling nation, Lumumba approached the Soviet Union, asking for planes, trucks, and weapons. That turned out to be a fatal mistake, as it prompted the C.I.A. to help overthrow him, try to assassinate him, and play an accessory role in his murder, in 1961, at the age of 35.