IN A DESPERATE TIME, A FEARLESS RESCUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200330047-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: December 15, 1961
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

_ _.. ILLEGIB. ._ _._.~ ___._ _
Approved For Releas~~~OQ/~5i~~
nnrlt zi
:`.Gen t1.tR!.
~2r'rr! f 1 ~-
IN A DESPITE TIME,
LESS RESCUE
Hof Cozzrteclicut is a rwc mhc r of tfre Foreign
~zfspokerz a~upporrer q/' President Tshombc
fiefatiora$,~'u~rvrtirtee a>~c~
raf.Katan~~ (see Editgjrtt
h~v~ just- >E~turtted_fi
the former- Beleia
wanted to infg~-m m~+~i
abouf this cpr~l~g~ez~,t
[ind out whetl3~r~~ot~,e
be devised tt%~~~~ul
'
nation
s reunt~t:a
r.. :r a~
tips .4). fn__ Kafatzga fast rnnnth Dodd bccamc~
~R THOMAS J. DO~b
Via, vr;srC to
~fm: ~ ~ .... _
i?~t,~iand
Wit:; ,,,.
~ could
~~
'~
"
~
t
in the
ft~c~pt.al of lCa-
.,.~ _
tanga Province, ~ vv_as acs~rded a won-
derfull war c e ]Veverthe-
y !~ ~'f! ~ ?~ ; t+
less there vf~,~ Icy tt~c~~r~ying ten-
sion. in the ~i1'}~ve~%:~vherc there
were armed' onn~ the one srdt The
Yi~~.*ttr
"berets and b~ely its of the U;N.
troops, on thet~ot, ,~~S~de,men in the
uniform of, ~~er at~'ngei;e army," all
mixing togefa~ ,,. ' tie streets. The
~ ~=
Katangans h~~J " ftesidered the IJ.N.
Security Co~t~resolution of Nov.
24 a declarat,~o ~~"9mininent war:. [t
was apparent t~a~ `both sides had
their fingers Qn j 1;i~uir triggers.
Soon after our ~~r~va~; there occurred
----~r~ 5t
curately re~oX ipd exaggeraEect-by
?
is w~at happcnec~`
the press. Th>5
Mrs. Dodd'at'fid'~wcre invited to an
intimate dini~el' by Sheridan Smith,
head of Moti~oyl ,for Katanga. 'We
set out in Pies~d`ent Tshombc's awn
car, which he'}iad irtadc available for
the duration of my stay, and with an
.escort of five torcyclc gendarmes.
In the car wits were four other
guests: the U.~~onsul, Lewis Hpff-
acker and his vir~ttty assistant Da-
vid Martin and the. military escort,
Lieut.:Coloncl Thpmas Tarpley.
As we approached our destination,
we saw a.truck parked in the middle
of the road with a cluster of soldiers
around. My first thought was that
there had been a Traffic accident. But
as we drew up beside the U-uck, 1 saw
the fig of George lean Smith, a
U.N,_ ahwhom I had met earlier,
slu . - the floor of the truck, his
sl}ir .;, i" and blood pouring from
.lt5s head. He raised his head. and
shouted as he saw us, "Mr. Dodd!
Mr? Dodd! Nelp me! For God'S sake
get me out of here."
Another Figure was slumped in the
back of the truck; and in the glare of
thcheadlight I saw:tihird man, Brian
Urquhart, a British U.N. official, be-
ing pulled and pummeled by a group
of soldiers swinging their rifle butts.
"For God's sake, help me!"Urquhart
yelled. "They're going Io kill me!"
At that point Hoffackcr took one
of the bravest actions 1 have ever seen.
He leaped out of the car shouting that
he was the American consul and that
we were all the guests of President
Tshombc. Tshot,~be's chauffeur qui-
etly tried to hel~~`hhn by translating
his words into ~Xy~hili.
- Noffacker S gldness took the sol-
diers by sus, ?~Ie pushed his way
to-the back e: truck, and though
the soldiers ~ cd him and raised
their rifle stoe~t~~hey did not actually
strike him.
Hoffacker dragged the only partly
conscious SmtlF~_;from the truck to
went back art'
dent of the Bake of Congo in Ka-
tanga, a Mr Willame,
Colonel Tarplesy instructed us al[
not to move ~id so we sat there,
helplessly, for?,~~nutes that seemed
like eons, watc~j~~in horrified silence
as the strugglg event on around us.
On the truck one soldier hit Ur-
quhart aterrific Tout with his rifle,
and 1 was sus@,"~h?e U.N. ofticiaf was
dead. hi front ~f the car the gen-
,~,,>..
danncs of out` e5"t;ort, who were un-
armed, atternplr~d'-to reason with the
,.....
soldiers. A Congolese civilian in a
white shirt jun~~d between them,
screaming and,ggsticulating and. urg-
ing the soldier
clicked the bdlt
An excited soldier
`his rifle, introduc-
A few minutes later the colonel in
+rommand of the Gurkha battalion
burst through the Iront door in full
battle dress, his nnrsiache bratling.
`"Where are those God-damned
bastards?" he shouted. "1'll gtve them
he's not back by then I'll storm the
rest en is pa ace. con Late r
Iosc every man in my battali?n."
We all realized t~9~at if the r iurkhas
stated shooting it might xst utf a
m,ssacre in vvhich thousands, of peu-
plc-probably including Urquhart if
he was still alive- would lose their
lives. The colonel's bchavtor con-
firmed my worst tears about the lack
of restraint --and lack of response to
crvdian conh~ol- of certain ?flicers in
the U.N. command. 1 finally, alter
much persuasion, the colonel sim-
mered down and .tgreed to wait until
I 1 :30 p.m. It was then alnn,st 10:30.
As I1 o'clock rc,llcd around, Hoff-
acker phoned the .oloncl"s command-
ing u[licer ~~nd appealed to him lu
order a further dclav. l'hc order was
delivered to the angry Gurkha hq
armored carat 11:20- dust i0minutcs
before his deadline.
Mcanwhi.le Hofl'ackcr w.rs keeping
inconstant touch with the presidential
palace by phone Munongu kept ,:,y-
ing that Urquhart was alive, but he
was still unable to produce him. Uut-
side the cor~sulal,~, the Gurkha colonel
way: gettin;; resNcss. At ! 1:30 p.m._
Munongo told 'rloffackcr he had lu-
catcd Urquhart rind wouht get him to
the U.S. consulate in 10 minutes.
1t was well ifter nudnight when
Urquhart hnall+i was dcli~ured.
Urquhart :md the tw,~ men ~s~ho
had been ~avcd cashes we+e all prcity
badly hanged up- they Y,.ul x,ch in-
juries as broken r rbs and lingt3fs
but none was seriously hart.
All three had bccri~ sc iud in th~?
same house we were headed for. Smith
and Willame were dinner guc.,ts as sac
were; Urquhart had just stopped by
for a minute. `I he Katangesc soldiers
and the white-shirred ^giTUOr had
burst in, grabf,ed them and hustled
them out of thy? house.
I am convinced that the whuk inci-
dent was carrred vut ht enemies of
President. Tshombc who knew i was a
Tshombc supporter and who were at-
tempting. to embarrass both of us.
The incident >.rbviuusly was rYanncd
by sonrc~une u~ho knew the. time .end
place of the dinner and vy anted certain
guests b~~rt not others. tinder the cir-
cumstances, their seizure of the two
U.N. oflicials is undcrsrandablc But
why the Belgian banker. Mr. Willame?
My v,+ife and [~avici tvlartin feel
sure they mistook bin= for me. 1'cr-
haps so. In that case only the i:rct that
we were late for dinner ~.aved me f rum
a bad be:rtinK and pz,ssihly worse.
ing a cartridge: Into the chamber.
Within secont~s_half a dozers " theis
had followed his example ar`had
pointed their ~Qaded rifles-atrflstr--car.
Another soldt ' idled o~~' a kCnife.
It seemed ~ Too 'that all hell-was
about to b`re toe in a matter of
seconds. HofTacker had ~scrtted-two
of the three men. Now hE:hadtamake
an agonizing decision. If he went
back to get Urquhart, he would be
endangering all the occu ants of the
i~ .rt ;
car, including two women"~,e did the;
only thing he could have foie: "Wt;
must save Urquhart ' he-sard`, but it
was clear we needed help ~_I-~offacker
ordered the chauffeur "Co speed to the
president's palace: "lief down on the
,.,ys .
floor!" he said. "They may shoot.?'
With four people in the,front and
five in the rear, this was easier said
than done. But we pushe~%lrs. Dodd
and Mrs, Hoffacker down to the
boor, brought our own heads as low
as possible, and sped away.
We reached the presidential palace
sttcly, and talked to Interior Minister
Munongo and Foreign Affairs Min-
ister Kimba, who promised to do all
they could to find Urquhart and de-
liver him to the IJ.S. consulate. We
hurried to the consulate to wait.
BANDS OF BULLETS festoon vehicle carrying Ka-
tanga soldicrtoward area where lJ. N. troops arc dug in.
FACES OF FEAR appau- un Fiu:,bethvillc ~irecls :.,
families flee mortar shelling, lugging th.?ir bcl