THE C.I.A. AND LUMUMBA

Document Type:

CREST [1]

Collection:

General CIA Records [2]

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870001-0

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

Document Page Count:

Document Creation Date:

December 22, 2016

Document Release Date:

June 24, 2010

Sequence Number:

Case Number:

Publication Date:

September 13, 1981

Content Type:

OPEN SOURCE

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870001-0.pdf [3]	78.56 KB

Body:

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870001-0 ARTICLE APPEARED ON PAGE' Luma ba I share Madeleine Kalb's fear of the "plausible deniabil- tiy" made available to our elected leaders ("The C.I.A.- and Lumumba,".. Aug. 2). I would go one step further in suggesting that much of the clearly illegal and immoral actions of such agencies as the C.I.A. are condoned by Ameri- can"citizens, as they retreat further from the pressing issues of the world at larae_ _. We are not sufficiently aware of the consequences of our actions in terms of our worldwide friends and depend- ents. It is simply impossible to impose our first-world stand- ards on third-world nations. Americans can no longer af- ford a myopic view of the polit- ical needs of others in the world. More importantly, we must be conscious of the rami- fications of our behavior. CAREN RABBINO Livingston, N.J. To address Madeleine Kalb's first premise that the C.I.A. be shackled by Micro- scopic examination by Con- gress and an array of commit- tees prior to covert operations is utter nonsense. Granted we can remember times such as the Lumumba incident where the C.I.A. compromised the rights of other nations. I often wonder, though, how many times the C.I.A. has been suc- cessful in changing world situations to insure our inal- ienable rights and maintain the ideology fostered in the Constitution of the United States. GEOFFREY H. Gtit. Providence, R.I. NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE 13 SEPPEMBER 1 Q81 On July 27, 11960, I covered ,,the arrival of Patrice Lu- mumba at Washington's Na- tional Airport and his 30- minute news conference at the State Department. At the time, I. was television correspondent for United Press-Fox Movietone News- reel, with 120 domestic televi- he undoubtedly assumed was entirely a United States audi- ence. To characterize him clearly, he sounded likes Rob- ert Kennedy. Also, he knew he stood to gain by playing the United States and the Soviet Union against one another. My clients included two tele- vision outlets in Brussels and son stations and 30 foreign net two in Paris to whom I di- works. The State Department rected the entire uncut version news conference was ar- of the news conference. ranged following my request and that of the CBS corre- spondent assigned to the story. (The "regulars" on the beat were for the most part relax- ing in between the political conventions of the Democrat and Republican Parties.) Once word got around that Lumumba had agreed to meet with news reporters, several score came to the news confer- ence. It was handled through an interpreter; Lumumba spoke in French. Lumumba wanted to be known as his country's George Washington. He spoke to what J ..w .vaa.. JOSEPH ACCARDO Arlington, Va. European interests opposed to Lumumbe might be charac- terized in today's terms as akin to those of Jesse Helms. Can anyone imagine the reac- tion of a Jesse Helms to the political Ideology espoused by a Robert Kennedy? It was obvious at the time that Lumumba was in fortrou- ble. Whether the C.I.A., which undoubtedly had the tran- script of Lumumba's State De- partment remarks, . went ahead with any plot against him I leave for others to an. swer. If the C.I.A. did, how- ever, it would have been a kind of "overkill," or a case of "get ~ at the end of the line and wait STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870001-0