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Flashmag February 2021 www.flashmag.net
Lumumba with Thomas Kanza who raced against time to save him from death
There was no discussion; the meeting just continued. The day after the meeting, in any case, CIA headquarters gave Leopoldville the green light to launch the Lumumba replacement operation.
A week later, on August 25, the Congolese issue was again discussed in Washington within the framework of the “Special Group”, a sub-committee of the NSC in charge of secret operations. Five men participate in the meeting. Thomas Parott of the CIA takes stock of the actions carried out by the agency "to mount an anti-Lumumba campaign in the Congo", through certain professional groups and a draft vote of no confidence against Lumumba in the Congolese Senate.
Gordon Gray, President Eisenhower's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, speaks. The phrase he uses seeks to protect Eisenhower, but the message is unambiguous: an "extremely strong" conviction has been expressed about the need for "very straightforward action." In short, Eisenhower gives the order to execute Lumumba, or at least he does not object. Are the plans that have been presented sufficient? Dulles, the director of the CIA intervenes in his turn: he has taken into account "seriously" what has been asked of him, and has every intention of implementing things "as vigorously as the situation will allow or require. ".
Obviously under pressure, the director of the agency himself cables, from August 26 to Devlin, new instructions: “In high places here, we come to the clear conclusion that if Lumumba continues to hold important functions, the inevitable result at best, chaos and at worst the opening of the way to a communist takeover of power in the Congo, with disastrous consequences for the prestige of the United Nations and for the interests of the free world in general. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that its removal should be an urgent and priority objective and that under the current conditions it should be a high priority of our covert action. " The director authorizes the office manager to consider spending up to $ 100,000 to carry out any programs that would be necessary and for which he would not have the opportunity to seek authorization.For his part, Richard Bissell, one of the deputy directors of the CIA, asks Bronson Tweedy, the head of the agency's African division, to explore the idea of an assassination of Lumumba with the station chief in Léopoldville.