Military operations from independence to the Mercenary Revolt,
1960-1968 * The political and military struggles of post-independence Congo
Post-independence events in the Republic of the Congo are a
veritable Gordian knot. The ambitions of Congolese political leaders, Cold War
rivalry, Pan-Africanism, Belgium's continued economic interests in the
country's mineral wealth, and the strategic perceptions of other southern
African states all conspired to wrack Africa's
second largest country with uprisings, rebellions and military interventions for
almost a decade.
Congo Unravelled solves the intractable complexity of this violent
period by dispassionately outlining the sequence of political and military
events that took place in the troubled country. The reader is systematically
taken through the first military attempts to stabilise the country after
independence and the two distinguishing military campaigns of the decade; the
United Nations military operations to end the secession of the Katanga Province,
and the Dragon Operations led by Belgian paratroopers, supported by the US Air
Force, launched to end the insurgency in the east of the country. Finally, the
mercenary revolt, an event that tainted the reputation of the modern mercenary
in Africa, is described. Lesser known military
events, such as the Irish UN forces cut off from the outside world by Katangese
gendarmes and mercenaries, and a combined military operation in which Belgian
paratroopers were dropped from US Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft and
supported by a mercenary ground force to achieve humanitarian ends, go far
toward resolving the enigma surrounding post-independence Congo.
Available late 2012
