A Familiar Frontier: The Kennedy Administration in the Congo ...

the crisis that Eisenhower faced, even near the end of his term. This thesis will examinethe events of 1960 and 1961, a period which includes events of enormous significanceincluding the secession of Katanga, Lumumba’s dismissal by President Kasavubu, therise of the ambitious young Colonel Joseph Mobutu, Lumumba’s kidnapping and secretassassination, the death of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and the U.N.’sarmed intervention in Katanga.This thesis could easily have extended through Mobutu’s decisive coup d’état in1965, and thus the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, but events played out differentlyafter 1961. It would be more difficult to establish a narrative of American involvement,because, in the minds of many in the West, the Congo Crisis was substantially resolvedby the end of 1961. The U.S. and the U.N. were losing interest in the day-to-day events inthe country, and would play only a sporadic role over the next few years. The death ofHammarskjold in September 1961 deprived the Congo of one of its main advocates onthe international stage, and his successor U Thant never developed a comparable personalstake in the crisis. Yet the trend was already established by the end of 1961, and therewere more than enough critical moments in the eighteen preceding months in which tofind continuity. The task of this thesis is to show that such a trend existed in that period,drawing the policies of Eisenhower and Kennedy into a single, unified account, despitewhat the historical actors themselves have said.John F. Kennedy came to office with the promise of a New Frontier for the UnitedStates, a far-reaching policy initiative that emerged out of Kennedy’s speech at theDemocratic National Convention in August 1960. Although the New Frontier issometimes thought of as a set of domestic goals, its very name makes it clear that4