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

proved to be the last straw for Bunche, who declared “I’m a patient man, but my patiencehas worn thin.” 24 He returned to New York to brief his ill-fated successor RajeshwarDayal.On the same day, Lumumba seized planes from Air Congo to send soldiers toKasai, as part of a force intended to defeat Kalonji’s secession and then move on toKatanga. On this account, the Prime Minister again displayed his trademark impetuosity,preempting Gizenga’s plan to act a week later. Gizenga had publicly announced a targetdate at the end of August, since Belgian troops were expected to be removed by then.Lumumba even confirmed American fears by responding to a journalist’s question thatthe Congo had long “enjoyed the moral support of the Soviet Union…Today we arereceiving not only moral but also material support.” 25The next day, August 25, a collection of Africa’s foreign ministers arrived inLeopoldville for a conference whose purpose was to encourage Lumumba to back awayfrom his aggressive stance. The conference turned even more negative after the PrimeMinister invited his guests to join him on a visit to his base of power in Stanleyville.There, the ministers witnessed Lumumba’s review of the eight hundred troops heintended to send to Katanga as well as the aftermath of an unprovoked beating, bymembers of the Congolese army and police force, of ten U.N. airmen from the U.S. andCanada. Although Lumumba’s campaign in Kasai had an auspicious beginning, takingKalonji’s capital at Bakwanga and threatening the Katangese border under the commandof Czechoslovakian advisers, it quickly fell apart. When the Soviet planes showed up totransport reinforcements to Bakwanga on September 5, they were too late to stop the24 Qtd. in Kalb, The Congo Cables, 6225 Qtd. in Kalb, The Congo Cables, 6378