149. Memorandum From the Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (Cumming) to Secretary of State Herter0
SUBJECT
- Intelligence Note: Communist Influence in the Congo
Direct Communist involvement in the Congo disorders has been suggested or implied by a number of sources, both official and private. While the army mutiny responsible for the disorders may have had some central organization or leadership, we have no evidence, beyond rumors, that would link the mutiny to a Communist plot. While we do not doubt that the Soviet Bloc will continue to attempt to exploit the disorders in the Congo, we have no substantial or convincing proof of direct Communist involvement with the possible exception of one incident. This is a report that a Belgian known to be a Communist was arrested in the Katanga for broadcasting false radio messages to confuse local Belgian Army units.
The Communists do not have an efficient and well-established apparatus in the Congo that would permit them to manipulate existing forces, judging from available intelligence. They were effectively excluded from the Congo throughout virtually the whole period of Belgian colonial administration and thus were not able to recruit and build up local Communist Party organizations.
[3½ lines of source text not declassified] the following picture of limited Communist assets emerges:
- 1.
- diffuse good will of many radical nationalist leaders attributable to the active moral support received during recent months from the Bloc and from the Belgian Communist Party (BCP);
- 2.
- personal contacts that several important Congolese politicians have made with BCP officials and, to a lesser extent, with Bloc officials during the course of short pre-independence trips to Moscow and satellite capitals (two of these politicians—Antoine Gizenga and Anicet Kashamura—hold top positions in the Lumumba Government, but we doubt that they are subservient to the Bloc or could be counted upon to follow Communist directives);
- 3.
- closer working arrangements developed during the last year with two Congolese leaders of the second rank [4½ lines of source text not declassified];
- 4.
- possibly, a small group of informers built up during recent months by the Czech Consul in Leopoldville [3½ lines of source text not declassified].
Despite charges by the Belgians and his Congolese opponents that Lumumba is a Communist or Communist sympathizer, we have nothing to substantiate this allegation. The most accurate summary of his views is probably his own declaration of July 5, 1960, “We are not Communists, Catholics, or Socialists. We are African nationalists. We reserve the right to be friendly with anybody we like according to the principles of positive neutrality.”
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 755A.00/7–2560. Secret. The source text bears Herter’s initials, indicating that he saw it.↩