Original subtitles

Can you remember when you first killed a man?

Sort of like it's so final.

That's what grabbed me, I think.

And did that feeling last when you had to do it again?

No, it was only for that evening, I think, before I slept

that I thought about that.

I've often thought about this.

That's why I can say it so clearly: "how did I feel about it?"

And that's the score because after that when we moved north

there was a lot of killing.

And it just happened so fast that you didn't even realize it.

I think after you were there a little while

you become "callous", I think, is the word?

Very hard, you know? You don't care a damn.

So, the governement is thinking about sending me into Russia.

And anybody who says that the Russians don't love good jazz...

Oh, you send them to me!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Mr. Armstrong.

I don't understand those composers.

Nowadays when I turn on the radio

I immediately switch it off.

It drives me crazy.

It's not music, but a cacophony.

One of America's most popular emissaries gets a warm reception

as he arrives in the troubled Congo

on a U.S. State Department sponsored goodwill mission.

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, whose golden trumpet

has preached the gospel of New Orleans jazz on every continent

arrives in truly royal style.

This is Radio Moscow.

Louis' solid swinging outraged Radio Moscow

which blasted Armstrong's visit as a diversionary tactic.

Are you a communist, Mr. Lumumba?

I always have to laugh when they ask me that question.

I'm not a communist at all.

I'm an African!

Would you agree that you're on the lunatic fringe of the American negroe movement?

Well, I think this, that

America's whole situation is a lunatic fringe.

Any time you have a country that refers to itself as "the Free World" and a democracy

and at the same time has 22 million of its citizens who aren't permitted citizenship

why that in itself reflects lunacy.

My name is Willis Conover.

My name is Willis Conover.

My name is Willis Conover.

I, Willis Conover, am a familiar name and a familiar voice.

I broadcast a radio program

which can be heard in every country in the world

and appeals to the universal appetite for good jazz

beamed overseas by the Voice of America.

We can achieve our great goal

in this most critical of all battles

the winning of men's minds.

This is the Voice...

Different melody.

This is the "Voice of America".

Number 2, do you know where this program would be the most jammed?

Behind the Iron Curtain.

That's all the time we have!

Number 2's voice is such that

I would defect from Russia if I heard it.

Will the real Willis Conover please stand up?

How do you remember 1960?

Years from now when you tell your children about this year we've been living through

what scenes will spring to your mind?

The chief of Communism pounding a table in rage?

What sounds will you hear?

In the U.N. when Khrushchev took off his shoe and was beating that shoe

and the interpreter said that he was saying:

"I'LL BURY YOU!"

Talking about America.

Khrushchev wasn't saying "I'll bury you!"

Khrushchev was saying "I LOVE YOU".

But it was the interpreter who hated America.

But did he have rhythm? - Yeah!

Death to colonial slavery! BURY IT!

BURY it deep in the ground!

The deeper, the better!

Africa has brought the U.N. its severest test:

The Congo.

With its delegation yet to be seated

the Congo is the largest state to be admitted into the U.N. this year.

The only way to keep the Cold War out of the Congo

is to keep the United Nations in the Congo.

Africa also holds the greatest hope for saving the U.N. at this critical late hour.

Change in Africa has changed the United Nations.

Humanity has designated 1960 as The Year of Africa.

Never has there been such a year at the United Nations.

At its 15th session, the General Assembly

has adopted 16 newly independent African countries.

The wind blowing in Africa is not an ordinary wind.

It is a raging hurricane.

We're going to shift the emphasis to our jazz

and send these artists over

where they can reach the masses of the people of Asia and Africa.

One of the people who we're planning to use, my friend...

Dizzy Gillespie.

This is what we might call a Cool War.

The weapon that we will use, is the cool one.

Placing the protocol in my hands, Lumumba said:

"If the Belgians learn of this document

this would be a death warrant for us."

That day I was wearing my hair in a bun

in which I hid the secret document.

In the crowd a Belgian official was spying on me.

For seconds our eyes locked.

Would he arrest me here?

Right now?

I could only think of the document burning in my neck.

But it gave me the strength to brave anything.

Even death.

As I landed in Rome

journalists were crowding around me.

I read the declaration

denouncing Belgium's plot to install a puppet government.

The plot was already in the make

to impose a government against the will of its people.

The revelation of the protocol created a sensation.

We won!

Patrice Lumumba's oratory

helped him win enough votes from the parliament

to make him Premier.

He succeeded where

Joseph Kasa Vubu failed.

Kasa Vubu took over the largely ceremonial office of President.

That evening I phoned Lumumba at Leopoldville.

"We know!" he shouted.

"Everyone is talking about it.

The Belgians are dumbfounded."

Later that day, the phone rang in my room.

I was surprised to speak to the Czech ambassador.

"You must leave now!" he said.

"Hurry! Pack your things.

I'll pick you in five minutes.

Your life is in danger."

He had already booked my flight to Paris and on to Guinea.

I was rushed onto the plane

feeling death on my heels.

Diplomacy is like walking a tight rope.

If you raise your voice half a note too high

you can end up soiling your pants.

On the other hand, if you keep your voice too low

your opponent will hit you hard.

And this is America, our biggest enemy.

But once you take a misleading path

history will not forgive you.

And the memory will haunt you forever.

Our program this morning is given over to a man

whose name I bet you can't spell.

Can you?

Well, it's K-H-R-U-S-H-C-H-E-V.

Again he's waving to the crowds, apparently completely oblivious

but very few people in the crowds wave back.

He said I was a communist because I was waving.

I'm free to wave my hand up if I want to.

I'm in a free country.

Did you come up here to New York just to see Mr. Khrushchev, or…

What? I'm here. I've been here eight years!

Red Murderer! Red Murderer!

The U.S. has never before entertained its potentially most dangerous enemy.

Mr. Dulles, when Khrushchev was here, did you get a chance to talk with him?

Yes, it took place...

at the dinner that President Eisenhower gave for Khrushchev.

The president introduced us and said this is Mr. Dulles.

He's got a kind of a twinkle in his eye and he said:

"Oh yes, I know you. I read your reports!"

We all pay the same agents and we all get the same reports.

Just now, I was told I couldn't go to Disneyland!

I asked, "Why not?"

What is it you have there?

Do you have rocket launching pads there?

It would be a shame if relations between the giant nuclear nations

which survived the Berlin Blockade and the Korean War

should now founder on a missed excursion to the Disneyland amusement park.

...but we were ready for him, the press was ready.

And I had been pointing to Mr. Khrushchev, saying:

"Well now, Mr. Khrushchev, here is my Disneyland submarine fleet."

I'm confessin' that I love you

Tell me, do you love me too?

Eisenhower confessed he was really troubled:

"I've spent my whole life as a military man

but I'm absolutely horrified by war."

I replied, "Mr. President, nothing would make me happier

than to prevent another world war."

Any fool can start a war that even a wise man cannot end.

I'm confessin' that I love you

I'm confessin' that I love you

Tell me, do you love me too?

Tell me, do you love me too?

I'm confessin' that I need you

Honest I do

In the name of the United Nations

I salute Your Excellency

Mr. Nikita S. Khrushchev.

Over a period of four years

all states should effect complete disarmament

and should no longer have any means of waging war.

The United Nations will continue to have the most active participant

in all efforts at releasing mankind from the burden of armaments

and consolidating peace throughout the world.

Decisions were hard to take

about these big international questions.

I devoted hours and hours to the Congolese question.

Days and weeks of effort and contemplation!

Sure, I'd rather be a poet than a politician.

I'm suspicious of the written word

I prefer the spoken word.

I trust it more in the world of politics.

To start the chain reaction

all we need is one neutron.

Watch!

How to reconcile what the Europeans taught us

with what they perpetrated

against the black people?

Danger exists that Euratom won't possess enough uranium.

Mr. Sassen, is there really need for so much uranium?

Yes...

We need loads of uranium.

Depending on how many nuclear plants...

Between North Africa, with its ancient European associations

and South Africa, with its established white settlers

lay all the vastness of black Africa.

Here were the makings of empire.

By the end of the last century

European powers had completed their carving of the continent.

In the heart was the Congo.

You don't know anything about any place

until the white man gets there.

It's only when he comes and say: "Boof, I've discovered you.

Now you exist."

It's ridiculous.

We do not believe that this division of the world into camps is a good thing.

Do you think there should be one world? Just one bloc?

No.

There should be independent sovereign nations

respecting each other.

Very often nations

which ask for the respect of other nations

are gobbled up by aggressors.

There is a limit to the usefulness of the past

because if your argument were true

than you'd absolutely have to agree

that all history has been written.

We are the architects of history.

We make it.

This is the first intercontinental conference of colored peoples

in the history of mankind.

Small and great nations are represented here.

Almost every religion under the sun.

Practically every economic doctrine has its representative in this hall.

Socialism, capitalism, communism...

We are not pro-West, we are not pro-East.

We are not anti-West, we are not anti-East.

But, what harm is in diversity

when there is unity in desire?

As far as I know we don't engage in

assassinations and kidnappings and things of that kind.

As far as I know we never have.

Unofficial American ambassador of jazz...

Dizzy Gillespie is one of the originators of that brand of jazz known as Bebop.

A month ago, he had toured a belt of Middle-Eastern countries

ranging from Pakistan to Yugoslavia.

I would be a better emissary than Kissinger.

Is anybody here a communist?

Are you a communist?

No, I am a capitalist.

Are you a communist?

No.

Capitalist.

Do you think that...

Do you think that Syria is in danger of going communist?

The idea that the CIA is always engaged in overthrowing governments

that's false.

That's for the birds.

Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser says

that the foreign owned Suez Canal has been taken over by Egypt.

The British called me, Gamal Abdel Nasser... a dog.

Remember the insults written on the walls of Port Said?

You said your Queen is what?

A bitch!

And today Port Said toppled the Prime Minister of Britain.

The world has turned upside down.

The world has changed!

Neither the United Kingdom nor France

had the right to use arms against Egypt

because they were not attacked!

There is nothing in the charter

and nothing in any moral principles

of international law and practice

which places upon any country

however great, however mighty

however steeped in the traditions

on domination by force.

The most powerful bloc in the U.N. is the African-Asian bloc.

These are the poor nations.

Yet they carry more weight

than the nations do who have all the money.

Why?

Because no matter how wealthy America is

she only has one vote.

no matter how wealthy Russia is

she only has one vote.

Where as all the poor nations in Africa

who have just emerged into independence

they have each a vote too.

And they stick together

and are able to outmaneuver the rich nations.

You and I have to look at this

and understand this

that the ballot is as powerful as the bullet.

United States? - Yes.

United Kingdom? - No.

Argentina? - Yes.

Australia? - No.

Austria? - Yes.

Belgium?

Abstained.

Bolivia? - Yes.

Brazil? - Yes.

Cambodia? - Yes.

Canada? - Abstained.

Chile? - Yes.

El Salvador? - Yes.

Ethiopia? - Yes.

France?

Yes... uh... No! - No?

When I came here several people asked me how I really do pronounce my name.

Well, I pronounce it myself in Swedish: Hammarskjöld.

but if you say "hammer-shield", that's alright with me.

Welcome to the most impossible job on earth.

As members of the U.N. emergency force

you are taking part in an experience that is new in history.

You are soldiers of peace in the first international force of its kind.

I think Suez helped many of the African countries

to be sure of themselves and insist about independence.

This decade is the decade of African independence.

Forward then to independence!

Nobody wanted to follow the colonials any longer.

Men, women and children...

the whole population demanded immediate independence!

Brothers and sisters!

We got off the plane, they played a little tune.

Nine trumpets playing so beautifully:

"All for you, Louis."

Come on, fellas!

So I pulled mine out and played with them.

Armstrong played to an audience of 100 000 people

the world record in the entire history of music.

You can walk on heads for five blocks and never fall.

We'd like to lay this next one on the Prime Minister.

"Black and Blue".

Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead

Feel like old Ned, wished I was dead

What did I do to be so black and blue?

I'm white inside

But that don't help my case

Cause I can't hide what is in my face

How would it end? Ain't got a friend

My only sin is in my skin

What did I do to be so black and blue?

Uganda premier Milton Obote calls out American racists:

"How can we believe America's sincerity towards African people

when inside the U.S. itself

'negroes' are still subjected to terrible racial discrimination?"

What are you going to tell the Russians?

It all depends what time they send me over there.

I don't think they should send me now

unless they straighten out that mess down South.

Black children cannot attend school together with white children!

Isn't this embarrassing for such a civilised country?

In America blacks get lynched!

They get hanged!

Is that democracy? Is that respect for man?

No!

Mr. Vloer, beer plays a central role in a black person's life?

Yes, this has now turned political of course.

But when talking politics

they like to drink a pint of beer.

Just like in Belgium.

One day, driving my Deux Chevaux...

a truck was heading straight at us.

I stepped on the gas.

We shot past

but the rear end of my car was hit

making us skid crazily out of control...

Right then...

we saw who was in the truck

our political opponents.

Days later, when crossing the savannah

a brush fire was moving towards us.

I slowed down and looked behind

but the road we just passed was now engulfed in flames.

The severity of my situation suddenly hit me.

Twice...

Twice I was nearly murdered.

But this did not deter me from my purpose.

On the contrary, I felt an extraordinary sense of being alive.

It only reinforced the will to fight for my people.

It's Kwame Nkrumah who asked me to call upon Africa's women

to unify the continent

envisioning a new political entity:

the United States of Africa.

We continue with our report

on Soviet penetration in Africa.

We shall have to compete with both

Russians and Chinese.

They will take advantage

of every opportunity they get

as they have already

in Guinea and in Ghana.

Nkrumah already created a federation with Sekou Touré's Guinea.

His goal: freedom for all Africa

and the creation of a United States of Africa.

At our national congress in December

a woman spoke up:

"If we're not allowed to vote, we will sabotage these elections."

The frenzy of the electoral campaign across the country

made me forget that I was the only woman in the team.

I was presented as a woman from Guinea.

A country that had gained independence.

People sat down in a circle asking me questions:

How is it there?

What did people do to gain independence?

If Guinea is independent, why aren't the Congolese?

As we talked about the need to free our continent

I saw that the women actually needed to liberate themselves.

As they started to tell their story

I realized that these women had really suffered.

I understood we could not seperate the problem of Africa's recources

from that of the African women.

I ask all the leaders of the world:

Would you keep silent and do nothing

if you were allowed no rights in your own country

because the color of your skin is different to that of the rulers?

If they wished

these women could become the first bearers of independence.

Mrs. Blouin, whom Guinea's Sekou Touré sent to guide Lumumba.

By May 1960, I had enrolled 45 000 members

for the Association of African Women of Solidarity.

Never have I felt so alive.

But our movement sounded threatening to the colonials...

When you defend the cause of freedom

they immediately label you.

The officials claimed: "Lumumba is dangerous.

Because people follow him everywhere, we must arrest him."

So, they threw me in jail...

I was brutally assaulted.

Locked into a pitch dark cell.

I was scoffed at, vilified and dragged through the mud...

simply because I claimed freedom for our country.

Oh that's Thelonious Monk, he's crazy!

I was released from prison to head for Brussels.

But I was left with nothing.

No clothes.

No shoes. Absolutely nothing.

The authorities had to get me a suit.

And Africans collected money to buy the rest of my clothes.

Upon arrival at the airport, 10 000 Congolese were shouting:

Down with the colonialists!

Down with colonialism!

We want independence right now!

And it was a whole other ballgame...

We heard rifle shots.

Right after we saw bodies laying all over.

People asked: "Why?

What have we done?"

I was sentenced to 6 months in prison

because no one would point at the colonials.

Thirty Congolese murdered for no plausible reason.

A challenging adventure lies ahead of you.

I'm Patrice Lumumba.

I'm delighted with the results of the Round Table conference.

On June 30th the Congolese people will gain their freedom.

Let me assure the Belgians

that a lasting friendship will remain between our countries.

We needed a song to make everybody dance

and kick off our independence

that was so hard to achieve.

Colonel Vandewalle, you were head of Intelligence in the Belgian Congo:

When you saw the list of ministers of Lumumba's government

you smiled

as you discovered that some had been your Intelligence assets?

Yes correct.

Within his cabinet at least three guys were ours.

Backstage deals by elite circles

conspired during the Round Table.

So, what does this independence mean

if tomorrow we're sucked dry by new masters?

What is the significance of this independence

if tomorrow, it is to set us against each other?

Now, before we go any further

we'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the musicians.

All my life I kept wondering:

"I was in a hole.

But what was that hole?"

Only fifty years later

I realized that it was a chicken coop.

It was right after Congo's Independence.

We got independent on June 30th

We were all living at Karawa at the time,

in the north-east of Congo.

Shortly after they sent the Belgian paratroopers in.

So the war started.

My mother had married Mr. Casse.

A Belgian man.

And he had a 19-year-old son with the ex-wife of my stepdad

and he was in military service.

But the Congolese soldiers discovered Mr. Casse had a son

among the Belgian paratroopers.

"This guy married our Congolese sister

and now he's sending his son to kill us.

So let's kill his children."

That's how the soldiers arrived at our place.

I grabbed my brother Claude and my sister Jacqueline

and rushed to hide in a hole.

Strange that it all came back to me fifty years later.

I was walking in a street of Brussels.

The sun was shining.

I could smell chicken poop.

The inside of a chicken coop is magical.

There are feathers all around.

They shine, they look like diamonds.

Feathers everywhere...

My little brother was a bit boisterous

and started moving

so they caught us.

Then everybody screamed:

"Kill them! Kill the whites!

Kill the kids of the whites."

Then, a soldier entered my stepdad's store

and came out with a brand new machete.

When my mother saw the machete

something clicked in her mind.

She looked at him and said

"Hey you! Where are you going with this machete?

You took this machete from my husband's store.

You didn't pay for it!"

My mom was very fond of money.

"You didn't pay for it

and you want to kill his kids with it.

Are you not ashamed?"

So he froze, holding his machete.

And the soldiers left.

Thanks to my mom's words

who taught me that in life

one should never remain silent.

Never!

It's 16:03 here at Leopoldville airport.

A hectic activity is on display

with the arrival of his Majesty King Baudouin

And the King appears in his ivory-white uniform.

He shakes hands with Chief of State Joseph Kasa Vubu.

He shakes hands with Prime Minister Lumumba.

The independence of the Congo

crowned the work, initiated by the genius of King Leopold II

undertaken by his undaunted courage

and carried on with perseverance by Belgium.

Mr. Lumumba's speech indeed took us by surprise.

And...

one cannot deny that his speech has caused

a huge disappointment.

And this speech was seen as very distasteful.

What role will the Congolese Army play

in the newly independent Congo?

In the newly independent Congo, the role of the Congolese Army

will remain the same role it always played since 1886

when Leopold II created this army.

But do you see any break with the past, or will the situation really remain the same?

There will be no break whatsoever with the past.

I was General Janssens.

But now, not anymore.

We've got an interesting situation in Africa today

where the articulate few politicians in the newly emerged countries

are aware of the fact that

fifty well trained and ruthless mercenary soldiers

could overthrow a government.

Consequently, they see the opportunities for a coup

Do you have a mercenary force available to you on short notice?

I suppose I could get together a 100 men within 7 days.

Today, Africa is one of the most vital links

in the Soviet chain of world conquest.

Its untouched natural wealth

has perhaps a greater potential

than that of the rest of the world combined.

Strategically, the key to Africa, is the Congo.

And the key to the Congo, is the state of Katanga.

But the prize catch for the communists

is Katanga's mighty Union Minière

an internationally owned mine

which supplied the United States

with element U-235

an ingredient in the production of the first atomic bomb.

Sirs, here we are! Isn't it?

We have decided to declare the independence of Katanga.

Behind us, is the chimney.

As long as it still smokes all seems well in Katanga.

Everything superduper!

We won't let it get to our hearts!

Indeed superduper here in Katanga!

For now at least.

...the interests of mighty monopolies pushed Belgium

to snatch away the richest province, Katanga.

Securing raw materials for nuclear weapons, uranium, cobalt, titanium, cheap labour...

that's why they plot against the Congo...

whose strings extend from Brussels

to the major NATO capitals.

Belgium promptly dispatched troops to the Congo

to try to restore order.

Was the dispatch of troops merely to protect the lives of nationals?

Or did the Belgians hope

that the former master of the Congo

could seize the opportunity to pose its control of the colony?

I'm visiting the United States

to meet the U.N. Secretary-General

and ask for his support

to remove the Belgian troops from the territory of our republic.

The coup was plotted by the Belgian government

who sent a general

to command the Katangese army.

The Belgian government has no right to install its military in our country.

Just as the Belgian government has no right to invade the U.S. with its military bases.

The accusation is not that we are the agressors...

but that we are idiots.

In Washington I stayed at the presidential guest house.

But the Belgian government protested:

"Why had the U.S. government

extended such a distinguished welcome

to a dirty n*****?"

It's a very strange thing how someone says:

"Okay n*****, play."

Or, "okay n*****, get off the sidewalk."

And it didn't make any sense for me

to be what I thought I was

that they had made me what I thought I wasn't.

This is Harlem Square.

125th Street and 7th Avenue.

The hot corner of black nationalism.

20 million black people

asking for civil rights.

Chinese don't have to ask for civil rights.

Russia! Even Khrushchev can go anywhere he want in America

and he got a bomb.

Harlem has the largest concentration of people of African descent.

Because that's what you and I are, Africans.

A friend was downtown at one of Malcolm X's speeches

and lo and behold who should plop down on the seat next to her but...

I thought I had to see the man... y'know.

I was quite impressed.

Some musicians have said that there's a relationship

between some of Malcolm's ideas and the music.

I think music can create the initial change in the thinking of the people.

Those who want to seize the Congo for a global market

are mistaken.

Congo's wealth belongs to us and we will exploit it ourselves.

To throw sand in our eyes

they claim that Lumumba is a communist.

Lumumba is African!

The Soviet Union joined the rest of the council to give

the Congolese government military assistance.

We are at the turn of the road

not only for the future of this organisation

but also for the future of Africa.

And Africa may well, in present circumstances, mean the world.

The world must answer the African question.

and it must answer it our way.

The Congo should take center stage

in the movement for a free Africa.

Within 5 weeks, nearly 20 000 U.N. troops were in the Congo.

Mr. Hammarskjöld has accepted the invitation of the Belgian government.

He then had an audience with the King.

I've explained once more

to the U.N. Secretary-General the situation of Katanga

where the economy has resumed.

Totally impossible in the rest of the Congo

where so much is destroyed

which was built with so many sacrifices

not to satisfy colonial or imperial aspirations

but to complete a mission of civilization

for the benefit of a less developed people

that for its salvation and ascension

so much depends on the white people

and the Belgians.

Once Hammarskjöld decided

to fly to Elisabethville to meet Tshombe

over Lumumba's head, almost literally

the downfall of Lumumba was inscribed in that event.

Today in Katanga a planeload of Belgium-sent arms arrived.

Someone said once

that the study of history

was like sitting on the cat.

...meaning, I suppose

that its surprises

left their scars.

There's no one in the United Nations

who did not give a damn what Washington said.

Washington wielded tremendous influence in the U.N.

Americans had always been kept in

and Russians always kept out.

If there was any "Cabinet" for the Congo operation

it was not the Security Council

but the highly informal Congo Club

on the 38th Floor.

The Russians however

were not part of that Club.

The story of our times is the story of revolution.

This is the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The most vivid records of the triumphs and the ironies of this 20th Century

are kept right here.

The Treachery of Images is the title of a painting

representing a pipe

with a caption:

"This is not a pipe."

Because...

the image of a pipe is not a pipe.

Say these English words after me:

Pipe. - Pipe.

Tobacco. - Tobacco.

The 5th of September 1960

we have revoked Premier Patrice Lumumba.

Today, without consulting Parliament

without asking advise of the elected government

Mr. Kasa Vubu has betrayed us.

I proclaim that Kasa Vubu

who plotted with the Belgians

is no longer Chief of State.

This is Leopoldville

the morning after President Kasa Vubu's sensational announcement on the Congo radio

that he had dismissed Prime Minister Lumumba.

Meanwhile airports were closed

and Lumumba was denied the use of the radio station

which was shut down by U.N. troops.

This is shameful.

The U.N. forces invited

by the legal government of Patrice Lumumba

took over the airports and the radio station.

They made it possible for a treacherous puppet regime

to take over the Congo...

Next day an emergency session of Parliament.

The members of Parliament here are discussing

whether Mr. Kasa Vubu or Mr. Lumumba's government

is the authority in the Congo.

Once you get really good inside intelligence about any group.

You are able to learn what the levers of power are

and what each man fears from another.

And what each man will credit another man of be capable of doing.

It's all a matter of inside knowledge.

You're almost talking in riddles.

What do you mean by that?

You set people very discretely against one another.

They destroy each other.

At the end of the chaotic debate, Lumumba went to the rostrum.

He spoke quietly and skillfully.

We reject any intervention.

The Congo will never become a colony of the United Nations.

This is a reconquest!

After hearing Lumumba's speech the MP's voted to invalidate

the decrees of both Kasa Vubu and Lumumba dismissing one another.

The night before the vote

we counted heads, going down everyone.

We had the election!

Did you buy votes?

I am not going to answer that one, I'm sorry.

No comment, put it that way.

But the following day

we had two votes.

I lost.

The senate had given Lumumba a vote of confidence

by 41 votes to 2.

The coup d'état

this whole campaign against me

is conceived by the Congolese people

as a campaign against

the independence we had achieved.

Lumumba addressed the international press:

"Hammarskjöld has lost our trust."

Lumumba demanded the immediate withdrawal of U.N. troops

if they continued interfering with his government.

Hammarskjöld started out before the Congo

with an extraordinary degree of confidence from African and Asian countries.

Part of the tragedy

is the destruction of that reservoir of confidence.

The United Nations is failing in the Congo.

Who is responsible?

What is the role of the U.N. in the Congo?

Destructive forces have been let loose

by people who don't wish well to this newly independent state.

Up until now, the U.N. has failed in the Congo.

Any wound inflicted upon the Congo, is a wound to the whole of Africa.

Nasser and Nkrumah threatened to withdraw their troops from the U.N. force.

Hammarskjöld had to make a serious effort to recover their confidence.

But he was opposed by the Western powers

who feared that he would bring Lumumba back into the picture.

How much money do you suppose the CIA has poured into the Congo?

I don't know. Are you prepared to say?

I certainly of course don't know.

I wonder if it's quite honest to represent our policy as

completely angelic?

The one name that kept coming up was

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.

Colonel Mobutu's loyalty

has been swinging between Lumumba and Kasa Vubu.

You say that A is sleeping with B's wife?

Yes, what a pitty that so-and-so is so indiscrete.

Not much more.

Of course there are much more sophisticated operations than that.

What kind of sophisticated operations?

That I couldn't possibly tell you.

Darling

are you enjoying the good things in life?

Why am I so interested in pipe tobacco?

Darling...

Hello, hello.

This is Colonel Mobutu speaking from Leopoldville.

The Congolese Army has decided to neutralize the Head of State.

It's obvious...

It's obvious that the image of a pipe is not a pipe.

The CIA tended to support very extreme right-wing groups in foreign countries

because of an obsession with communism

and set back democratic possibilities in foreign countries?

I think just the opposite is the case.

Life is often monotonous and tedious...

That's why television offers you a distraction.

If I return to Belgium today

it's in the first place

to show my respect

to the King.

Long live the Queen!

For days our house had been surrounded by troops armed with machine guns.

We expected the dreaded knock on the door any time.

Then, one early morning,

two jeeps stopped in front of the house.

Gilbert M'Pongo, government deputy,

delivered my expulsion order.

An intimate adviser to the Lumumba government:

Mrs. Andrée Blouin from Guinea

the glamorous half french "mulatto" with communist tendencies

whose influence behind the scenes is being attacked by Lumumba's opponents.

The soldiers crowded into the house, making themselves at home

asking for food and drinks.

Playing with my children, Eve-Sylviane and Patrick

allowing them to handle their weapons

to the children's delight.

I had anticipated this goodbye.

Still, at the last moment,

I couldn't really accept what was happening.

The order specified: "Madame Blouin".

"My children", I begged.

"No, your children and husband can't join you", replied M'Pongo.

At the airport, before departure, he reminded me

that my loved ones were being held hostage.

"Don't forget!

Not a word to the international press or it will cost them dearly!"

We announced that I would head

the Soviet delegation.

That poured oil on the fire.

The American press was furious.

Cursing the Soviet Union at the top of their lungs.

Nehru would come from India.

Tito from Yugoslavia.

And Macmillan from Great Britain.

I declare the opening of the 15th U.N. General Assembly.

There is Nasser.

There is Nehru.

There is Sekou-Touré.

There is Nkrumah.

There is Mao Zedong in Peking.

People say imperialism is dead.

No!

Imperialism is not yet dead.

It is... dying.

The U.S. still held the necessary two-thirds majority in the Assembly

but the influx of newly independent Afro-Asian countries

transformed the General Assembly

from being little more than a U.S. propaganda tool

into a genuine organ of negotiations.

If the African-Asian states all vote together which they seldom do

they could produce 46 out of the 99 possible votes.

This therefore is a bloc which must be reckoned with.

There was always a danger that the Afro-Asian opinion

might swing over to Mr. Khrushchev's side.

Ambassador Stevenson, if the U.N. should fail in this undertaking

what hope is there for mankind?

Well that's a very gloomy prospect.

FIDEL AT THE U.N.

To attend the 15th U.N. General Assembly

the Cuban delegation travels to New York

headed by the Prime Minister and leader of the revolution:

These are funny feet.

Funny... funny.

When I look at my feet, I get messed up myself.

At least 16 African nations ought to be admitted

for the opening of the U.N.'s 15th General Assembly

already momentous on the Congo issue.

A score of heads of government will be present.

A dramatic setting with global stakes at issue.

Castro was throwing thunder and lightning

when he was kicked out of his hotel.

Being a former guerrillero

he threatened to pitch his tent in front of the U.N.!

I want to salute the people of the United States.

It was crucial to pay Castro a visit

to expose America's policy

towards both the Afro-Americans and the Cuban delegation.

...the Theresa Hotel: lots of cops here.

A great jam of cameramen here now.

We're trying to push our way in.

An absolute madhouse here.

When I encountered Castro for the first time

he made a deep impression:

here was this huge, tall person with a black beard.

We embraced each other.

"Embrace" is perhaps an understatement.

He literally bent down to envelop me with his whole body!

By hugging, Fidel and Nikita bring Cubans and Soviets closer.

What did you discuss in there?

Don't worry about that!

Let me ask you Mr. X, why did you visit Fidel Castro this morning?

Well, because of the trouble in Africa

in the Congo and other places

it has caused a great deal of tension in Harlem.

We were led up to the 9th floor and into Dr. Castro's room.

He greeted us very cordialy, we sat down, the room wasn't so big.

My impression of Fidel Castro was that he was a man

who seemed to have the genuine interest of his people at heart.

It's been suggested that there might be some international intrigue here

because of Malcolm's travels to Africa

his contacts with Nasser.

The CIA was indeed very closely watching Malcolm.

Of special concern was his effectiveness in Africa.

He had submitted an 8-page memorandum to a meeting

of the heads of 33 African nations calling for their support

in his pending move to take America before the U.N.

for violating the Afro-Americans' human rights.

It's a human problem, not an American problem or a "negroe" problem.

And as a world problem

we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction

of the U.S. government and the U.S. courts

in the same manner that the problems of the Black man

in South Africa, Angola and other parts of the world

are taken into the United Nations

because of violations of human rights.

We believe that our problem is one not of violation of civil rights

but of violation of human rights.

Not only are we denied the right to be a citizen in the U.S.

we're denied the right to be a human being.

I would suggest that when the charter of the U.N. comes to be revised.

A permanent seat should be created for Africa on the Security Council.

In view, not only of the growing number of African members of the U.N.

but also of the increasing importance

of the African continent in world affairs.

Within a few days of taking my seat in the U.N.

I was contacted by the American "arm-twister".

Arm-twisters was a concept little heard of in public discussions of the United Nations

but absolutely central to its actual workings.

Arm-twisters were usually American delegates

whose function was to influence crucial votes

smell out possible recalcitrance, and deal with it.

Dealing with it could include bribery or blackmail.

Countries in which there were corporate interests

would receive less subtle hints.

In my capacity as President of the Republic of Congo

I hereby announce the make-up of my delegation.

The legitimate government of the Congo

is the government of Mr. Patrice Lumumba.

The decision to seat the delegation of Mr. Kasa Vubu.

came to us as a great shock.

This is the worst humiliation that the United Nations ever suffered.

And we from Asia would be the people who'll be deeply shocked and grieved.

There can not be one African in this Assembly

who'd not be moved to shame by the situation that has arisen.

Over a strong protest by Afro-Asian neutrals

the Assembly, under pressure from the U.S.

seated a Kasa Vubu delegation.

The dirty job in the Congo was carried out

by U.N. Secretary-General Hammarskjöld.

History will not forgive you.

A man who has trampled down elementary justice has no place

at such an important position as that of the Secretary-General.

I call now on the Secretary-General in exercise of the right of reply.

By resigning I would throw the organization to the winds.

I have no right to do so.

It is not the Soviet Union, or indeed any other big powers

who need the U.N. for their protection.

It is all the others.

The organization is first of all their organization.

I shall remain in my post

during the term of my office

as a servant of the organization

in the interest...

I shall remain in my post during the term of my office

as a servant of the organization

in the interest of all those other nations

as long as they wish me to do so.

Oh, I got a million dreams.

It's all I do, is dream.

All the time.

I heard you played the piano.

No, this is not piano, this is dreaming.

By 1955 they had the Bandung Conference in Indonesia.

And at that time, the Africans, the Asians, the Arabs

all of the non-white people got together

and agreed to de-emphasize their differences

and emphasize what they had in common.

In New York, the dramatic parade of major world figures

accross the stage of history continues.

At Harlem's Hotel Theresa

in a heavy presence of security guards

holding back columns of demonstrators

Nasser and Fidel Castro begin a 90 minute talk.

And it was the spirit of Bandung

that made it possible for nations that didn't have a chance

to become independent.

"...welcoming Nehru from India."

"Welcoming Nkrumah from Ghana."

Fidel Castro embarks on his historical speech

personifying for the 1st time the rebel voice of Latin America.

The case of Cuba

is like that of the Congo.

The colonialist intrusion was obvious.

We condemn

how the U.N. forces

intervened in the Congo.

The only true leader who kept defending the interests of his country, is…

Lumumba.

President Eisenhower arrives at the 1960 session of the U.N. General Assembly.

One of the most momentous diplomatic gatherings in modern history.

Ah, here is a little French tune we are gonna swing for you.

It had become clear that

there could be no Congolese government with Lumumba at its head.

With the international commitments

of Ghana, Guinea, of Caïro, Moscow

and Delhi, all on Lumumba's side.

One wonders whether they can afford to do nothing about it...

Have you brought with you some of those devices

which would have enabled the CIA to use this poison

for killing people?

We have indeed.

Don't point it at me!

Does this... pistol fire the dart?

Yes, it does, Mr. Chairman.

Does the target know that he has been hit and about to die?

A special dart was developed which potentially would be able to

enter the target without perception.

For now, let's talk about this tour of Africa.

Was it your idea?

No, it was the State Department.

Mind you don't get kidnapped in the Congo!

Nobody will kidnap me.

What was the connection between the activities of the CIA

and the higher levels of the government?

and how much the president may have known

concerning CIA complicity

in assassination attempts.

The people of the Congo are entitled to build up their country in peace and freedom.

Intervention by other nations in their internal affairs

would create a focus of conflict in the heart of Africa.

Countercornered from the embassy was "Café de la Presse".

Seated out on the terrace

was a man I recognized.

He said, "I'm Joe from Paris.

We have a lot to talk about."

I said, "Well, what is it?"

He said, "Well, you'll have to assassinate Lumumba."

He used those words?

Yes.

Just as clearly as you say it to me now?

Yes.

He said, "I have been instructed to provide you with some poisons".

But who ordered him?

He said, "President Eisenhower".

The report says it is reasonable to infer

that president Eisenhower ordered the CIA to try to kill Lumumba of the Congo.

I propose to refrain from intervening in these new nation's internal affairs

by subversion, force, propaganda or any other means.

Thank you and God bless you.

How do you do?

This is Willis Conover in Washington DC.

The Voice of America: Jazz Hour.

Hello folks, this is old Satchmo, Louis Armstrong

taking over the next 15 minutes from my old friend Willis Conover.

Armstrong was officially declared America's "Ambassador of Love"

by the federal government

and was sent to tour the civil-war-torn Congo

in October of 1960.

America's weapon was a blue note in a minor key.

Mr. Louis Armstrong

the greatest "King of Jazz".

Welcome Mr. Armstrong.

The U.N. Secretary-General claimed:

"Katanga is basically kept alive by money from Union Minière?"

Don't forget that I'm a politician.

And many of my enemies call me the "Cash Register".

In fact, Union Minière is not paying us, we're actually supporting them!

We were to go to Elisabethville

to attend a concert given by Louis Armstrong.

I went and ambassador Timberlake

and Julie, his wife.

The wives were there to make it appear

that this was a social thing...

Patrice Lumumba continued to fight.

No one dared execute him yet, as planned.

Not for lack of hatred, but because Patrice Lumumba still impressed his enemies.

He knew that he was still the legal prime minister

but invisible hands were strangling him, and those hands came from far away.

Very far.

Lumumba's power had grown steadily

and troops loyal to him controlled vast areas of the Congo.

Lumumbists were about to recapture two-thirds of the country.

Do you see any quick employment for your talents?

Yes, there is something coming up fairly soon.

Obviously we can't talk about that sort of thing.

I think we might be

back in business.

The Belgians get a man named Tshombe

who is a murderer

and the first thing he does

is go to South Africa and hire more killers.

They give them the glorious name of "mercenary".

They are dropping bombs on villages.

Blowing to bits Congolese women.

Congolese babies.

This is extremism.

The Belgian government is completely opposed to the use of mercenaries.

There is not one Belgian mercenary in Katanga.

Belgium is neither colonialist

nor neo-colonialist

nor imperialist.

We toured the area in light aircraft over a long stretch of railroad.

from Kobongo towards Kabala.

I was losing count of the number of burnt-out villages.

However much you may distrust the emotion of moral indignation

there will be times when it hits you.

It hit me.

Not at the sight of the roofless villages

but at the friendly wave of the white officer

in charge of these operations.

You are what we call a Simba?

Yes! I'm a Simba.

How old are you?

I'm 20 years old.

Exactly 20 years old.

Exactly.

How do you think you would you feel right now

if some Congolese brother walked up to you?

They look just like you!

Don't think you don't look Congolese.

You look as much Congolese as a Congolese does.

How would you feel if one of them walked up to you

and asked you about what your government is doing

in the Congo?

I was asked that when I was over there.

But you have no explanation.

Your tongue stays in your mouth.

Independence was never achieved.

Independence came with very limited sovereignty...

but economically speaking we were nowhere.

Why were we colonized?

Where is our wealth going?

We have diamonds, gold

copper, tin, all you know...

They take these hired killers.

Put them in American planes. With American bombs.

And drop them on African villages.

And you black people sitting over here...

"cool"... like it doesn't even involve you.

Were they really hostages or were you planning to kill them?

They were hostages.

They were there to keep planes away.

To prevent the planes from bombing us.

When we kept the hostages under threat, there were no more bombings.

When the white public uses its press to magnify

that the lives of white hostages are at stake...

they give me the impression that they attach more importance

to a white hostage

than they do to the death of a human being

despite the color of his skin.

We'll make this work at all costs!

We'll make a pact with the devil to reunite the Congo!

End of story!

Would you personally have killed the European hostages?

Yes, I would have executed them.

Considering how we were bombed.

It's like...

being killed as wild animals.

When a black man strikes back, he's an extremist.

He's supposed to sit passively and have no feelings

be non-violent and love his enemy

no matter what kind of attack be it verbal or otherwise

he's supposed to take it.

But if he stands up and in any way tries to defend himself

then he is an extremist.

At times the military would capture villagers.

They would encircle them like this

and call them out:

Is this your daughter? Or your son?

Parents were then forced

to have sex with their own children in front of everybody.

I'm fighting in Africa

for freedom and democracy.

Our operation in the Congo is a NATO operation.

Jacopetti arrived.

I received information from General Mobutu

that he was authorized to take pictures.

Jacopetti is a good movie director.

Perhaps he said, "Listen, here's a man being shot

put him a bit more to the left, so the sun shines better."

When I stayed in Leopoldville I often visited the Goethe Institute.

Certainly it's an institute of the Federal Republic.

But I have to say

we were running things along two lines.

We're running an "official" and an "unofficial" politics.

I've attended piano concerts at the Goethe-Institute.

I'm not a man who just kills n******.

It is my privilege once again to welcome you on this occasion.

To the outstanding artists

who speak to us today of those things

that can be told in music's universal tongue

I offer our homage and our thanks.

We didn't know how to advance.

We had to build a bridge to cross a river.

It was dark and we decided to wait till morning to cross.

But the next morning the military attacked us by surprise.

Some escaped along the river.

Some were killed on the spot.

Mulele, me, and a few partisans fell into the river.

We stayed in the water from morning till eight at night.

The water up till here.

While holding our bags and our rifles above the water.

The song tells:

"They lied when we were told that women aren't strong."

"But through what we lived, we realized that women are strong."

I think we overrated

the Soviet danger in the Congo.

CONGO

Mobutu's bandits brutally tortured their prisoners.

With the support of American and Belgian colonizers

the legally elected prime minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba

and his comrades were arrested.

The colonialists say that Lumumba is a communist.

Clearly, Lumumba is not a communist, but a patriot.

But isn't it time to end colonialism?

Some have yet to recognise their strength and truth.

They still follow yesterday's lynchers, their colonisers.

Perhaps today, but not tomorrow. It just won't happen!

The people will rise

and straighten their backs to become their own masters.

instead of being lackeys and slaves of the colonisers.

Keep this in mind, gentlemen.

This day will come sooner than you think.

Death to colonial slavery! BURY IT!

Bury it deep in the ground!

The deeper, the better!

We knew the U.S. would vote

for our resolution with grinding teeth.

So we put the U.S. in a real dilemma.

If they would vote against us

they would look like the colonisers.

One of the things that is going to help to bring this about

is the independence of Africa.

We begin to identify with it.

Western imperialists and colonialists consider this to be a grave threat.

More of a threat than communism or Marxism or socialism.

Africanism is what they consider to be the real threat.

A soldier tries to stuff into Lumumba's mouth the crumbled speech...

United Arab Republic? - Yes.

Ethiopia? -Yes.

Soviet Union? - Yes.

India? - Yes.

Nigeria? -Yes.

Belgium? - Abstained.

United States? - Abstained.

There was Asian-African unanimity in the U.N. General Assembly

on the "Declaration Against Colonialism" which won 89 votes.

We owe it to ourselves to write our own story.

Look at "the opening of the Zaire border" at the time

decided by Westerners.

It's U.N. Resolution 929.

I know it by heart.

I could describe how from then onwards

it's genocide after genocide after genocide

and finally the Congo War.

In five minutes.

Everyone looks away.

The U.N. only observes.

It costs $2 billion per month.

They're in the DR Congo for almost 25 years.

They were able to capture Lumumba because of the U.N.

Lumumba was under U.N. protection.

Today it's the same thing.

On January 17, 1961 you were at the Elisabethville airport.

when Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito arrived.

How come you were at the Elisabethville airport?

I was told an important package would arrive:

the three persons in question.

How were they at that moment?

They were alive, but in what condition?

They were alive.

As far as I can tell from where I stood

they were not necessarily in a state of "dying".

We have all learned this morning

by the Katanga authorities

of the reported death of Patrice Lumumba and two of his colleagues.

The issue then is simply this:

Shall the United Nations survive?

Shall the attempt to bring about peace by the...