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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 became "callous," I think, is the word?
Very hard, you know? You don't care a damn.
Are you ready? One, two, one.
So, the government 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 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.
Louie's 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 Negro movement?
Well, I think this:
that America's whole situation is a lunatic fringe.
Anytime 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.
The Voice of America Jazz Hour.
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 ♪
♪ Washington, D.C. ♪♪
Number 2, do you know where this program
would be the most jammed?
Behind the Iron Curtain.
Number... oh!
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.
You understand what I mean?
- But did he have rhythm? - Yeah! He had rhythm.
Rhythm is my business.
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 United Nations at this critical late hour.
Changing 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,
rather than a Cold 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."
♪ Love me Love me, Love me ♪
♪ Say you do ♪
♪ Let me fly away ♪
That day, I was wearing
my hair in a bun
in which I hid the secret document.
♪ For my love ♪
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.
♪ One caress ♪
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 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."
♪ You touched me ♪
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.
♪ So wild ls the wind ♪
♪ Wild is the wind ♪
♪ Wild ♪
♪ ls the wind ♪♪
September 15th, 1959.
Nikita S. Khrushchev arrives in Washington...
Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the United States.
Diplomacy is like
walking a tightrope.
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 here wave back.
He said I was a communist because I was waving.
I'm free to raise my hand up, if I want to.
I'm in a free country.
Did you come up to New York
just to see Mr. Khrushchev, or...
What? I'm here. I've been here eight years!
Red murderer! Red murderer!
The United States 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, uh...
at the dinner that, um...
President Eisenhower gave for Khrushchev.
The President introduced me and said, "This is Mr. Dulles."
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?
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.
I'd been pointing to Mr. Khrushchev, saying,
"Well now, Mr. Khrushchev,
here is my Disneyland submarine fleet!"
- Step right up here. - Yes, sir.
♪ I'm Confessin' that I love you ♪
Sing it, Satch.
♪ 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 that You love me too, ooh ♪
♪ I'm Confessin ' that I need you ♪
♪ Honest I do ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪♪
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.
And 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 anyplace
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.
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,
then you would absolutely 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.
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, 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.
You're a capitalist, eh?
- Are you a communist? - No. Capitalist.
Do you think that, uh...
Do you think that, uh, 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.
Whereas 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.
Uruguay? Yes.
Venezuela? Yes.
Yemen? Yes.
Yugoslavia? Yes.
Afghanistan? Yes.
Albania? Yes.
Argentina? Yes.
Australia? No.
Austria? Yes.
Belgium?
Abstain.
Bolivia? Yes.
Brazil? Yes.
Cambodia? Yes.
Canada? Abstain.
Chile? Yes.
El Salvador? Yes.
Ethiopia? Yes.
- France? - Yes... no!
No?
Quiet!
When I came here,
several people asked me how I really do pronounce my name.
Well, I pronounce it myself in Swedish: Hammarskjold.
But if you say "hammer-shield," that's all right with me.
Welcome to the most impossible job on Earth.
As members of the United Nations
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.
["We Insist!
I think Suez helped many of the African countries
to be sure of themselves and insist about independence.
♪ Whisper, listen ♪
♪ Whisper say we're free ♪
♪ Rumors flying Must be lying ♪
♪ Can it really be? ♪
♪ Can't conceive it Don't believe it ♪
♪ But that's what they say ♪
♪ Slave no longer Slave no longer ♪
♪ This is Freedom Day ♪
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.
♪ Freedom Day Freedom Day ♪
♪ Free to vote And earn our pay ♪
♪ Dim the path And hide the way ♪
♪ But we made it Freedom Day ♪♪
Brothers and sisters!
We got off the plane, they had a little tune.
Nine trumpets playing so beautifully.
"All for you, Louis," la-la-la.
Come on, fellas!
So I pulled mine out and played with 'em.
Armstrong played to an audience of 100, 000 people,
the world record in the entire history of music.
You could walk on heads
for five blocks and never fall.
♪ Oh yes ♪♪
Ladies and gentlemen, it's lovely to be down here
playing with you...
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 Mmm ♪
♪ 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 gonna 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 that mess down South.
Black children cannot attend school
together with white children!
Isn't this embarrassing for such a civilized country?
In America, Blacks get lynched.
They get hanged.
Is that democracy? Is that respect for man? No!
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Dizzy Gillespie Campaign for President
needs a campaign song.
It is entitled, "Vote Dizzy."
♪ Let the good times roll! ♪♪
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.
♪ The rats have got Your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood has got your mare ♪
♪ Rats have got your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood has got your mare ♪
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.
♪ The rats have got Your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood has got your mare ♪
♪ The rats have got Your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood has got your mare ♪
♪ ls there anyone who knows ls there anyone who cares? ♪
♪ So you prayed To the Lord above ♪
♪ Please send you a friend ♪
♪ Oh, ya prayed To the Lord above ♪
♪ Please send you a friend ♪
♪ But your empty pockets Tell ya ♪
♪ That you ain't got No friends ♪
♪ So your baby's Screamin' loud now ♪
♪ It's poundin' in your brain ♪
♪ Your baby's scream in ' Louder now ♪
♪ It's poundin ' In your brain ♪♪
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 separate
the problem of Africa's resources
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.
Madame 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.
♪ Let the wind ♪♪
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...
For your next trip, be sure you choose SABENA
and fly on the Belgian World Airlines.
We heard rifle shots.
Right after, we saw bodies laying all over.
People asked: "Why?
What have we done?"
I was sentenced to six months in prison
because no one would point at the colonials.
Thirty Congolese murdered for no plausible reason.
♪ Love me Love me, love me ♪
♪ Say you do ♪
♪ Let me fly away with you ♪
♪ For my love ls like the wind ♪♪
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.
TELEMEMORIES
THIS EVENING, FREDERIC VANDEWALLE,
CHIEF OF SECURITY
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.
The ballot or the bullet.
Vote Dizzy, vote Dizzy!
All my life I kept wondering:
"I was in a hole.
But what was that hole?"
Only 50 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 northeast 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 50 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 step dad'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.
Can you splice it to tape, you know?
One, two...
The independence of the Congo
crowned the work,
initiated by the genius of King Leopold ll
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 I I 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 100 men within seven 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 Miniėre,
an internationally owned mine
which supplied the United States
with element U-235,
an ingredient vital 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 super-duper!
We won't let it get to our hearts!
Indeed super-duper here in Katanga!
For now at least.
♪ Cherie ♪♪
The interests of mighty monopolies
pushed Belgium to snatch away the richest province, Katanga.
Securing raw materials for nuclear weapons,
uranium, cobalt, titanium, cheap labor,
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
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 UN 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.
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 nigger?"
It's a very strange thing how someone says,
"Okay, nigger, play."
Or, "Okay, nigger, 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.
Twenty 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.
I was downtown at one of Malcolm X's speeches,
and who should plop down on the seat next to me
but John Coltrane.
I thought I had to see the man.
You know?
I was quite impressed.
Musicians have said 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.
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 organization,
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.
♪ We've made it Freedom Day ♪♪
Within five weeks,
nearly 20, 000 UN troops were in the Congo.
Mr. Hammarskjold has accepted
the invitation of the Belgian government.
He then had an audience with the King.
I've explained once more
to the UN 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 Hammarskjold 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 was no one in the United Nations
who did not give a damn what Washington said.
Washington wielded tremendous influence in the UN.
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.
- Tobacco. - Tobacco.
The 5th of September, 1960,
we have revoked Premier Patrice Lumumba.
Today, without consulting Parliament,
without asking advice 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 UN troops.
This is shameful.
The UN 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
to be capable of doing.
It's all a matter of inside knowledge.
You're talking in riddles.
What do you mean by that?
You set people very discretely against one another.
Right.
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 MPs 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'm not gonna answer that one, I'm sorry.
Don't comment, put it that way.
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:
"Hammarskjold has lost our trust."
Lumumba demanded the immediate withdrawal
of UN troops
if they continued interfering with his government.
Hammarskjold 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 United Nations
in the Congo?
Destructive forces have been let loose
by people who do not wish well
to this newly independent state.
Up till now, the United Nations 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 UN force.
Hammarskjold 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 Central Intelligence Agency 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 pity that so-and-so is so indiscrete.
Not much more.
There are much more sophisticated operations.
What kind of sophisticated operation?
Ah, 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.
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.
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,
Madame 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 UN General Assembly.
There is Nasser.
There is Nehru.
There is Sékou 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 United Nation 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:
Fidel Castro.
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 United Nations 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 cordially, 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 eight-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 United Nations
for violating the Afro-Americans' human rights.
It's a human problem,
not an American problem or a Negro problem.
And as a world problem,
we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction
of the United States government and the United States 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 United States,
we 're denied the right to be a human being.
I would suggest
that when the charter of the United Nations
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 United Nations,
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 cannot be one African in this Assembly, sir,
there cannot 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 Hammarskjold.
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 United Nations 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.
Along about 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
across the stage of history continues.
At Harlem's Hotel Theresa,
in a heavy presence of security guards
holding back throngs 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 first 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 United Nations General Assembly.
One of the most momentous diplomatic gatherings
in modern history.
Ah, here's a little French tune
we're gonna swing for you.
♪ Hold me close And hold me fast ♪
♪ The magic spell you cast ♪
♪ This is "La vie en rose" ♪
It had become clear that there could be
no Congolese government with Lumumba at its head.
♪ Heaven sighs ♪
With the international commitments
of Ghana, Guinea, of Cairo, Moscow, and Delhi,
all on Lumumba's side,
one wonders whether they can afford to do nothing about it.
♪ To your heart ♪
♪ I'm in a world apart ♪
♪ A world where roses ♪♪
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.
Now...
Does this... does this pistol fire the dart?
Yes, it does, Mr. Chairman.
Does the target know he has been hit
and about to die?
A special dart was developed
which potentially would be able to enter the target
without perception.
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 gonna 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.
♪ Hold me Close and hold me fast ♪
♪ The magic spell you cast ♪
♪ This is "La vie en rose" ♪
♪ When you kiss me Heaven sighs ♪
Catty-cornered from the embassy
was Café de la Presse.
And seated out on the terrace was a man I recognized.
He said, "I'm Joe from Paris.
We have a lot to talk about."
♪ When you press me ♪
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.
♪ When you Press me to your heart ♪
♪ I'm in a world apart ♪
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.
Howdy, 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 Miniėre?"
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.
♪ When You kiss me, heaven sighs ♪
♪ And though I close my eyes ♪
♪ And see la vie en rose ♪
♪ When you press me To your heart ♪♪
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,
but 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 railway
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.
But 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 niggers.
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 recognize their strength and truth.
They still follow yesterday's lynchers, their colonizers.
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 colonizers.
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 colonizers.
♪ The rats have got Your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood it got your mare ♪
And one of the things that is going to help
to bring this about is the independence of Africa.
♪ The rats Have got your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood it got your mare ♪
We begin to identify with it.
And your 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...
♪ The rats have got Your flour ♪
♪ Bad blood it got your mare ♪
United Arab Republic? Yes.
Ethiopia? Yes.
♪ Bad blood it got your mare ♪
Soviet Union? Yes.
India? Yes.
Nigeria? Yes.
♪ Is there anyone who cares ♪
Belgium? Abstained.
United States? Abstained.
♪ So you prayed To the Lord above ♪
♪ Please send you a friend ♪♪
And there was Asian-African unanimity
in the United Nations 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 considered power
of international understanding be discarded?