To Katanga and back: A UN case history

by Conor Cruise O'Brien

July 1960: The newly independent Congo is hit by the secession of its mineral rich-province Katanga, led by Mo�se Tshombe and backed by Belgium and Britain.

June 1961: Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien arrives in Katanga as Special Representative of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskj�ld, his task (under a UN resolution) to arrest and repatriate the mercenaries and foreign interests propping up Tshombe. The consequences of this mission will prove fateful for all parties.

This is the story of how a brilliant Irish diplomat found himself in Africa amid one of history's maelstroms. O'Brien reconstructs the complex, tragic, sometimes comic events of a drama in which he found himself controversially at centre stage. The result is history from the inside: a valuable study of 'the game of nations', and of the UN's unique functioning and malfunctioning.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa

370 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Irish politician, writer, historian and academic.

Member of the Irish Parliament for the socialist Labour Party.

Member of the Northern Ireland Forum for the United Kingdom Unionist Party, which advocated direct rule of Northern Ireland from London.

Virulently anti-IRA.

Reviews

[Elias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a humorous personal story.

[Deaglán Ó Briain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wordy and convoluted text. A better writer could have made more of an inherently interesting tale.