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Captive in the Congo: A Consul s Return to the Heart of Darkness. By Michael P. E. Hoyt. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-5570323-0. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxiv, 275. $29.95.
The Foreword of some books is perfunctory. In this gripping story of the first hostage crisis in modern American diplomacy, however, a careful reading of it is essential. Ambassador Monteagle Stearns, then Political Counselor at the American Embassy in Leopoldville, outlines the political chaos in the Congo in the mid-1960s, describes the important role of the country in the East-West struggle for influence in Africa, and gives essential background on the assignment in July 1964 of an embassy officer, Michael...