US and European mining companies had their eyes on the Congo’s vast mineral wealth, and Lumumba—a beloved nationalist who led the Congo’s liberation movement against Belgium—had sworn to deploy that wealth, instead, to benefit the Congolese people. We have since learned that the CIA and the Belgian intelligence agencies collaborated in Lumumba’s murder. (In 2002, Belgium formally apologized for its role in the assassination.)165 CIA Director Allen Dulles, who planned to kill Lumumba with poison toothpaste, knew that my uncle had enormous affection and admiration for Lumumba. Dulles feared that
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