Congo Republic: Failure of a Fetish

Once on a state visit to Paris, Abbé Fulbert Youlou, President of the Republic of the Congo, shook hands with Charles de Gaulle and boasted: "Like you, I am irreversible." Last week, on the third anniversary of his country's independence, Youlou was reversed right out of office by an explosion of his people's pent-up discontent.

His country, the ex-French colony called the "other Congo" to distinguish it from its anarchic ex-Belgian neighbor,* has long seemed quiet and peaceful. But when it came, Youlou's exit had all the revolutionary trimmings, including a storming...

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