To the shocked Belgians, it seemed a bitter reward for their promise of freedom next June 30 to the rich Congo colony.
No sooner had the painful independence pact been completed than the Congo's neighbors—Belgium's old friends—began making mysterious moves that seemed aimed at carving up the territory for their own benefit. First, France, which still controls much of the region along the Congo's northwestern border, began glancing covetously at the Lower Congo, the narrowing western edge around Leopoldville, which is the Congo's only outlet to the sea. Then, 1,500 miles inland, the British-controlled Rhodesian Federation was talking of annexing...
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