Viewpoint: Same Ground, New Faces

Memo to United Nations headquarters, New York: Does anyone out there remember Patrice Lumumba, Moïse Tshombe, "King" Albert Kalonji and "Mad" Mike Hoare? And ONUC — the U.N. Operation in the Congo — arriving with a flourish and a flash of blue berets to keep the peace when the country erupted after its rushed independence from Belgium in 1960? And the U.N.'s withdrawal three years later — battered, disillusioned and brought almost to bankruptcy in the heart of the Congo's darkness?

Those were the days of the cold war and superpower rivalry in Africa. When the Congolese army,...