President Kennedy was loafing through the weekend at his Middleburg, Va., estate when he got a call from his press secretary telling him that Congolese ex-Premier Patrice Lumumba was officially dead. It was, the President knew, an omen of worse to come. He issued a moderate statement expressing his "shock" at the news, then waited edgily for the predictable Russian response.
It came quickly. Across the world—and even in the sleek chambers of U.N. headquarters in Manhattan—Communist-inspired squads broke into rioting (see FOREIGN NEWS). The Soviet Union threatened military intervention in behalf of the Communist-lining Congolese Pretender Antoine Gizenga. It...
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