Gabon, West Germany: De Gaulle to the Rescue

GABON

Of all the nations carved from French Africa, none is less populous or more richly endowed with natural resources than tiny Gabon. With a population of only 450,000, it is one of the biggest producers of uranium and manganese in the franc zone, and its magnetic deposits of iron ore (1 billion tons) are just beginning to be tapped. Hence French President Charles de Gaulle's sudden interest last week in a political upheaval in the steaming, rain-forested republic. No sooner had an army coup toppled Gabon's President Léon Mba than De...

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