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Tshombe & Cha-Cha-Cha. That evening the radio crackled a message of triumph: "All Stanleyville is in the hands of the Popular Army. Do not forget: we are the lions and you are the goats." Next morning a program of recorded cha-cha-cha music was interrupted by a strident voice advertised as that of Emile Soumialot, president of the Chinese Communist-backed National Liberation Committee. "I am the new Lumumba," the voice ranted. "Just before he left us, Lumumba let it be known that someone stronger than he would come to complete his work. That man, c'est moi."
He may very well be, for it seemed that nothing short of major military aid from the outside could stop the rebels and preserve the month-old "government of public salvation" led by Premier Moise Tshombe. Though the Congolese army, in a rare show of aggressiveness, had recaptured the river port of Bolobo some 200 miles northeast of Leopoldville and three other towns, rebel forces threatened Kivu Central province's highland capital of Bukavu. The rampaging insurgent forces reportedly captured the tin-mining town of Manono as well.
Bullets & Bird Watchers. The desperate military situation forced the U.S. into an ironic action quite in consonance with the topsy-turvy conditions of the Congo. Out of Washington to Brussels near week's end flew State Department Troubleshooter W. Averell Harriman. His mission: to persuade the Belgians to give increased military and technical aid to Tshombe's army. Just two years ago, the U.S. was trying to eliminate Belgian support for Tshombe, but that was in Katanga, where Tshombe was attempting his abortive secession. Now Belgium is reluctant to get involved, for fear that the rebels will retaliate by killing the Europeans who remain in the country. After hours of discussion, Harriman and Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak reached a compromise: Belgium will double its number of advisers to 400, while the U.S. will increase shipments of trucks, planes and communications equipment to Tshombe's government. Spaak would not permit Belgian officers to engage in combat, but both men agreed that they would do nothing to keep Tshombe from hiring mercenaries (so long as they were not Belgians or Americans).
As word of the rebel successes filtered into Leopoldville's cites indigenes last week, Africans began muttering, "They are coming, they are coming." About the only people in Leo who were not concerned were a group of 30 American bird watchers who arrived from New York for a 21-day ornithological outing. The merry band made 60 "sightings" during its brief stay, the most exotic of which was a wattled plover.