“The Last American”: A Diplomat in Zaire

language classes. Really delightful folks, most with wives and children. But some were, in many instances, trapped, having thought that leaving Bucharest for Kisangani was but one step in a successful defection to America. They would come to me and ask if I could help. I don't think I have to go into the details of the impossible-and dangerous-situation this put us in, because most regretfully, there was really nothing of substance I could do for them.

A comparably difficult situation arose when Ugandan political refugees approached me for help on one occasion. It was unsettling, to say the least, to find oneself not only in the middle of a local landscape of threat and uncertainty, but also to have the repercussions of regional and international confrontations show up, literally, on one's doorstep. This in one of the most off-the-beaten-paths in the world at the time. No tourist, by the way, in his or her right mind deliberately came to Kisangani. Those days were long gone. A few foreign travelers would show up on their way to the Pygmy areas and to the Gorilla sanctuaries far to the east and north of Kisangani. Otherwise, nary a soul. Even the missionaries in the area, and there were quite a few, remained isolated from the rest of the country. Single-side band radio for them-and for us-was the only reliable way to keep in touch with Kinshasa, and the "real" world, some 800 miles away.

4. You left well before Mobutu's disastrous decline. With hindsight, were there hints of this in the '70s?

Oh, yes, and not even in hindsight. During the very years we were in Kisangani, rumors were constant regarding the "immanent" collapse of the government, and an often hoped for nasty fate for Mobutu. I fully expected-and in a way dreaded-it would happen while we were there. Not for any love for Mobutu, of course. Just a fear of the chaos-and potential bloodshed-that would instantly occur if the government should fall.

What amazed me in hindsight later was that Mobutu lasted as long as he did. Again, as suggested above, I think people in the '70's were still shell shocked by the earlier violence, and wanted no repeat of it. But then again, in spite of the emergence of a new, non-rebellion generation with no direct memories of past horrors, it took quite a while for anything to happen to successfully challenge Mobutu.

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