He's with the Central Intelligence Agency, of course, insisting, "I'd be happy with an independent Congo as long as it were stable and well run."

In 1960, the former Belgian Congo and then newly independent Congo asked for UN aid in defusing the Congo Crisis.

Major Mike Hoare's first mercenary action was in Katanga, a province trying to break away from the newly independent Congo.

Apparently, Captain Munro found humoring tourists uncongenial; by 1960, he was reported running guns from Uganda into the newly independent Congo.

He was succeeded on 1 July 1960 by Joseph Kasavubu, the first President of independent Congo.

June 24 - Joseph Kasavubu is elected as the first President of the independent Congo.

Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was assassinated in January 1961 during The Congo Crisis.

The largest force, 20,000 troops, was dispatched in 1960 to the newly independent Congo, now Zaire.

In 1960, after the Belgians withdrew precipitately (taking with them an entire bureacracy and without making provision for a successor), an independent Congo suffered through five years of rebellion, secession and war.

It was particularly popular in the newly independent French Congo and Belgian Congo because it used the national languages of both countries.