PRIME MINISTER CYRILLE ADOULA (CONGO) - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/17/1961 - HFSID 265322

CYRILLE ADOULA. Scarce TLS: "Adoula" as Prime Minister, 1p, 8¼x8½. On official letterhead. Leopoldville [now Kinshasa], Congo, 1961 October 17. To an unnamed recipient. In French, translated, in full: "Your letter of 3 September, addressed to the Belgrade Conference, is welcome to me. I thank you for the good wishes you express for my country and myself. As I stated in the course of the Belgrade Conference, my Government will follow the policy aimed at reestablishing the prosperity of my country in a recovered peace. Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my distinguished sentiments." Following the Congo's independence from Belgium (1960), the country dissolved into chaos, with rival armed factions controlling different parts of the country and the mineral-rich Katanga Province attempting to secede. A U.N. force was dispatched to the Congo, but was unable to bring an end to the fighting. Cyrille Adoula served as Prime Minister of the embattled country from 1961-1964. Exactly one month before this letter was written, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld perished when his plane mysteriously crashed near the border between Katanga and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was traveling to the Congo on a peace mission at Adoula's invitation. The Non-Aligned Movement was founded at Belgrade. Leaders from 25 countries, including Adoula, attended the first official meeting in Belgrade in September 1961. Folds. Fine condition.