Dag Hammarskjold: Night Flight To Death

Part of the Series: Political Assassination Series

During the Cold War, the power blocs of the East and West vied to control the vast mineral resources of the former Belgian colony, The Congo. The CIA working with the British, French and Belgian Secret Services feared that this newly independent African country had fallen under Soviet influence. So the Secret Services funded a rebellion in the mineral-rich province of Katanga-and installed a puppet President, Moishe Tchombe, who's first act was to call back Belgian troops and fund an army of white mercenaries to fight the central government. Dag Hammarskjold, the Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations flew there to prove the United Nations could be a mediating, independent force in such conflicts. Still in its infancy, the ideals of the UN untried, Dag Hammarskjold-the poet, philosopher, idealist-sent in UN troops to the quell the rebellion. For the first time in the UN's history, blue helmets were engaged in military action. But the UN's western delegates were infuriated by Hammarskjold's initiative, and on his way to a ceasefire conference, his plane would crash in the African bush in mysterious circumstances.