Chief of Station, Congo

This is the autobiography of one of the Cold War's hottest warriors: the CIA Station Chief in the Congo during the tumultuous years of independence. Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way - out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks, he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette with him, Congo style. During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader Patrice Lumumba was murdered, and Devlin was widely though to have been entrusted with (he was), and to have carried out (he didn't) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Devlin found himself at the heart of Africa, fighting for the survival of perhaps the most strategically influential country on the continent, its borders shared with eight other nations.
He met every significant political figure, from presidents to mercenaries, as he took the Cold War to one of the world's hottest zones. This is a classic political memoir from a master spy who lived in wildly dramatic times.