To Katanga and Back

Published by Hutchinson & Co. 1962. 1st Edition. 371pp. Near fine hardback covers in a near fine pictorial dust jacket. Internally fine. Black and white ills.

Conor Cruise O'Brien, who has died aged 91, had an extraordinarily varied career in which he was a diplomat, politician, author, critic, journalist and academic.

In almost every field he worked in, he managed to stir up controversy.

In 1961, when the Congo was threatened with civil war over Mr Moise Tshombe's move for a separate Katanga, Dr O'Brien was chosen by the Secretary General, Mr Dag Hammarskjold, as his special representative to the Congo which had become newly independent under Patrice Lumumba.

His brief was essentially a peacekeeping one, but when he announced that the secession of Katanga was at an end there were strong protests from Britain and other Western powers that the UN was exceeding its role and interfering in the Congo's internal politics.

During the row, Mr Hammarskjold arrived in the Congo, but on his way to meet Mr Tshombe in Northern Rhodesia his plane crashed and everyone on board was killed. ( BBC )