CONGO: Dag's Problem Child

As politics in the Congo got more and more hectic, and the U.N. found itself forced to take an ever-bigger hand in the Congo's affairs, an uneasy question posed itself. Doesn't any nation have the right to go to hell in its own way?

The Congo was certainly a shambles. The week began with the President firing the Premier and the Premier firing the President. For days, sphinxlike President Joseph Kasavubu had watched the havoc wreaked by Patrice Lumumba's turbulent decrees, had talked privately of plans to end the chaos, and hesitated. Finally, taunted by scornful party youth leaders, who threatened to withdraw their support. Kasavubu roared: "By God, I will act."

On Tape. Hurriedly contacting U.N. officials in Leopoldville. he got tacit agreement to his plan, then rounded up two dissident members of Lumumba's Cabinet to join him in the plot. As night fell, he quietly went to the studios of Radio Leopoldville to deliver his message to the nation, carefully tape-recording his words 20 minutes in advance so he could get away before they were broadcast.

"The Prime Minister has betrayed the task entrusted to him," he sternly declared. "He has deprived many citizens of their fundamental liberties. And now he is involving the country in an awful civil war. Therefore, I have decided to dismiss the government." Naming moderate Senate President Joseph Ileo, 38, as new Premier, he added a hopeful plea that the army lay down its arms.

Turning the Tables. This was the time for action. But Kasavubu merely went back to his residence, now ringed with a special force of U.N. guards, to await signs that the nation had risen to his support. Instead, the man who acted was Patrice Lumumba. Less than an hour later, he appeared at the radio station, brushed aside U.N. troops and broadcast his own message to the nation: "Congolese, stand firm!" he cried in his high, thin voice. "The government cannot be dismissed until it loses the confidence of the people, and the people are fully behind it." Then, having been fired himself. Lumumba called his Cabinet into late night session and proceeded to fire Kasavubu.

Since the Congo was still operating under the unratified "loi fondamentale" be queathed by the Belgians, the constitutional legalities involved in all this were unclear, but Lumumba left no one in doubt as to who held the initiative. Next day, as Kasavubu and his new Premier-designate Ileo sat timidly in the President's home, Lumumba's police fell upon a crowd of Kasavubu followers and opened fire, killing two. wounding twelve, and hauling scores away to jail.

Cops in the Rear. But Kasavubu's scattered supporters hoped to make a comeback in the Assembly where, despite the clusters of rifle-toting cops in the rear, the opposition could speak up without being clubbed on the head. For three hours, as the angry debate roared over his head, Lumumba sat quietly scribbling notes. But the angry voices faded when Lumumba rose to take the floor.