"The harrowing story of the 1,600 European, American and Asian foreigners who were held hostage in Stanleyville for an eternity, an eternity of one hundred and eleven days. It begins on August 4th, 1964, when an enraged band of Congo Rebels closes in on Stanleyville. It ends on November 24th with the massacre in which Dr. Carlson and other missionaries lost their lives minutes before Belgian paratroops arrived to rescue them. ... With painstaking attention to detail, David Reed conveys the sight and sound of unbridled power in the hands of the savage and the civilized: the grotesque attempts of the Simba leaders to posture as members of a civilized government and the ruthless progress of the white mercenaries, led by Major Mike Hoare, marching on Stanleyville. He portrays the humiliation and terrible indignities suffered by the American and European missionaries and consular staffs."--Dust jacket flap.

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 boat, 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, Congo style, with him. During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered and Devlin was widely thought 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 future 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.

On the early afternoon of 5 August 1964, insurrectionists of the Popular Army of Liberation of self-commissioned "General" Nicolas Olenga, calling themselves Simbas, seized Stanleyville, the capital of Haut Congo Province, and the third largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Present in Stanleyville and vicinity were 30 Americans. Five were American consulate employees. Also present were approximately 1,500 foreigners. For the next 111 days they were held and then a rescue operation was made. This is the story of that incident.