The earnest Colonel (now Major General) Joseph Mobutu, on whom the U.S. once pinned its hopes, has turned out to be erratic, unreliable, and one of the weakest strongmen who ever stumbled into power.

Soon after, a military coup led by Congolese Colonel Joseph Mobutu (later known as dictator Mobutu Sese Seko) fully removed him from power. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, from which he ...

With Army Chief General Joseph Mobutu back on duty after a month-long vacation, 700 green-bereted Congolese commandos from Katanga debarked from planes in the Kwilu capital of Kikwit, began un ...

When ex-convict kidnapped former Congolese premier Moise Tshombe and took him to Algeria, current Congolese President Joseph Mobutu told the United Nations that Tshombe had been plotting a ...

The Zairean leader PresidentJoseph Mobutu was similarly supported by the West for making a public stand against Communism, while at the same time he systematically stripped his country of its ...

The Zairean leader PresidentJoseph Mobutu was similarly supported by the West for making a public stand against Communism, while at the same time he systematically stripped his country of its ...

Tshombe eventually became Prime Minister, but not for long. In 1965 Joseph Mobutu seized power with American backing in a bloodless coup. He had waited in the shadows for his opportunity since the ...