Episode 28: Dag Hammarskjöld’s Final Mission, Part I - Into the Fire of the Congo Crisis

September 1961. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld boards a plane into one of the most dangerous conflicts on earth: the Congo Crisis.

Independence had unleashed chaos—rebellion, assassination, mercenaries, foreign powers all clawing for control of a nation rich in minerals and rife with instability. In the middle stood Hammarskjöld, trying to hold the line for peace while the Cold War raged around him.

This episode sets the stage for his final journey. The stakes, the players, the madness. To understand what happened to Dag Hammarskjöld, you must first understand the fire he was flying into.

 #DagHammarskjöld #DecodingTheUnicorn #CongoCrisis #ColdWarHistory #UNHistory #HistoryPodcast #PoliticalHistory #AfricanHistory #MysteryAndHistory #WorldAffairs #DiplomacyMatters #HistoryUncovered #IntoTheFire #SecretHistory  

All passages from Decoding the Unicorn: A New Look at Dag Hammarskjöld © Sara Causey.

Sara's award-winning biography of Dag can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Unicorn-New-Look-Hammarskj%C3%B6ld-ebook/dp/B0DSCS5PZT

Her forthcoming project, Simply Dag, will release globally on July 29, 2026. 

Transcript

Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

This podcast episode discusses the death of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN Secretary-General, who was believed to have been murdered. The host, Sara Causey, outlines the political and humanitarian crisis in the Congo, highlighting Hammarskjold's efforts to stabilize the region and prevent a Cold War escalation. The episode details the Congo's history of colonial exploitation, the secession of Katanga, and the involvement of foreign mercenaries. It also touches on Hammarskjold's personal life, including his adoption of a pet monkey, Greenback, and the mysterious circumstances of its death. The host emphasizes the need for justice and transparency in understanding Hammarskjold's death.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Dag Hammarskjold, Congo crisis, UN Secretary General, murder, deep politics, Katanga secession, Belgian colonialism, Cold War, Soviet Union, mercenaries, ethnic cleansing, peacekeeping force, Patrice Lumumba, humanitarian crisis, justice.

Welcome to the Decoding the Unicorn podcast. Here's your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, Hello and thanks for tuning in. Welcome to Episode 28 of decoding the unicorn the podcast. I appreciate you joining me throughout the month of September, searches around DAGs untimely death have a large increase. I hate having to record episodes like this, because it's not right and it isn't fair. We should instead be talking about the anniversary of DAGs death, after he went to the farmhouse, after he finished his service to the UN he was able to retire and do other things, writing and creative pursuits, continuing his work with the Swedish Academy, continuing his work with the Swedish tourist Association and so forth. There's no reason to think that later in life, Dag would have been lazy. No one can really picture him paddling around in a bathrobe, doing nothing, sleeping until noon. That just wasn't DAG. But It really stinks to have to talk about dag as a murder victim, which is what I believe that he was. A lot of authors will bury their thesis, or they will talk in roundabout terms. Maybe they're beholden to a corporate sponsor, which I'm not. Maybe they're beholden to a large publishing house and their editors or in house counsel tell them what they can and cannot say they're worried about making tenure or keeping tenure at a university, or upsetting their aristocratic families. Fortunately, I have no such concerns, and I can say whatever I want to say, which is, in my opinion, Dag was murdered. It wasn't an oops, a daisy, pilot error. The plane crashed accident. It was done on purpose, and dag was the target. And so I want to do a two part episode around the circumstances of DAGs death, not to sensationalize it, but to remember it, and still yet to make a plea for justice. And it's not in my mind about pointing the finger at any one particular person. And I think sometimes people get lost in the weeds. In that regard, they start thinking about, well, which mercenary was it? Who did it? Who forced the plane down, who might have been down on the ground to finish the job, so to speak. I'm less concerned with that type of who done it. I'm much more focused on what the author, Peter Dale Scott refers to as the system of deep politics, the system, what kind of system allows for a sitting UN Secretary General to be murdered, violently and horrifically murdered because he was pursuing peace. I think that's where the story really is. I'm currently working on and off on a project about that. I say on and off because my next project, simply DAG, has recently come out of its first round of edits, and I have a lot of homework. I'm a lot to do there, but in between, when the baby goes off to summer camp, the baby is being edited and proofread by other people, then that's an opportunity for me to work on this other project, and I resent the hell out of having to do it, because it's just not right. This system shouldn't exist, and it certainly shouldn't have been turned on DAG. But in today's episode, episode one of this two parter, this is a bit like Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet, where he says in fair Verona, where we lay our scene, what I want to do is just lay out the scene, give the backstory, talk about the circumstances, because I think outside of that, it's more difficult to understand why the system of power want to dag out of the picture when we just in vague terms, say The Congo crisis, there was turmoil, there was drama all the time. It can not reflect. I'm trying to choose the right word here. It's like people don't get the full picture. It's confusing. And I want to take some of that obfuscation out of it. I believe the shadowy web of power thrives in the shadows. They thrive in the darkness. The more informed that people are, the better. So today, that's what I intend to do, is just provide the backstory of the Congo crisis and get a sense of what was dag flying into and then what was he trying to accomplish, what was actually his aim. 18. There were so many times. And this is a key component of what I will be talking about in simply DAG, my next project. There were so many times that dag flew directly into danger to make it seem like the last flight that he ever took was the only dangerous flight that he ever took that's pure and utter rubbish, total nonsense. There were a number of times that DAGs trip could have been his last, but he went anyway. It was an important form of duty and obligation and fulfillment of love. Dag was quite clear in his speech. For this, I believe that for him, an expression of love was the fulfillment of duty, and I take dag at his word on that. So I want to get into the backstory, so that people who are new to this information have a good sense of what was happening. Why was dag there, and what do we need to know about it? Stay tuned.

Political intrigue, Cold War drama, cloak and dagger maneuvers. Read 2025 most intriguing book about one of history's forgotten figures. Pick up your copy of decoding the unicorn, a new look at dog hammer should today.

So I want to read now a passage from my book decoding the unicorn under the heading a spark becomes a conflagration. Belgium's King, Leopold, the second, pushed for the colonization of Congo in the 1800s rebuffed by the Belgian government. Leopold decided to colonize it anyway, and the area became well known for its exploitation of and cruelty to the indigenous people. In 1908 the Belgian government stepped in and refashioned it as the Belgian Congo, though life there would continue to be miserable for anyone who wasn't a white European. Congo was, and still is quite wealthy in natural resources, including timber, copper, diamonds, gold, cobalt and uranium. This fact was certainly not lost on the Belgians, and it played a huge factor in the nation's desire to hang on to Congo as a colony. Just as there is a symbiotic relationship between peace and human rights, there is likewise a correlation between violence and the exploitation of natural resources. By the 1950s independence movements gained momentum. Both Senator John F Kennedy and Dag Hammarskjold recognized the end of colonialism was near, however, prominent members in the western halls of power disagreed. The shadowy web of authority that dag had glimpsed before was firmly entrenched in keeping the resources of Congo for the West. On January 4, 1959 riots erupted in Leopoldville, now Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. Estimates vary on how many Congolese people were killed, but the Belgian show of force further galvanized African nationalism. The Belgian government knew it would not hang on to Congo as a colony forever, but hoped there would be a transitional period of years, maybe even decades. In January 1960 the belgio Congolese roundtable conference was held, and Congo's date for independence was set at June 30, 1960 rather than decades, the Belgians would ostensibly be out in several months, an event was held to recognize the end of Belgian colonial rule on June 30 in Leopoldville, and Belgian King Beaudoin played the role of white savior, acting as though the Belgians had performed the Congolese a great favor. Patrice Lumumba, leader of the Congolese national movement, spoke out against colonial rule and reiterated the power of African nationalism to make real change. The newly formed government saw a prime minister and a president sharing power, and these men were Patrice Lumumba and Joseph kazavubu respectively. Although independence was officially proclaimed, many Belgians remained, and their presence caused tension. In early July, the pressure boiled over into military riots, which spread across Congo. Chaos ensued, and the Western media framed the narrative as See, this is why they can't have independence. Belgium sent paratroopers in which incensed Lumumba, disorder and dysfunction worsened, as did political and racial divides on July 11, 1960 the province of Katanga seceded from Congo, naming moist chambi as its president and elizabethville as its capital. Katanga was the most resource rich part of Congo, with both natural and mineral wealth, and the loss of this area would cause major financial damage. Union mini air du haut Katanga, a Belgian mining company backed by Belgian and British interests, supported Chom be and possessed a large amount of power and money for decades. Union, mini air stockholders from France. Belgium and the UK profited immensely. The company not only mined resources, but also invested in infrastructure, including electricity and railroads. The power held by union mini air should not be underestimated. So essentially, we have this scenario where the Belgians don't really want to let go of Congo, and they're not exactly planning to either. On the surface, it seems like they are, but they've really done nothing in terms of infrastructure, administration or preparation for a local government to be able to survive on its own. I believe it was their intention to set up Congo to fail, and their thought was, the citizens who live there will be so miserable, things will be so chaotic and bloody and crazy that they will beg for us to come back. So really, I think, from the get go, the situation was set up to fail. I'll continue to read. Dag sat back in his chair, anxiety coiling through him as he reviewed the urgent messages from Kasa FUBU and Lumumba the secession of Katanga, believed to have been bolstered by the Belgian government itself, was a puddle of gasoline underneath a blowtorch. Both leaders were pleading for immediate intervention in the form of UN troops. Dag agreed that this was a serious threat to international peace, but he knew he couldn't act unilaterally, especially when it came to military action, every move had to follow the UN's formal channels, and this was no small ask. As Dak scrambled to push the issue before the Security Council, more Belgian troops arrived in Congo, he gritted his teeth, frustrated. God, this is the last thing anyone needs. He rumbled the situation grew more dire by the hour, kazavubu and Lumumba were now threatening to turn to Khrushchev for Soviet support if the UN couldn't act fast enough. Ralph Bunche delivered the news, and dag rubbed his throbbing temples, feeling the weight of it all. Dag had climbed a few mountains, but could he move on? Dag paced his office and let out a frustrated sigh. The UN's definition of urgency is not fast enough, he concluded, bitterly, he called for an emergency night session with the Security Council standing before the members. He laid out the severity of the situation the Belgians needed to leave so the UN could stabilize the situation until the Congolese government was ready to take over. Otherwise this tinderbox would explode into an international and humanitarian crisis. The Security Council passed a resolution formally calling on Belgium to remove its troops from Congo they also approved DAGs request for the necessary authority to support the Congolese government until it was organized enough to take care of the nation's daily needs and restore order to the country. Using the UNEF or the United Nations emergency force as a model. Dag sent the United Nations operation in the Congo or on you see onic as a peacekeeping force. The onic could not involve itself in international domestic squabbles, and would employ staff from conflict neutral nations. Personnel arrived in Congo on July 15. Now we're still in the year 1960 at this point, they were clearly instructed to operate in keeping the peace, and could only react in self defense. This response was about as instantaneous as the UN could achieve kazavu And Lumumba did not feel that Belgian troops were evacuating as they should, and pressed dag for a better show of force. If the UN could not adequately help, they would call Khrushchev, who would readily send Soviet troops. Now I want to butt in for a second here. In my reading, it's important to remember that we're in the backdrop of the Cold War. I think it's easy for us in 2025 to forget. I remember in October of 89 when the wall came down, and then in the early 90s, when the USSR broke up and all of these countries started having their independence, Gorbachev had talked about glasnost and perestroika. We have to go back in our minds and remember the thick of the Cold War, all the brinksmanship and everything, any possible dust up, any possible conflict being used as a battlefield for the Cold War. Are they going to side with the West? Are they going to side with the east? So it's important to remember that this threat of calling Khrushchev so that he could send in Soviet troops was definitely like a volley in Cold War politics. DAGs office was thick with pipe smoke as he walked back and forth. The pressure mounting with each passing day. He couldn't let Congo be pulled into the Cold War, but the situation was slipping. By July 20, more than 3000 UN troops were stationed in Congo. What's not widely known is that dag also coordinated UN agency efforts to send food and fuel to prevent the flooding of the Congo River and to begin an emergency health program. And I really want to reiterate that again, because it isn't widely known, and it's still not widely known, and I think sometimes DAGs detractors. Like to use the fact that it's not widely known, they want to say that dag somehow himself fomented the crisis in Congo. He didn't do a good enough job. He was like an absentee landlord or something. You know, some of their arguments, I think, are so far afield, they're difficult to even make sense of. They seem, in my opinion, okay, which I'm allowed to express under the First Amendment. In my opinion, I think some of these people are just doing hit jobs. They're just writing hit pieces, and they don't even really know what kind of argument they're making. And they're probably, in my opinion, I would suspect, being paid by someone affiliated with the shadowy web of power. I don't have to worry again about academic street cred. I can say what I want, so I want to repeat this. What's not widely known is that dag also coordinated UN agency efforts to send food and fuel to prevent the flooding of the Congo River and to begin an emergency health program to pretend that he sat on his hands and did nothing. I think is really offensive

during the Security Council meetings on July 20 and 21st the Soviet Union made it clear that the USSR would involve itself in the Congo crisis through whatever means it deemed necessary. The United States retorted that only the UN's peacekeeping forces should go, and the US was willing to do whatever it felt was necessary to prevent other outside intervention. Congo was increasingly pulled into the Cold War, like it or not, DAGs fear that this would happen was rapidly coming true. On July 22 the Security Council passed another resolution calling on Belgium to evacuate its troops immediately. Dag was tired of trying to manage things from New York, so he quickly packed a few essentials. His mind was already focused on the next steps. As he flew to Leopoldville, he hoped that if he was there in the thick of it, he could make a real difference. As the plane ascended, Dag settled into his seat and wondered how many miles he had flown over the years. The world seemed to blend together at 30,000 feet, but he recalled that wartime flight, the time when an attack from the Luftwaffe rattled the aircraft as everyone around him panicked. Dag reached into his briefcase and pulled out his well worn Bible. He found comfort in the familiar pages, turning to the passages that often gave him strength. He paused at Isaiah, 4031 allowing the words to wash over him. But they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. The situation in Congo was tangled, but dag had faith that somehow it could be unraveled. By July 31 there were more than 11,000 onuk personnel, Belgian troops left all parts of Congo except the seceded Katanga province and its related bases. Moyse chomba informed dag that he opposed the Congolese central government led by kazavubu and Lumumba, and he would also oppose un personnel in Katanga, concerned for everyone's safety, Dag asked that the Security Council conduct a meeting as soon as possible to determine next steps. A few days later, Lumumba called for UN troops to go to Katanga regardless, the Security Council passed yet another resolution on August 9, this time calling for Belgium to remove its troops from Katanga. At the same time, the Soviet delegation lambasted the UN and dag more specifically, for recognizing Katanga in any way, and for not doing more to oust the Belgians zombies government and the central Congolese government were at odds. The latter did not recognize the former secession and wanted the UN to remove chambi and reunify Congo on August 10 DAG, arrived in Katanga with UN troops sourced from Sweden to meet chambi. The personnel would be used to oversee the departure of the Belgian troops, and once the Belgians were totally out of Congo, it would be a domestic matter between Katanga and Congo to resolve the secession issue. Like the Soviets, Lumumba did not feel that the UN and Hammarskjold in particular had done enough. He wanted UN troops to end the katangi secession, and Lumumba threatened to invade Katanga on his own to make it happen. Meanwhile, Dad called for a face to face meeting with Lumumba, hoping that a direct conversation would bring clarity. But there was no response. The minutes turned into hours, and as the wait stretched on, Lumumba silence was louder than words, a deliberate and telling message. Instead, Lumumba went directly to the UN to say that he did not believe the organization could stay neutral, that it was obligated to reunify Congo and Katanga. He further charged that the Congolese central government no longer had faith in DAG. However, he also contended that dag should only deal with his government and send any military assistance that was deemed necessary by Lumumba. Dag was distraught, but knew better than to make a public display of his emotions. Dag requested a follow up meeting of the Security Council and expressed his concern that some of the rhetoric within the UN was used as a false justification for allowing Soviet interference in Congo. Delegates from Poland and the USSR pushed. Back, claiming that the secession in Katanga was fueled by Western interests in the first place, which was true. These intense debates showed no sign of detente, and as the arguments raged on, the unicorn found himself in the hot seat.

We're going to zoom ahead now to September of 1960

the reports were piling up on DAGs desk, each more harrowing than the last South Kasai had erupted into violence with the central Congolese government moving in to crush its attempted secession. What worried dag even more were the growing tensions between the baluba and lulua tribes and rumors of mass murder filtering through the chaotic lines of communication. Dag had already voiced his concerns about ethnic cleansing in the region. His phone buzzed with a message from the onuk Lumumba had tightened his grip on the airports, delaying the peacekeepers movement and making it nearly impossible for the UN to intervene in time to prevent further killings. Dag ran a hand through his hair as he fretted he realized several strands had come loose, likely from the stress. Just then another message arrived, this one from France President Charles de Gaulle had once again criticized both the UN and the USSR, accusing them of causing far more problems than they had solved in Congo. Dag frowned the weight of de Gaulle's words adding to the pressure. Congo wasn't just a diplomatic failure, it was a humanitarian catastrophe, his thoughts circled back to one word, genocide. So now we have ethnic cleansing. On top of all of the other nightmares that have already happened, you have tribal warfare and ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately, bad news kept coming. Kazavubu made a radio announcement that Patrice Lumumba had been removed as prime minister. Barely an hour later, Lumumba retaliated with his own broadcast, denouncing kazavubu and declaring his own removal invalid. Dag rubbed his face and looked at the ceiling, almost as if he were willing God to speak to him. The situation in Congo was unraveling faster than anyone anticipated.

That's probably an understatement.

Kazavubu swiftly appointed Joseph ileo to replace Lumumba, and the streets were alive with protests. Reports from Leopoldville describe tumultuous scenes as supporters of both kazavubu and Lumumba clashed, spilling their fury into the heart of the city. Dag received word that the onuk had taken action and closed the airports to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. UN peacekeepers had also shuttered the radio stations, cutting off further incitements to rebellion. Two days later, the crisis deepened. The Congolese assembly was in a frenzy trying to determine how to handle Casa vubus and Lumumba rivaling dismissals. The streets were still boiling with unrest, and inside the assembly there was no agreement. DAGs heart sank when he heard that Lumumba had condemned the UN for their actions and demanded that the peacekeepers leave all of Congo in Washington. President Eisenhower publicly denounced the Soviet Union for meddling in the Congo crisis, stirring up Cold War rhetoric. DAGs chest tightened with each bit of news, Congo was slipping away, and the situation was pulling the entire world into deadly madness. A few days later, kazavubu and Lumumba insisted on sending their own separate delegates to the United Nations to represent the real Congo. Each faction vied for legitimacy, and dag knew that as long as leadership warred with itself, no real progress could be made. The UN and dag personally were criticized severely, but dag tried to put it out of his mind as best he could. For instance, un operations in Congo were vast and varied, food deliveries, transportation, agricultural consulting, telecommunication, repairs and even efforts to stabilize the Treasury. There were health workers, educators, foreign trade advisors and consultants in water purification. They were doing everything they could to help the people of Congo, but with the government fractured and at war with itself, would any of this assistance truly reach those in need. Would anyone realize how hard Dag and the UN were trying in October of 1960 that's when Khrushchev shows up to the UN to call for dag to resign. He's in all all of the same rhetoric that we hear from Nikita. He's an imperialist toad. He's a puppet of the West he needs to get out of here. Khrushchev had his own agenda of wanting to replace the Secretary General with a troika and then have the UN move to Moscow. So it's not even really that. It was thinly veiled. It was pretty obvious what he was up to. Now we go ahead to winter of 1960 the winter did nothing to cool the turmoil in Congo, even as the year began to wane, conflict turned relentlessly. Violence erupted in Kasai and UN soldiers were caught in the crossfire, some wounded as they tried to maintain peace, sensing an opportunity, Colonel Mobutu aligned with President kazavubu IN THE. And in opposition to Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was confined to his home, but because he was perceived as a threat, Mobutu forces hovered around his property. UN troops kept watch, ensuring Lumumba safety for as long as he remained within their protection. In late November, Lumumba made a fateful decision. He decides to leave for Stanleyville to rendezvous with another politician on December 1. So we're still in 1960 December 1 of 1960 Mobutu soldiers take advantage of this opportunity and they capture Lumumba. This, of course, will become important to world history, as well as the personal history of DAG, and as I said, laying the scene so that you understand what dag was going into when he made that fateful flight. So now we're in January, mid January of 1961 somewhere in the late hours of January 17, or the early hours of January 18, Patrice Lumumba was brutally murdered. The process had been brewing a long time before it happened, but the death was not communicated, so dag didn't actually know. I think it's also worth mentioning that JFK, who was still the president elect at that point in time, he wasn't inaugurated until January 20. He didn't know either. So sort of a secret among certain people in the West, they simply didn't know that Lumumba had been murdered. So DAG is communicating with Casa vubu and with Chom be urging them to release Patrice Lumumba. And he makes the accusation that they've transferred Lumumba. They're keeping his whereabouts some kind of secret, and they're moving him around from prison to prison to avoid some kind of legal due process. It was too late by then, but dag didn't know it. At the beginning of February, Dag spoke to the Security Council about the continuing chaos in Congo, and asserted that tensions were inflamed by this military junta that's taking place because of Colonel Mobutu. He believed there would be significant improvement if the Congolese military stepped out of politics and focused on its true purpose of serving as a national force. Moreover, he thought that if Congo had a functioning government, the UN's presence would become obsolete, ie, the Congolese government would be operational and the colonial powers would be gone on the 10th Katanga is interior minister claimed that Patrice Lumumba and fellow Congolese politicians, Maurice and polo and Joseph Akito were on the land as escapees. Dag requested that UN authorities investigate the matter, but found the government in Katanga totally uncooperative. On February 13, Lumumba, death was officially announced and blamed on local villagers who allegedly killed him after he left custody, Dad called for a full investigation, seeking for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Protests erupted in several nations. Jacques low snapped the famous photograph of President Kennedy closing his eyes in a grimace as he received the news via phone that Lumumba was dead. On February 20 DAG, learned that six politicians had been executed and others had been detained in Congo, a resolution was passed condemning these actions and seeking an investigation into the murders. Additionally, the onik warned that a large number of foreign mercenaries had flooded into Congo and Katanga. The role of said mercenaries should not be understated. Killers for hire inundated the area from Europe, backed by powerful interests, and made an already treacherous situation many times worse. So this is another component of the nightmare that DAG is having to deal with. You have all of this tension and strain and turmoil in the Congo. You have the murder of Lumumba, which is not even announced for like a month. And then you have mercenaries flooding into the country, and they're coming from right wing segments. Shall we say? They're Belgians, they're Brits, they're Frenchmen, they're Italians, they're South Africans, and even some expat Nazis who want to get in the mix. It was a it was a bad mix of dudes. You know, if we want to speak about it colloquially, that's how we could do it. We're not talking about choir boys or school children. We're talking about bad people that want to do bad things, soldiers for hire, that are just there to commit murder and and make the environment chaotic, not for their backers, obviously, but for everybody else. Dac sent a progress report to the UN with some positive outcomes. Several mercenaries had been located and ousted from Congo, though I will butt in and say not nearly enough. Kazavubu finally agreed to the UN resolution passed on February. 21st calling for Congo to stop operating as a military junta, and during the summer, the Congolese assembly restarted. Kazavubu remained president, and Cyril adula was named Prime Minister. Seemingly, this was an improvement, yet scratching beneath the surface, these developments may have been more sinister. Some historians assert that a doula was hand picked by Western interests and wasn't truly an independent politician. For his part, a doula sent warm correspondence to the UN and consented to recognize a centralized Congolese government in the middle of August. So we're now August of 1961 in the middle of August, Dag prepared his annual report to the United Nations. He imagined the UN like a piece of taffy pulled in different directions, steadily becoming thinner and weaker, as he had from the beginning, Dag believed that the UN had to abide by its charter. It could not go rogue, and it could not be manipulated by the superpowers. Sometimes, Dag wondered why this concept was confusing to others when it seemed so incredibly clear to him. Shortly thereafter, kazavubu called for all mercenaries to leave Katanga, and UN personnel was brought in to manage this process. Fighting again erupted, and the UN troops stationed there were brutalized. Propaganda messages were sent by military officials and perhaps the mercenaries themselves in Katanga, which stirred up even more unrest, the number of refugees seeking to escape Congo grew increase, increasing the humanitarian crisis. Dag buried his head in his hands. Every step step forward felt as though it was beset by three steps back.

In the midst of all this DAGs pet, he was gifted with a little vervet monkey who was friendly and tame and the one of the things you have to understand about DAG is that sometimes dag would do the most un. Dag like things because you have a neat Nick, somebody who is always clean, well groomed, keeps the apartment neat as a pin, somebody that's not into clutter and tchotchkes and debris. And you think about that person adopting a pet monkey, it's really funny. But then at the same time, there was this other side of dag that was totally feral. He absolutely was the type of person that would get out in the woods and bathe naked in a stream, hang out at the campfire and eat beans out of a tin. It seems contradictory to people, because they want dag to fit into a neat bucket, and so the people that want dag to be the cold, calculating intellectual have difficulty reconciling the DAG that kept a pet monkey, the DAG who went out in the woods and went crazy, you know, the DAG that got down to the southern part of Sweden, where Bo and Greta beskov lived, and where DAGs farmhouse was, and he was like, Okay, I'm free now. I'm just bumming around in the woods and nothing but a pair of khaki shorts and some sandals. It's hard for them to reconcile cold, calculating, aristocratic, dog hammer killed with this other DAG, but it's like now there's the same person, though it's all about context. Yes, dad could be in a three piece suit and wing tips to give a formal speech, or dad could be in a khaki shorts out in the woods or in a canoe bumming around. Both things can be true at one time. So dag has this pet monkey who's this little curious, charming little thing, and the monkey dies under weird circumstances. Dag theorized in his journal that greenback, the monkey was leaping and playing around in the curtains, and he somehow got caught in a loop. He got caught in the drapery sash, and it was around his chest, and nobody was home at the time, so he smothered. However, obviously, the circumstances around that are odd, because, as we know, monkeys have hands, very much like human hands. They're primates with opposable thumbs, and it's like greenback had been in that apartment plenty of times. He had been up and down the curtains. He had been playing and looking out the window. That was one of his hobbies. One of the things he liked to look out the window and people watch. So it's like, how did he get a drapery sash tied around his own chest and then lay there and smother it's odd. And then, conveniently, it happened when nobody was home, because dag had a housekeeper. So it was like, how, how did that just happen to occur when dad was at work and the housekeeper was gone, and then the monkey has a sash tied around its chest and somehow smothers. It's just, it's odd, right? I think we can agree that's weird. Are not necessarily saying that greenback was murdered, but I'm kind of not not saying that either, because it seems a little bit odd. So you have that on top of dag summer of Hell, where he's dealing with everything that's going on with the Soviets, as well as eruptions and disruptions in other parts of the world. He's dealing with the Soviets and their accusations and their propaganda, and he's dealing with the crisis in Congo. His pet dies, and he's feeling pretty downtrodden. You have someone who has typically been optimistic that wants to believe in the goodness of mankind, that's suddenly feeling like maybe there's not the goodness of mankind after all. And he tells Beau that some people are evil, and that he has seen evil, real, true evil. And that's harrowing for somebody like DAG, this polite, gentle soul, to be like, No, I've seen evil. I've seen people that are evil and irredeemable. That's saying a lot.

So now we get to September of 1961

September 10, came with an important request from Cyril adula. The message was clear. Dag was needed in Leopoldville. Once again, Congo was still in chaos, though adula indicated he wanted to cobble together a unified government and hoped that dag would help. Dag didn't hesitate. Of course, he would go. He had to the shadows of history were always with him, whispering reminders of past failures. The League of Nations had been powerless to stop the Second World War. Daggett studied it carefully, the ways in which it had collapsed under the weight of international conflict. Now as Secretary General, he knew that the future of the UN and perhaps the world hung in the balance in Congo, he couldn't help but think of what he had written two months prior, and in in his journal, he had written about how tired he was. He was tired, he was lonely, he was feeling heartbroken, which makes sense given everything that he was going through. So he doesn't want World War Three to occur on his watch, and with the super powers hovering around, what's going on in Congo, it was a very real possibility. So before dag leaves New York, there's already warnings. The onik reports painted a grim picture. Katanga was a war zone, foreign mercenaries, uncontrollable wild cards in an already unstable region lashed out against UN forces. There were stories of targeted violence, of ambushes that grew increasingly brutal with each passing day. Daggett listened as the onuk commanders voiced their concerns with your arrival, sir, it's likely to become even worse. One of them had said his voice heavy with caution, they'll see you as a target, a symbol of everything the UN stands for. We need to act and act decisively. So dag makes the decision that we're not going to fight fire with fire. The mercenaries want chaos. They want upheaval. They want drama. They want to be able to point to the UN and say, See they are the source of all Katanga problems. If we just get the blue hats out of here, then everything's going to be fine. We're not going to give them an excuse to escalate. So dag has this feeling of, I've been called, I've been asked to go, I need to go. And so whatever I need to do, I'll do. He knows that he's in this Scylla and Charybdis situation, but he feels that it's important to do whatever he can in the name of peace. That was just how dag was all right, in the midst of this, on the morning of DAGs arrival, you know, he's asked for peace, He said, Don't escalate. Don't fight fire with fire. Let's stand down. Let's try to keep a calm environment. Conor Cruz O'Brien had been sent. He had been hired by DAG. Dag felt that with him being an Irishman, he had an anti colonialist background. Dag admired some of his writings, and so he sent him to Katanga in the hopes that as an Irishman, he would be sympathetic to anti colonialist causes, and he would calm everything down. That's just not what happened.

And I wish that I could say otherwise, but

he just wasn't quite the greatest fit for that role,

as the plane is refueling in Ghana. Dad gets ambushed by a group of journalists, and they're like, Hey, can you confirm that Katanga has officially been reunited with Congo? Is it true that the UN has been militarized to reconsolidate Congo by force? And he's like, what is happening? And he finds out that Conor Cruz O'Brien has made statements of that effect to the media. And so dag already, like the blood pressure is going up and he's thinking, oh my god, you know, I said no violence. I said no tit for tat. This is not the way to handle it. So you have a lot of of upset and turmoil. Think about all of. Stuff that's gone on prior to September of 1961 by the time that dag gets there, it really and truly is a tinderbox, even more so than it already had been. On September 16, DAG is getting a letter to Chom be reminding him that Chom be himself had requested a cease fire, and he's trying to get a meeting set up with Chom be he's convinced that if the two of them can sit together face to face, there can be some kind of forward movement in the peace process. So now we're getting into the final days, which is where I'm going to wind down this backstory episode this. This is enough, I think, for part one, but I hope I've made my point that dag was flying into a mess, a complete and utter mess, and it wasn't because he was foolish. It wasn't because he had a god complex. It was because he really and truly wanted to try and help, and he knew that if he sat in New York and did nothing that wouldn't help anybody, he was asked to go by Cyril adula, and so he went. Tommy was asking for a cease fire, and dag wanted to do everything possible. I mean, what peacemaker, what diplomat is going to not respond to somebody's call for a ceasefire? That would make no sense at all. So here we have the background. Exactly what was dag flying into? What kind of chaos and insanity had been brewing in Congo before dag ever arrived. Next week, we'll get into the weird circumstances DAGs final days, and then the bizarre circumstances around his death, not to sensationalize, but simply to offer remembrance, and I would say, a call for justice.

Stay safe, and I will see you in the next episode.

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