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Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael P. E. Hoyt
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Category: Book
List Price: $36.95
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1207274
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 1557503230
Dewey Decimal Number: 967.51031
EAN: 9781557503237
ASIN: 1557503230
Publication Date: November 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Introduction by Ambassador Monteagle Stearns. Taken hostage by Congolese rebels at the U.S. Consulate he headed in Stanleyville, Michael Hoyt provides the first inside account of the 1964 seizure of the American consulate staff and their one hundred and eleven days of captivity. Their survival and eventual rescue offer a gripping story of courage and frustration, survival and sadness of lives lost. The first time that American diplomats have been held hostage since the Barbary pirate days of the 1800s, these events, as described by the author, present valuable lessons both for the future conduct of hostages and the policies to deal with their taking. The book chronicles their day-by-day ordeal as communist-backed rebels held them in confinement at the central prison in Stanleyville and elsewhere, including even the women's toilet at the airport terminal. Throughout the period they lived in terror, several times being led to what they believed was their execution and somehow surviving a final desperate attempt by the rebels to gun them down when Belgian paratroopers, flown in by American C-130s, arrived to rescue them. While helping readers appreciate the intensity of the drama as it unfolded, Hoyt is remarkably objective in his account. His description of the final moments of sheer terror before they were saved is unforgettable. Presented in cooperation with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.
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| Customer Reviews:
Memoirs from new head of the American Consulate in the Congo in Volatile 1964 March 2, 2007
moth (Abiquiu, NM United States)
The then new head of the American Consulate in the Congo writes his well- documented and dignified personal recollection of consulate staff being imprisoned, beaten, threatened by cannibals, hopping to escape the knives being hurled at their feet and sentanced to death almost weekly in the uprisings of 1964. One day they would be locked in a filthy, tiny womens bathroom, crowded, trying to sleep upright to the sound of shooting outside. One day they were dignitaries transported to a luxury hotel, then the next day they were hostages sleeping on boards in prison. All depended on relations and sympathies of whoever held the moment's power. Chaos reigns. Diplomatic rights and privilege only work occasionally and the captured are dependant upon whatever help comes from personnel at other consulates, people in various factions they worked with before capture, missionaries, and the saner elements of warring factions. With limited and sporatic communication they have no idea if their superiors are aware of the seriousness of the situation. Their own relentless efforts at negotiation have limited effect.
The first third of this harrowing tale is almost unreadable with military memos, uncertainty about what the political situation was and indecision or technical inability to respond. Hoyt attempts to stay clear headed and analytical amidst every source he talks to relaying often contradictory or seemingly absurd information. When orders were sent for civilians to evacuate many never received the orders and others refused to leave, not realizing how volatile and life-threatening Stanleyville would quickly become.
Interspersed are surreal war images such as a naked, young, dark girl lying on an officer's white sheets or captives being ordered to eat an American flag but not being able to chew it.
Once memos can't be quoted the events become much more readable and engrossing. Footnotes are fascinating with references such as Eartha Kitt calling the rescue of the hostages another example of whites killing blacks.
Aware and unaware of what is transpiring outside the prison/consulate/hotel walls, written from daily notes kept during the revolt. Hoyt documents his account, with reflection and trying to stay scrupulous about differences of opinion or memory.
From a consulate's viewpoint, the book is a careful documentation of political revolt.
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