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Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness
Captive in the Congo A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness Author:Michael P. E. Hoyt 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 courag... more »e 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.« less