Zaire Quotes
This is a common rejoinder of third world country leaders to accusations of Western democracies about corruption. And doubtless it is true. However temptation has never been a good defense of improper behavior.
Guevara and Cuban revolutionaries had gone to the Congo to “assist” with their revolution, but cultural differences between the two groups of revolutionaries nullified any assistance that the Cubans could give.
There was no semblance of democracy on Zaire. When he was more candid, Mobutu opposed democracy for Africa. See {628027}.
Corruption was rife in the Congo before the French or Belgians ever arrived there. However, it is the case that French business and diplomatic culture is much more tolerant of third world corruption than most other industrial democracies and actively engage in bribery efforts to a degree that other nations do not.
He was justifying the millions he was spending on state official functions when most of the people were in abject poverty. He didn’t know his people well enough. They overthrew him and sent him into exile.
At the same time he was stealing billions from the public coffers.
Bush was the head of the CIA when his agency helped Mobuto overthrow and murder pro Communist Patrice Lumumba. Bush was right about Mobuto being an anti-Communist, but he was also one of the most corrupt rulers of any country in the world and an abuser of human rights as bad as the worst communists. However, American foreign policy then supported human rights violators, dictatorships and kleptocracies—as long as the country would be stable and anti-Communist.
This was not original with Mobuto. It came from an famous legal opinion in a California case. See {584276}
The coup which deposed and then murdered Patrice Lumumba had the help of the American CIA and French Army. Lumumba was a Marxist and Mobutu appeared to be an anti-Communist. The corruption under Lumumba was typical of most African counties but Lumumba himself was an ideologue and but not personally dishonest. Under Mobuto, the Congo—renamed Zaire—became the most corrupt nation on earth, and Mobuto, one of the richest men in the world. Everything he complained of to justify is coup, he himself was guilty of when he consolidated power—moreso than any other 20th century world leader.
