Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
About the Author:
Michael Hoyt spent twenty-five years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, heading four posts and serving as human rights counselor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Now a consultant, he lives and writes in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
FROM THE CRITICS
Journal of Military History
"...a gripping story of the first hostage crisis in modern American
diplomacy...reads like a novel...a vivid account of terrorism."
Albuquerque Sunday Journal
"...well-written account of this first seizure of American diplomats
[who] were keenly aware that they not only might be executed, but also
eaten."
Booknews
Provides a first-person account of the 1964 seizure of the American consulate staff and their 111 days of captivity at the hands of Congolese rebels. Hoyt, who served in the US Foreign Service for 25 years, chronicles the hostages' day-by-day ordeal as rebels held them in confinement at the central prison in Stanleyville and elsewhere, including a women's toilet in an airport terminal. Hoyt now teaches college-level African history courses in New Mexico. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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