Senior Fellow for History and Foreign Policy at @CFR_org. Author of The Lumumba Plot. Formerly of @ForeignAffairs.
Joined July 2009
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Today's the day: you can now buy my book, THE LUMUMBA PLOT, wherever you get your books. It's a spy thriller, a biography, and a history all in one. It took me five years, so I hope you enjoy it! penguinrandomhouse.com/books…
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
I recently finished @stuartareid’s “The Lumumba Plot”
The product of extensive research, it sets the stage for Congo’s story in 1960-1961 superbly well. Disturbing, fascinating, & reflective throughout- weaving the local, international, & personal together in a compelling arc 📖
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
I could not more highly recommend @stuartareid's "The Lumumba Plot" which tells the story of the CIA's effort to assassinate the Congolese independence leader who is honored by this iconic World Cup fan.
You won't regret buying it -- >
bookshop.org/p/books/the-lum…
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
One of the coolest things during #SemaforWorldEconomy was the library in the green room with books from our verticals. The Africa section had @hofrench as only author with three of his recent books on display. Also @DoubleEph/@FolaFagbule and @stuartareid among others.
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
Two CIA assassins unwittingly met and befriended each other in Leopoldville, Congo in 1960 while both men were planning to kill or capture Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Jose Mankel was a native of Luxembourg and member of the French Resistance during WWII. After the war he turned to criminal activities and was arrested for illegally exporting nickel ore. He was recruited by CIA and given the cryptonym QJWIN/1 following his release from prison.
David Tzitzichvili was born in Georgia but grew up in Paris. He served in the French Foreign Legion at the beginning of the war but later opened a photography shop in occupied Paris. He was a natural risk-taker who turned to forgery and resistance work, and lost parts of two fingers to unexploded ordnance. He was imprisoned by the Abwehr and sent to a concentration camp but was saved by the Allies near the end of the war. Years later he was recruited by CIA, received plastic surgery to change his appearance, and given the cryptonym WIROGUE/1.
Both men were sent separately to Leopoldville in 1960 to assist with ongoing plots against Lumumba. While there, they both inadvertently booked rooms at the Hotel Astrid (now called Hotel Estoril). Mankel and Tzitzichvili struck up a conversation in the hotel and soon realized they both had backgrounds in the French resistance during the war, and in criminal activities afterwards. Tzitzichvili then tried to recruit Mankel for his own action cell, offering him $300 a month. He was unaware Mankel was already there for the same purpose and was being paid $1,000 a month by CIA station chief Larry Devlin.
Ultimately the agency’s plots did not move forward (one of which included a biological weapon in a tube of toothpaste, created and delivered by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb) as Lumumba was too well guarded at the time. But Lumumba was later arrested and killed by Belgian troops with his remains completely destroyed except for a single tooth.
This incredible story appears in The Lumumba Plot by @stuartareid, who I interviewed for episode 117 of the Spycraft 101 podcast.
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
"A Brussels court this month ordered Étienne Davignon, a 93-year-old former Belgian diplomat, to stand trial for war crimes related to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of Congo. Human rights groups cheered. The Lumumba family called it 'the beginning of a reckoning that history has long demanded.' After decades of equivocation, Belgium finally seemed willing to confront its colonial past. If only it were so simple," writes CFR expert @stuartareid for @nytimes. nytimes.com/2026/03/26/opini…
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was the 1st democratically elected leader of Congo. The US and Belgium assassinated him. "No one apart from the Congolese people has ever paid a price". There are few more beautiful and tragic places. By @stuartareid
nytimes.com/2026/03/26/opini…
My latest in The New York Times: putting a 93-year-old Belgian diplomat on trial for Patrice Lumumba's assassination may look like justice. It isn’t.
The real story is bigger—and still largely unreckoned with.
nytimes.com/2026/03/26/opini…
I joined @goldkorn on the Rhyming Chaos podcast to talk about Congo’s chaotic independence, Lumumba, Mobutu, the CIA—and even the Trump administration's interest in covert action in Venezuela. Episode: rhymingchaos.com/p/the-cia-p…
Why did America consider Patrice Lumumba so menacing that it tried to assassinate him? Why did it take so long for the CIA's role in his death to come to light?
I answered those questions, and many others, in an interview with @SashaIngber for the @IntlSpyMuseum:
A new SpyCast episode is out now! 🚨
It's 1960 in the Congo, a democratic leader turns to Moscow after the US refuses to help. The CIA's response? Assassination.
💻 Watch here: youtu.be/8BEtDpHtPIQ
🎧 Listen here: spymuseum.org/podcast/
The Congo was just gaining its independence from Belgium when its first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, faced an existential crisis: mutiny in his new army, followed by an unwelcome intervention by Belgian forces. Lumumba had hoped the US would help, but when Washington turned its back, Lumumba turned to Moscow. And so began a CIA operation to assassinate the leader and stop the feared spread of Communism in Africa. In this episode, SpyCast Host @SashaIngber discusses the assassination and its impact with @stuartareid, author of The Lumumba Plot.
#SpyCast #Congo #CIA #ColdWar
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
One of the most powerful, secretive businessmen who helped forge Mobutu's Zaire, is gone: Maurice Tempelsman, Diamond Magnate and Jackie Onassis’s Companion, Dies at 95 nytimes.com/2025/08/25/busin…
Congratulations to @edwardfishman for his new book, CHOKEPOINTS. I meant what I said in my blurb!
A wild story from @yaffaesque in this week's New Yorker about Roman Chervinsky, the alleged architect of the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage operation: newyorker.com/magazine/2025/…
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
Why have sanctions on Russia disappointed? It's a tragic story spanning four presidents—where defeat was repeatedly snatched from the jaws of victory.
Excited to share the first adapted essay from "Chokepoints"—out tomorrow!—in @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/internationa…
Listen to @today_explained to hear @michelawrong talk about the conflict in Congo today—and yours truly talk about the CIA meddling of yesterday. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
Smart piece by @edwardfishman on Trump and the age of economic warfare: wsj.com/economy/trade/the-wo…
Thank you @tylercowen for your kind words about The Lumumba Plot: "For whatever reason, there are more good books about the Congo than most other parts of Africa. This is one of them."
Stuart A. Reid retweeted
As a former Park City employee, I wrote what it's like to work at a major ski resort, and how big business is making the sport worse. theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
