Ireland's small army has taken on many peacekeeping missions since the Emergency, but Katanga was an early test of both its resolve and its courage. Shortly after the Congo gained independence from Belgium the resource-rich province of Katanga chose to secede. The United Nations decided to get involved in keeping the Congo intact (a situation which would be inconceivable today) and sent a peacekeeping force which was wholly inadequate to the job at hand... if, indeed, the UN had ever properly defined the job at hand. A small contingent of poorly-equipped Irish troops were committed to holding the militarily insignificant town of Jadotville and were soon under siege by local gendarmerie led by white mercenaries.
It's a fascinating book. Unfortunately, I couldn't get over the idea that, as a frame of reference, it talked about the Soviets sending a man to the moon in 1960 (!) and it makes me wonder how accurate the assessment of some of the political issues discussed were.
No comments:
Post a Comment