WITH A LOSS TO THE INSURGENTS OF NINETEEN (19) KIA AND FOURTEEN (14) WIA, ALL OF THE LATTER BEING TAKEN PRISONER. THERE WERE NO FRIENDLY KIA OR WIA. THE REMAINDER OF THE INSURGENT FORCE ATTACKING THE POWER PLANT RETREATED INTO THE BUSH.
6. AT 0630 A FORCE OF ONE HUNDRED (100) CONGOLESE AND FORTY (40) MERCENARIES BEGAN TO PURSUE FROM BENDERA THE BULK OF THE INSURGENT FORCE WHO ALSO RETREATED INTO THE BUSH.
7. A SEARCH OF THE KIA ESTABLISHED FROM IDENTITY DOCUMENTS THAT FOUR (4) WERE CUBAN, AND AN ADDITIONAL THREE (3) WERE PROBABLY CUBAN. A DIARY RECOVERED FROM THE BODY OF SERGEANT EDUARDO TORRES FERRER TRACED IN DETAIL HIS MOVEMENT AND THAT OF CAPTAIN VICTOR DREKE AND OTHERS FROM PITA CAMP #1 IN CUBA TO THE CONGO VIA PRAGUE, CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND DAR ES SALAAM, TANGANYIKA. THE IDENTITY DOCUMENTS OF ALL CONFIRMED CUBANS AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEIR CORPSES ARE IN THE HANDS OF MAJOR LUNSFORD PENDING INSTRUCTIONS.
8. INTERCEPTED RADIO MESSAGE FROM CAPTAIN VICTOR DREKE IN BUSH NEAR BENDERA TO GUEVERA AT LULUPLAT REPORTED FAILURE OF ATTACK, AND SAID THAT ONCE FIRING STARTED, MANY RWANDANS HAD FLED ABANDONING THEIR WEAPONS, AND MANY CONGOLESE INSURGENTS HAD REFUSED TO FIGHT AT ALL.
9. INTERCEPTED RADIO-TELETYPE MESSAGE FROM GUEVARA IN LULUPLAT TO CUBAN EMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM RELAYED REPORT OF FAILED ATTACK AND STATED GUEVARA’S POSITION THAT IF COLONEL LAURANCE MUNDANDI HAD NOT DENIED HIM PERMISSION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ATTACK “EVEN AS POLITICAL COMMISSAR” THE ATTACK WOULD HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AS HE “COULD HAVE INSPIRED REVOLUTIONARY FERVOR IN THE ATTACKERS. ” COMPLETE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE EIGHT (8) MESSAGES WILL BE FURNISHED AS AVAILABLE.
10. COLONEL SUPO BELIEVES (LUNSFORD CONCURS) THAT COMPLETE ANNIHILATION OF RETREATING INSURGENT FORCE WOULD BE LESS PRODUCTIVE THAN PERMITTING FORTY TO FIFTY (40 TO 50) PERCENT OF FORCE TO RETURN TO LULUPLAT, AS THIS WILL INSURE NEWS OF DEFEAT WILL QUICKLY SPREAD THROUGHOUT BOTH INSURGENT COMMUNITY AND NATIVE POPULATION AND IS PROCEEDING ACCORDINGLY.
C.R. TAYLOR
STATION CHIEF LÉOPOLDVILLE
TOP SECRET
“You’ve seen that, right, Felter?” the President asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“What would you have me do, Mr. President?” the Secretary asked.
“If we told your man Taylor right now to get those identity documents, the diary, and the pictures of the dead Cubans here, how long would that take?” Then he saw the smile on the Director’s face. “Did I say something funny?”
“Mr. President, my ‘man’ in the Congo is actually a woman,” the Director said.
“Really? I’ll be damned! And how does she get along with Major Lunsford?”
“Sir, there is every indication that Major Lunsford and Miss Taylor are working very well together,” Felter said.
“How long?” the President said.
“Well, sir, material of that sort has to be handled carefully,” the Secretary said. “If there is a State Department courier in Léopoldville, or the area, it would be approximately twenty-four hours from the time he received the material until he could deliver it here.”
“And if there’s not a State Department courier handy?” the President asked. There was a tone of impatience in his voice.
“Then add, sir, the time it would take to get a courier to Léopoldville, from wherever we locate one, to that twenty-four hours.”
“That’s bullshit!” the President snapped. “Christ, how many officers do we have in Léopoldville right now? What’s wrong with, say, one of the military officers, the military attaché, bringing it here?”
“That could be done, I’m sure, Mr. President,” the Secretary said.
“Then do it. And no more than twenty-four hours after we have a look at those documents, to make sure we’re not being sucker-punched, I want you—you, personally—doing a Joe McCarthy at the United Nations.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
The President stood up, waving imaginary papers over his head in his hand.
“I have in my hand here proof that the Cubans are in the Congo,” he said, “stirring up trouble, attacking the legal government of the Congo, and that—despite the repeated denials of the government of Tanganyika—they are doing so with the approval and support of the government of Tanganyika.”
He looked at everybody triumphantly, then added: “The difference between you and Senator McCarthy, of course, will be that we do have the goddamn proof. Major Lunsford got it for us.”
The President sat down.
“I’d like to think about that a moment, Mr. President,” the Secretary said uneasily.
The President looked at Felter.
“For Christ’s sake, Felter, don’t tell me that you, of all goddamned people, agree with him?”
“Sir, it’s not my position to offer—”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea to take this diary, the ID cards, all of it to the UN? Yes or no, goddamnit! Your position, Colonel, is whatever