Mobutu or Chaos? : The United States and Zaire, 1960-1990

Mobutu or Chaos? is the latest product of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's study on 'friendly tyrants.' Like its predecessors, it tackles the thorny question of how to deal with the pro-U.S. authoritarian regimes that have bedeviled U.S. foreign policy for the better part of forty years. The book chronicles the U.S. relations with Mobutu from their beginnings in the sixties when support for the ruler was justifiable by higher goals, through to the present when the degeneration of his regime into incompetence and severe brutality raises new questions both practical and moral as to the justification of continued relations.

This volume is important to all those interested in Zaire, Africa, and the general workings of U.S. foreign policy. Co-published with the Foreign Policy Research Institute.