The Golden Thread

Starred review from May 25, 2020
What caused the 1961 plane crash that killed UN Secretary-General Hammarskjöld, who was attempting at the time to end a war in the Congo? Though the official accounts identified either pilot error or accident as having been responsible, investigative journalist Somaiya, a former New York Times correspondent, lays out the evidence suggesting foul play in his impressive debut. Somaiya disarms conspiracy skeptics at the outset, quoting Harry Truman, who stated two days after the crash that the Swedish diplomat “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him.” Hammarskjöld had devoted himself to peacefully resolving a conflict that began in 1960 after the resource-rich province of Katanga seceded from the Congo, leading Congolese President Patrice Lumumba to request the UN’s military assistance to reunite his country. The secretary-general was flying to attend a peace summit when his aircraft crashed. Somaiya amasses evidence indicating that the plane was shot down, including witnesses who saw and heard two planes close together, and assesses the potential culpability of a wide range of possible suspects, including Katangese mercenary forces and transnational white supremacists. Though Somaiya doesn’t claim to have solved the mystery, open-minded readers are likely to conclude that he raises questions that merit further inquiry. This is an eye-opening account that could lead to renewed public interest in this tragedy. Agent: Kristine Dahl, ICM Partners.

May 22, 2020

Equal parts true crime, spy thriller, and work of international political intrigue, this thought-provoking work explores the death of Dag Hammarskj�ld, a Swedish diplomat and the second secretary general of the United Nations. In 1961, Hammarskj�ld's DC-6 plane crashed in Northern Rhodesia while he was on his way to engage in cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis. A variety of theories have emerged as to why the plane went down, from a simple accident on the part of the pilot to KGB involvement. Journalist Somaiya sorts through a tangled web of conspiracy to identify what investigators dubbed "the golden thread"--the most likely chain of events that led to the plane crash. Though official confirmation remains tantalizingly out of reach, Somaiya and the individuals he covers zero in on the developments that likely brought down the plane, Hammarskj�ld, and the majority of those traveling with him. Readers will also get a strong grounding in local and regional politics in the Republic of the Congo and the international interests and Cold War pressures brought to bear on the local crisis. VERDICT Fans of novelists such as Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, as well as military history and true crime enthusiasts, will find much to enjoy about this riveting read.--Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2020
A web of intrigue surrounds a mysterious plane crash that killed the U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskj�ld in 1961. On Sept. 18, 1961, Hammarskj�ld died in a crash during a mission to the Congo to mediate a vicious war that had intensified since 1960. Journalist Somaiya, a former correspondent for the New York Times and contributor to the Guardian, among other venues, draws on interviews and government archives to create a tense narrative that reveals the "web of seasoned, brutal spies and assassins," dirty deals, and ferocious hatreds that, he argues compellingly, led to the downing of the plane. Hammarskj�ld, the author discovered, was caught in the crosshairs of geopolitical conflict. Russia hated him "as an agent of the West," and the West hated him for "opening the door to Russia in the Congo." The Congolese blamed him for the death of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first prime minister, whom Hammarskj�ld had tried to protect. The Belgians, who since the time of King Leopold had ruthlessly exploited the Congo and oppressed its populace, hated Hammarskj�ld, as well, because he opposed the secession of a mineral-rich region from the rest of the country. After the crash, the wreckage was examined by Rhodesians, who hated the U.N. Although the official verdict maintained that the crash had been an accident, over the years, "a band of ingenious devotees" disputed that conclusion. Theories abounded: that there had been a hijacker aboard, that a mercenary plane had attacked it, even that Hammarskj�ld caused the crash in order to commit suicide. Finally, in 2014, the U.N. appointed Mohamed Chaude Othman, a Tanzanian judge, to reexamine the case, and although logs--and the airport manager--had conveniently disappeared, his evidence, added to Somaiya's research, led the author to conclude that the plane did succumb to an aerial attack, orchestrated by one or many of the parties that desperately wanted Hammarskj�ld gone. A vivid recounting of an international tragedy.

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