The brutal beatings of Acting U.N. Katanga Chief George Ivan Smith and Special Adviser Brian Urquhart (TIME, Dec. 8) had already left the U.N. soldiers tense, angry, and spoiling for a fight.

Object Details Maker Luba artist Label Text Few sites in Africa yielded as large a supply of copper ore as the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to its scarcity, the "red" ...

The mineral-rich southeastern province of Katanga in preindependence days supplied 60% of the revenue of the Congo government and most of the wealth the Belgians drew from the colony.