By Ijoma Robert Flemister, irflem@msn.com
The Coup d’Etat of 1980 was the result of failed negotiations between the United States/NATO and the group of African leaders (Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal and William Richard Tolbert of Liberia) who has sought a trade accomodation/agreement with the United States for an Executive Chairman of the OAU to manage Africa’s natural resources and commodities via commodity cartels.
Throughout 1978-1979 there were extensive planning and discussions around the then Uruguay Round of GATT, which involved President Tolbert taking the lead in the discussions. In 1979 there was a high level and quiet conference of Africa’s Finance Ministers convened at Ducor Hotel to establish Africa’s position on the intracies of the commodity cartels. President Tolbert assigned me to observe the deliberations of the conference. Note that the main reson for USA President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Nigera and then subquently to Liberia was to hold face-to-face talks with the leadres of Nigeria and Liberia. I was on the official high level Liberian delegation that sat with President Tolbert during the discussion with President Carter.
The details submitted by President Carter involved a cash allotment to Liberia (President Tolbert??) of 100million usd, Liberia granting military base rights in Grand Gedeh, and the CIA command and control in Liberia be extended to also monitoring Libya’s and the Arab League’s activities in Africa. By January 1980, President Tolbert specifically said to me, “Ijoma, as long as I am President of Liberia and Chairman of the OAU they can not have a military base in West Africa.” But Presidents Tolbert, Senghor and Toure continued to insist on the implementation of the commodity cartels.
So now, let’s analyze the results.
(1) After the saga of the Arab Oil Embargo against the United States, there evolved a situation where the national security apparatus of the United States saw President Tolbert as a threat to the seurity of the United States. President Carter initialized security directives againt President Tolbert and President Reagan subsequently implement those directives.
(2) It is clear thet Liberians DID NOT carry out the assasination of President Tolbert. Remember what First Lady Victoria Tolbert recounted that there were white skinned men in masks who came into the Executive Mansion.
(3) For the first two days after the Coup, the BTC Post Stockade was under the command of American English accent men. I was there.
(4) Note that President Tolbert was due to visit Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) on Monday, April 14, 1980 to codify the impending independence of that nation. President Tolbert had worked with Dr Henry Kissinger on the detail of the independence. The USA had to act quickly to interrupt President Tolbert’s trip to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). If President Tolbert had be succesful in the independence issues, he would have been untouchable – by British acceptance. Remember who all receive the Nobel Peace Prize regarding the independence of that nation that is stilled governed by Presient Mugabe. I sat in on the confidential negotiations held in the Executive Mansion in Monrovia, and also sat in on many of the meetings between President Tolbert and Dr Kissinger.
(5) Note that President Senghor, who was President Tolbert’s Vice Chairman of the OAU, was forced to resign as President of Senegal within a year after the Liberian Coup. President Toure, was slated to be the first Executive Chair of the OAU, never became Chair of the OAU inspite of all the OAU preparations in Guinea. President Toure subsequently died at the Cleveland Heart Clinic in the USA.
(6) Note that United States Secretary of State George Shultz subquently initialized the CIA command and control operations in Liberia by visiting Liberia several times, confidentially, during the early days of the PRC.
(7) Note that the United States had yet never had a southern Atlantic military base until the advent of AfriComm, which even now is managed from Stuttgart, Germany. I recently met in Columbus, Ohio with the AfriComm Operations Commander.
Mr. Editor, the United States executed a PERFECT “Hidden Hands” operation in staging the background and action of the Liberia Coup d”Etat of 1980. The rest is history!
Best regards,
Ijoma Robert Flemister,
Focus on liberia 