(10. Aug 2000) The evidence comes in a previously unpublished 1975 interview with the minute-taker at an August 1960 White House meeting of Eisenhower and his national security advisers on the Congo crisis.

The minute-taker, Robert Johnson, said in the interview that he vividly recalled the president turning to Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, „in the full hearing of all those in attendance, and saying something to the effect that Lumumba should be eliminated“.

Mr Johnson recalled: „There was stunned silence for about 15 seconds and the meeting continued.“