With no serious institutions in the form of legislature, judiciary, the opposition, or civil society to check his power, Mobutu presided over a “stable” Zaire for three uninterrupted decades ...

Carter’s staff asked me to join the trip to Mobutu’s palace in Gbadolite, Zaire. I watched Mobutu turn the summit into a farce. Eighteen months later, Rwanda overthrew him, installed a new ...