The Coup
by
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Walsh believed that this was going to be his only chance of swaying Ambassador Stanton to his position.
“The Reds want to flex their muscles on this continent. We need to keep them out of this region. Liberia is the key. The Soviets are probably ready to send in their Cuban puppets anytime now to destabilize the country. We don’t want another situation like Angola where we waited too long before deciding to do something.” Walsh had personally recruited Jonas Savimbi into the U.S. program and indirectly managed the liaison with him in the early days when Washington supported UNITA against the Soviet supported MPLA. Angola was already split off in too many directions and on its way to becoming a long term bloody mess. Langley did not want the same thing happening in Liberia. “The Soviets would like nothing better than to use the continent for their international efforts at Third World destabilization so they can spread Marxism. We need to keep Liberia and this region out of their sphere.”
Walsh knew that Stanton was well aware of all this but had to be reminded. Stanton had gone from a CIA field officer fighting international communism to an academician, and now to a diplomat, a direct representative of a president who is soft on communism. Walsh felt in his heart that Stanton agreed with everything he had just said. But he knew that legally Stanton had to carry out the foreign policy of the president of the United States.
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About the Book
In 1980, the world is teetering on the edge of darkness. The president of the Republic of Liberia, Charles Dunbar Cooper, is preparing to sign a treaty with the Soviet Union that will remove the presence of America in West Africa and signal the continued spread of Communism on the continent—an event that both American and European intelligence agents are working to prevent.
CIA officer Tom Walsh is used to traveling to Monrovia as an undercover journalist who collects sensitive information—but Walsh knows this trip will be unlike any before. Assigned to an operation with French intelligence agent Yvette Dubois to prevent the Soviet takeover of Liberia, Walsh knows they are under the gun. With just days to organize key members of the Liberian government and army and stop President Cooper from traveling to Moscow, Walsh and Dubois soon find nothing is going as planned.
One of their key players is assassinated while another is arrested and charged in a series of ritual murders. During a demonstration in the capital protesting the government crackdown on human rights, both civilians and soldiers are killed. The government foils an attempted coup and then must defend itself against another.
As the oldest republic and the most stable government on the African continent tumbles headlong into a maelstrom of nightmare and chaos, sucking in everything within its radius, two spies face the mission of their lives, leaving them to wonder if either will make it out alive.
About the Author
John Charles Gifford taught high school for twenty-eight years in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and presently resides in Brossard, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. He served in the US Peace Corps in Liberia during the events depicted in this novel. This is his second book.