Diamonds and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba

A major player immediately involved in the coup attempts against
Nkrumah was CIA operative and DeBeers emissary Maurice
Tempelsman (who was romantically linked with Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis until her death and is today linked with the former Secretary
of State Madeline Albright).
Following the first unsuccessful coup attempt against Nkrumah, the
popular young anti-colonial leader Patrice Lumumba was elected prime
minister in Congo. Like Nkrumah, Lumumba was committed to his
promise that the resources of Congo would benefit the workers and
peasants. 
During this period Congo was very important to DeBeers, because a
third of the world’s known diamond supply was located there. This was
during the Cold War and the U.S. was stockpiling industrial diamonds
needed for airplanes and armaments. 
The U.S. could not deal directly with DeBeers because they had
indicted the diamond cartel during the second world war for violating
U.S. anti-trust laws. Maurice Tempelsman became the middleman for
DeBeers, supplying millions of dollars worth of diamonds to the U.S.
from Congolese mines on the behalf of DeBeers.

As soon as the courageous and much-loved Lumumba took office in
1960 he made it clear that Congo’s resources were for African people.
Tempelsman immediately began working under the Kennedy
administration to plot the U.S. and Belgian assassination of Lumumba
which took place in January 1961, just months after his election.