The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld

by Ravi Somaiya

Overview

Uncover the story behind the death of renowned diplomat and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in this true story of spies and intrigue surrounding one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. 

On September 17, 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld boarded a Douglas DC6 propeller plane on the sweltering tarmac of the airport in Leopoldville, the capital of the Congo. Hours later, he would be found dead in an African jungle with an ace of spades playing card placed on his body.

Hammarskjöld had been the head of the United Nations for nine years. He was legendary for his dedication to peace on earth. But dark forces circled him: Powerful and connected groups from an array of nations and organizations—including the CIA, the KGB, underground militant groups, business tycoons, and others—were determined to see Hammarskjöld fail.

A riveting work of investigative journalism based on never-before-seen evidence, recently revealed firsthand accounts, and groundbreaking new interviews, The Golden Thread reveals the truth behind one of the great murder mysteries of the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455536528
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	489,643
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ravi Somaiya was most recently a correspondent for the New York Times. He has written for the Guardian, Rolling Stone, and New York Magazine, among others, and has presented and produced documentaries for Vice and HBO. He has covered Islamic extremist terrorism, disinformation, mass shootings, Anonymous, and Wikileaks, among other long-running stories.

Table of Contents

Select Characters ix

Author's Note xi

Introduction: "When they killed him" 1

Part 1

Prologue: "Godzilla" 9

1 "That's independence" 23

2 "Swindled, cheated and abused" 33

3 "The galaxy of good and evil talents" 40

4 "The inevitable result will at best be chaos" 52

5 "You there! I am a witch" 60

6 "Very straightforward action" 70

7 "Stateless soldier of fortune" 77

8 "No half-measures" 80

9 "We are all dying" 88

10 "Ja må han leva" 94

11 "Overhead Ndola, descending, confirm" 97

12 "A light pinkish red" 100

13 "The ace of spades" 104

14 "Sparks, sparks in the sky" 111

Part 2

15 "Next of kin" 119

16 "Why, if it isn't that nice Mr. Smith" 125

17 "It was not a normal flying accident" 131

18 "Black hole" 137

19 "Position L" 143

20 "Other and more logical explanations" 150

21 "I have never been hit so hard in my life before" 156

22 "Oh my God, they've done it!" 161

23 "I need your help desperately on this" 167

24 "The truth about the events" 172

25 "Mr. X" 174

26 "If you refuse we have orders to use force" 180

27 "Cornered on a patch of gold" 185

28 "We are going to teach them" 190

29 "The page is gone" 195

30 "A state secret" 201

31 "Never believe anything until it is officially denied" 203

32 "I've hit it. There are flames" 207

33 "Kaleidoscope" 211

34 "Operation to be known as Celeste" 215

Part 3

35 "For repair of your tumble drier. Phone Nick on 970890" 225

36 "We did it" 231

37 "Flail chest" 235

38 "Buzzed" 241

39 "Other interference" 245

40 "He would return and attack again" 248

Epilogue 257

Acknowledgments 261

Source Notes 265

Index 277

About the Author 291

Editorial Reviews

"THE GOLDEN THREAD is as exciting as the best spy novels, with the enormous advantage of being completely true. Ravi Somaiya masterfully teases out the tangled strands of a Cold War mystery in a place where nothing and no one are quite what they seem. The result is a gripping book by a gifted writer and a dogged investigator."—Mitchell Zuckoff, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 13 Hours and Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11

"THE GOLDEN THREAD is one of the most gripping nonfiction books I've read in a very long time, a real-life thriller about the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General of the UN, in 1961. Somaiya is one of the country's best journalists, and he's used his prodigious reporting and researching skills to dig up some truly startling new information about the plane crash in the Congo that killed Hammarskjold and spawned an almost never-ending series of conspiracy theories. Somaiya does a masterful job sifting the evidence and building a case of murder. This is a fabulous page turner. I highly recommend it."—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence

"Ravi Somaiya's brilliant unwrapping of the mystery surrounding Hammarskjold's death will convert the reader into an avid investigator the moment they pick up this book! A compelling read -- filled with revelations and written in a style that's clean and fast-paced, THE GOLDEN THREAD also raises key questions before governments who still act suspiciously: Why? What are you hiding exactly? At its heart, the book lays bare not only Hammarskjold's undoubted heroism and the sad realities of the Congo in the 1960s (many features of which regrettably persist to this day), but also the stark dilemmas that beset the UN, when principle falls neatly into the cross-hairs of power."—Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN Human Rights Chief (2014-2018) and UN peacekeeper (1994-1996)

"[An] impressive debut...This is an eye-opening account that could lead to renewed public interest in this tragedy."—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Fans of novelists such as Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, as well as military history and true crime enthusiasts, will find much to enjoy about this riveting read."—Library Journal

"[A] gripping account of Hammarskjöld's death and the ensuing search for the truth about what happened to him."—InsideHook

"One of the mysteries I've long been fascinated by, and am so grateful that Ravi Somaiya has cracked it open so brilliantly."—David Grann

"This taut investigative history...all but proves the role of foul play."—The New Yorker

"...an adroitly written, compelling book. If Mr. Somaiya doesn’t deliver a final solution to the mystery—who could?—he leads the reader through the tangled brush to the most likely explanation. It’s unlikely that a definitive answer to the mystery will ever materialize. Mr. Somaiya’s fascinating book is the best proxy we can expect."—Wall Street Journal

"A tour de force of a real-life murder mystery."—Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

★ 05/25/2020

What caused the 1961 plane crash that killed UN Secretary-General Hammarskjöld, who was attempting at the time to end a war in the Congo? Though the official accounts identified either pilot error or accident as having been responsible, investigative journalist Somaiya, a former New York Times correspondent, lays out the evidence suggesting foul play in his impressive debut. Somaiya disarms conspiracy skeptics at the outset, quoting Harry Truman, who stated two days after the crash that the Swedish diplomat “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him.” Hammarskjöld had devoted himself to peacefully resolving a conflict that began in 1960 after the resource-rich province of Katanga seceded from the Congo, leading Congolese President Patrice Lumumba to request the UN’s military assistance to reunite his country. The secretary-general was flying to attend a peace summit when his aircraft crashed. Somaiya amasses evidence indicating that the plane was shot down, including witnesses who saw and heard two planes close together, and assesses the potential culpability of a wide range of possible suspects, including Katangese mercenary forces and transnational white supremacists. Though Somaiya doesn’t claim to have solved the mystery, open-minded readers are likely to conclude that he raises questions that merit further inquiry. This is an eye-opening account that could lead to renewed public interest in this tragedy. Agent: Kristine Dahl, ICM Partners. (July)

Publishers Weekly

05/22/2020

Equal parts true crime, spy thriller, and work of international political intrigue, this thought-provoking work explores the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat and the second secretary general of the United Nations. In 1961, Hammarskjöld's DC-6 plane crashed in Northern Rhodesia while he was on his way to engage in cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis. A variety of theories have emerged as to why the plane went down, from a simple accident on the part of the pilot to KGB involvement. Journalist Somaiya sorts through a tangled web of conspiracy to identify what investigators dubbed "the golden thread"—the most likely chain of events that led to the plane crash. Though official confirmation remains tantalizingly out of reach, Somaiya and the individuals he covers zero in on the developments that likely brought down the plane, Hammarskjöld, and the majority of those traveling with him. Readers will also get a strong grounding in local and regional politics in the Republic of the Congo and the international interests and Cold War pressures brought to bear on the local crisis. VERDICT Fans of novelists such as Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, as well as military history and true crime enthusiasts, will find much to enjoy about this riveting read.—Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado

Library Journal

2020-05-18
A web of intrigue surrounds a mysterious plane crash that killed the U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961.

On Sept. 18, 1961, Hammarskjöld died in a crash during a mission to the Congo to mediate a vicious war that had intensified since 1960. Journalist Somaiya, a former correspondent for the New York Timesand contributor to the Guardian, among other venues, draws on interviews and government archives to create a tense narrative that reveals the “web of seasoned, brutal spies and assassins,” dirty deals, and ferocious hatreds that, he argues compellingly, led to the downing of the plane. Hammarskjöld, the author discovered, was caught in the crosshairs of geopolitical conflict. Russia hated him “as an agent of the West,” and the West hated him for “opening the door to Russia in the Congo.” The Congolese blamed him for the death of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first prime minister, whom Hammarskjöld had tried to protect. The Belgians, who since the time of King Leopold had ruthlessly exploited the Congo and oppressed its populace, hated Hammarskjöld, as well, because he opposed the secession of a mineral-rich region from the rest of the country. After the crash, the wreckage was examined by Rhodesians, who hated the U.N. Although the official verdict maintained that the crash had been an accident, over the years, “a band of ingenious devotees” disputed that conclusion. Theories abounded: that there had been a hijacker aboard, that a mercenary plane had attacked it, even that Hammarskjöld caused the crash in order to commit suicide. Finally, in 2014, the U.N. appointed Mohamed Chaude Othman, a Tanzanian judge, to reexamine the case, and although logs—and the airport manager—had conveniently disappeared, his evidence, added to Somaiya’s research, led the author to conclude that the plane did succumb to an aerial attack, orchestrated by one or many of the parties that desperately wanted Hammarskjöld gone.

A vivid recounting of an international tragedy.

Kirkus Reviews