Daphne Park: Difference between revisions

From 1959 to 1961 she was Consul and First Secretary to [[Kinshasa|Léopoldville]], which in practice meant being head of MI6 there. British parliamentarian [[David Lea, Baron Lea of Crondall|David Lea]] wrote that shortly before she died, she claimed to have been involved organising the abduction and murder of [[Patrice Lumumba]] during the [[Congo Crisis]]. Park (allegedly) confided to Lea that the reasoning behind the assassination was MI6 fears that Lumumba would hand over the high-value [[Katanga Province|Katangese]] [[uranium]] ([[Shinkolobwe]]) deposits as well as the diamonds and other important minerals largely located in the secessionist eastern state of Katanga to the [[Soviet Union|Russians]].<ref>[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n07/letters Letters, ''We did it''], ''London Review of Books'', Vol. 35 No. 7, 11 April 2013</ref> The Shinkolobwe uranium mine provided the uranium used by the [[Manhattan Project]], including in [[Nuclear weapons|atomic bombs]] dropped on the Japanese cities [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945]].<ref name = "WP">Compare:{{cite news|last= McCrummen|first= Stephanie|title= Nearly Forgotten Forces of WWII|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302959.html|agency= Washington Post Foreign Service|date= 4 August 2009|work= [[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> She rose further through the ranks of the Foreign Office to beserve in the [[British High CommissionerCommission]] toin [[Lusaka]] from 1964 to 1967 and then [[Consul-General]] to [[Hanoi]] from 1969 to 1970. In 1972 she was named as [[Chargé d'Affaires]] of the British Embassy of [[Ulan Bator]] for several months. From 1973 onwards she served in the Foreign Office then retired two years early in 1979 to become Principal of Somerville College, Oxford.<ref name="DT" />