CIA Provided Mad Mad Mike Hoare “logistic Support and Air Cover” in the Congo

A former CIA whom I have known for years and trust implicitly, wrote the following: “He (referring to Hoare) worked for us for several years in the Congo, quite successful! We provided the logistical support and air cover for him. The results were good despite the small number of troops involved. We also had a French speaking battalion there, under the command of Bob Denard, doing something similar. Between the two units, the Congo’s subsequent history was changed for the better.”

Another retired CIA employee who was active in the Congo during Hoare’s tour wrote:  I believe the appelation, “gentleman adventurer”, describing Hoare, is attributable to Larry Devlin, who as you must know, was the Chief of Station all those years.  Many years later, Larry told me that they became lifelong friends and visited every year that Hoare resided in Southern France (after release from three years in the hoosegow, following the Seychelles fiasco).  If I recall correctly, Larry’s wife was French and they had a place nearby Hoare’s.

Background

In 1964-1965 Colonel Mike Hoare led 300 ‘Wild Geese’ across the Congo to crush a communist rebellion, rescue 2000 nuns and priests from barbarity, beat Che Guevara … and become a legend.

Of Irish blood, Mike was schooled in England and, during World War 2, was the ‘best bloody soldier in the British Army’. He demobbed as major, qualified in London as a chartered accountant and emigrated to South Africa.

Going rogue, he started living dangerously to get more out of life, including trans-Africa motorbike trips, bluewater sailing, exploring remote areas, and leading safaris in the Kalahari Desert. Here Mike got to know the CIA agent who was to change his life … and Nelson Mandela’s. Later Mike was technical advisor to the film The Wild Geese, which starred Richard Burton playing the Mike Hoare character.

In 1981 Mike led 50 ‘Frothblowers’ in a bid to depose the socialist government of the Seychelles. Things went wrong and soon Mike was to spend three years in jail for hijacking a Boeing 707.

SOF In an interview with Chris Hoare:

1. What was it like growing up with a ‘hired killer’ in the house?
2. Most people agree Mike was an officer and a gentleman. Some have called him a gentleman adventurer. Whatever, there was a bit of pirate thrown in, but certainly growing up I never saw any sign of the pirate. He had a big reputation in military circles for being a disciplinarian, but at home that was not the case. He did not believe in corporal punishment – I never received a beating from him. Nor, incidentally, did he believe in capital punishment – especially after his experience in Pretoria Central Prison, where the executions were carried out at dawn not far from his building.

1. What were some of the non-military adventures Mike went on?
2. When Mike arrived in Africa in 1948, he espoused the then popular philosophy that you get more out of life by living dangerously. His adventures including riding a motorbike from Cape Town to Cairo (1953) and Africa from east to west (1954); pioneering a road across the high mountains of Basutoland (now Lesotho); running safaris across the Kalahari Desert to the Okavango delta; looking for the Lost City of the Kalahari; searching for a mysterious ape in Nyasaland (now Malawi). And plenty of bluewater sailing adventures.

1. How did Mike come to be employed as a mercenary leader in the Congo?
2. This is extraordinary. One of the men who went on safari with Mike in 1959 just happened to be a CIA agent based in Durban, South Africa. He and Mike became best friends, and soon Mike started to believe that the Reds were going to grab hold of the Congo and gain control of every country to the south. Mike did not want his children to grow up speaking Russian, and when the Congo sought military assistance, Mike put his hand up, encouraged by the CIA.

1. What would you say was the high point of his life?
2. Mike was employed in the Congo in 1964 to drive out the communist rebels. After Stanleyville, he was asked, even begged, to rescue the 2000 nuns and priests who were being held hostage and horribly abused in a large area around the city. Mike personally went on every raid behind enemy lines to free the hostages. This was his finest hour, even though sometimes the missionaries had suffered terrible deaths before Mike and his Wild Geese arrived to rescue them.

1. Is it true that Mike, the hero of the right, met Che Guevara, the hero of the left, in battle in the Congo.
2. Che Guevara arrived in the Congo in April 1965 to train the local rebels.Mike said that the CIA had warned him that Che Guevara was around, and some say Guevara himself was at the battle of Baraka. There is certainly evidence that some of his Cubans were at the battle of Baraka. Whatever, it is true that after about six months in the Congo, Guevara slunk away with his tail between his legs; his Congo escapade had been an abject failure.

1. What was Mike’s role in the film The Wild Geese.
2. The story was inspired by Mike and his men, and what they did in the Congo. Mike was employed as the military advisor on the film set, which was in South Africa in 1977. Almost unbelievably, Mike’s hero Richard Burton played the Mike Hoare character in the film. Later Mike was paid to tour America and give interviews to publicise the film.
3. Why was Burton Mike’s hero?
4. Mike loved Shakespeare, and Burton was a famous Shakespearean actor. Mike, in later life and in prison, memorised probably several thousand lines from Shakespeare.

Here for the first time, in this story behind the story, Chris Hoare separates the man from the myth in a way only a son can, and concludes his ‘mad dad’ was an officer and a gentleman with a bit of pirate thrown in.

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