Grim Week in Guinea.

• Author: Wentling, Mark

Guinea's first president, Ahmed Sekou Toure (AST) died on March 26, 1984, following emergency heart surgery at a Cleveland hospital. When Guinea gained independence from France in 1958, AST was the only leader of France's African colonies to say "no" to Charles De Gaulle's offer of continued association with France, stating loudly "We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery." The French thus quickly abandoned with much vengeance their most wealthy West African Francophone colony, destroying everything they could not take with them.

I was in Guinea at the time of his death and attended his funeral in Conakry on March 30, 1984, along with many world leaders, including Vice President George H.W. Bush. In the tumultuous days that followed AST's funeral, we all expected one of his family members or close cronies to replace him as president. To everyone's surprise, Lansana Conte, an obscure officer in Guinea's rag-tag army, and his collaborators were able to detain everyone associated with AST and put them in jail. Conte became Guinea's new supreme leader on April 3, 1984. Conte's spontaneous power grab was thus complete.

I served as the USAID Representative to Guinea from November 1983 to June 1987, including eight months as interim charge at the U.S. Embassy in Conakry. Prior to leaving post in 1987, I was tasked with writing a report on the prospects of President Conte continuing to hold the reins of power. In this report, I focused on the dramatic week that followed an attempted coup against Conte in 1985.

History proved many of my views wrong. Among other things, I stated in my classified report that President Conte would not last long because he was from a minority coastal ethnic group (Sousou) and spent all his time on his farm outside of Conakry watching pornographic videos. He was also a diabetic and a drunkard. His health was poor, and he was expected to die within a year. I was more surprised than anyone when he remained Guinea's president for 24 years, only two years less than AST.

My report recounted how Conte took over in 1984 and then noted key events until 1987. Of special note was how quickly he appointed Diarra Traore, one of his strong supporters, as his prime minister (PM). As Traore was from the same major ethnic group, Malinke, as AST, having him as PM strengthened Conte's position. Many people from another major ethnic group, Peulh, thought it was their turn to rule. Nobody thought any person from the new president's...