(I refer to Congo-Kinshasa as just Congo here, if you are confused)
There were numerous left-wing factions in the Congo Crisis, many of which received suppose from China and the Soviet Union, most notable being Antoine Gizenga's Free Republic of the Congo (albeit it tried to work as a legal Lumumbist government, and I consider it unlikely that they, or Lumumba's government itself for that matter, would turn outright communist) and the Simba rebels in the second half of the crisis, so what if Congo ended up as a communist state?
Obviously, relations with the West would be incredibly hostile due to their anti-Communist intervention in the Congo, as well as former colonial connotations, so would the new Communist Congo try to align with the Eastern Bloc? How differently would the Cold War develop with such a large African country turning full communist, and less than five years after achieving independence, too? And if the Soviet Union falls, would Congo end up as an isolated socialist country like Cuba or try to liberalize?
There were numerous left-wing factions in the Congo Crisis, many of which received suppose from China and the Soviet Union, most notable being Antoine Gizenga's Free Republic of the Congo (albeit it tried to work as a legal Lumumbist government, and I consider it unlikely that they, or Lumumba's government itself for that matter, would turn outright communist) and the Simba rebels in the second half of the crisis, so what if Congo ended up as a communist state?
Obviously, relations with the West would be incredibly hostile due to their anti-Communist intervention in the Congo, as well as former colonial connotations, so would the new Communist Congo try to align with the Eastern Bloc? How differently would the Cold War develop with such a large African country turning full communist, and less than five years after achieving independence, too? And if the Soviet Union falls, would Congo end up as an isolated socialist country like Cuba or try to liberalize?