Patrice Émery Lumumba (July 2, 1925 – January 17, 1961) was the only elected leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (called the "Republic of the Congo" at the time, but this should not be confused with today's Republic of the Congo). The official position of the US government, as seen in the U.S. News &amp; World Report, associated Lumumba's ideas of African socialist democracy as an African brand of communism. Thus, the Americans had plans to kill him. He was murdered by the Katangans on January 17, 1961, just months after independence.