The interview was recorded at the Washington D.C., on April 20, 1990. The Interviewer was Jean Krasno. Mr. G. McMurtrie Godley was an American diplomat who was appointed United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) in 1964. During his time as ambassador, a second coup was staged in the Congo and Mobutu Sese Seko seized control of the country. Mr. Godley remained at that post until 1966 when he was deployed to Laos at the height of the Vietnam War and in the midst of the Laotian Civil War. In 1974, he was appointed United States Ambassador to Lebanon. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1976. Throughout his career, Mr. Godley also completed postings in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Cambodia. Retired from Foreign Service at the time of the interview, conducted on 20 April 1990, Mr. Godley discussed the political climate of the Congo when he first arrived there in 1961 and the role the American Embassy played in the Congo Crisis.