The United States Embassy in Libreville

Libreville

Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...

, Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

 was bombed on 3 March 1964 and again on 8 March.

Background

Two weeks before the bombings, Gabon had undergone an abortive coup d'état

1964 Gabon coup d'état

The 1964 Gabon coup d'état was staged between 17 and 18 February 1964 by Gabonese military officers who rose against Gabonese President Léon M'ba. Before the coup, Gabon was seen as one of the most politically stable countries in Africa...

 against its president, Leon M'ba

Léon M'ba

Gabriel Léon M'ba was the first Prime Minister and President of Gabon. A member of the Fang ethnic group, M'ba was born into a relatively privileged village family. After studying at a seminary, he held a number of small jobs before entering the colonial administration as a customs agent...

. Following the attempted coup, some Gabonese mistakenly identified the United States as a co-conspirator in the attempted coup. Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

asserted that French officials helped spread the rumor of American involvement in the coup.

Bombings

On 5 March, William F. Courtney, deputy chief of the embassy, received a call from a man identifying himself as DuPont and demanding all Americans leave Gabon. Two other phone calls threatening an imminent attack were received by the United States Information Service. During a rainstorm about 8:15 that night, a small bomb exploded outside the embassy. The explosion, which occurred at a time when the building was closed and locked, resulted in damage to the embassy sign and the cracking of two windows.

Following the bombing, French Gabonese made more threatening phone calls to the embassy. A second bomb exploded roughly 50 feet from the embassy two nights later, causing no damage. A drive-by shooting, during which at least five rounds of buckshot were fired from a 12-gauge automatic shotgun, riddled the second story windows with over 30 holes. William Courtney, the American chargé d'affaires, noticed two Europeans in a Simca

Simca

Simca was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat. It was directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by the Italian Henri Théodore Pigozzi...

automobile drive past the embassy at roughly 9:20 PM, one hour before the shooting and bombing. An unnamed American official said that he saw a car circle the embassy 10 minutes after the bombing. Two Gabonese policemen were assigned to protect the building, and M'ba ordered an investigation into the bombings. He denounced the allegations against Americans, saying: