How President Kagame ended up being at Forth Leavenworth

As we approach the  liberation day, I thought it important to share with you the amazing work done by our liberators.

The piece below is excerpted from the book '' A Thousand Hills, Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It'' authored by Stephen Kinzer.

Around the time of his wedding, Kagame began hearing reports that President Museveni was planning to send him out of the country, probably to Nigeria, for an extended period of military training. Then his closest friend and co-conspirator, Fred Rwigyema, learned that he was about to be sent to the United States for similar training. The evening after Fred heard this news, the two men met at Kagame’s house. 

‘‘This has meaning,’’ Kagame told him. ‘‘You’re going to a course in the U.S. I’m going to Nigeria. Another officer or two might be sent to Russia. This is not an accident.’’ The two talked for a while, and Kagame finally told his friend, ‘‘Fred, you can’t go. This has to continue. As leader of the RPF, you cannot allow this.’’ 

They agreed that at this crucial moment, with their clandestine guerrilla force about to unveil itself and start fighting, it would be catastrophic for Fred to leave. He was indispensable. No other RPF leader had nearly as much charisma, and none commanded nearly as much loyalty from the men who were about to plunge into war. Neither he nor his friend, however, could come up with a ruse clever enough to fool President Museveni. The best excuse they could think of was hardly convincing. 

‘‘Why not tell Museveni that you have been through so much, the struggle, the work here, Tanzania, that you’ve never had time to organize yourself and your family?’’ Kagame asked. ‘‘You should tell the president that your future does not lie in the army of Uganda because of this special problem of identity that you want to work on a different future, that even if you integrate, ultimately you want to leave the army. Just insist, even if it’s not convenient to Museveni. Remain stuck to the idea that you really need a break.’’ The next day, Fred visited President Museveni and made this plea. Not surprisingly, Museveni rejected it out of hand and became, in Kagame’s words, ‘‘very, very furious.’’ Fred finally persuaded him to consider the idea overnight. The next morning, he called to say that he had softened his view and would allow Fred to remain in Uganda. On that same day, however, he sent his army commander to visit Kagame. 

‘‘I have a message from the president,’’ the commander told Kagame. ‘‘You need to go for the course that was prepared for Fred.’’ 

Ugandan leaders, suspicious of what the Rwandans were planning and facing heavy pressure at home, had decided they could no longer allow both of these officers to remain on active duty. Kagame realized that one of them would have to go. Since Fred could not, he would have to. He told the army commander he would accept the assignment and then drove directly to Fred’s house. 

‘‘If you think I should say no, okay,’’ he told Fred. ‘‘But I didn’t do it because that would result in big problems for us and our project.’’ 

Fred agreed. ‘‘If you find an excuse not to go, that would confirm any suspicion they have,’’ he reasoned. ‘‘It would handicap our movement and our people.’’ That night, Kagame told his new bride that they would spend the next part of their lives in a place very different from any they had known before: the U.S. Army Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.