Historical documentaries can be comforting when we feel kinship with the struggles of our ancestors. They can also be depressing if we feel as if they reinforce a sense of futility in the face of a cycle or unremitting injustice with only the names and faces changing. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat succeeds by pulling us out of our complacency.  It adds a dynamism to events that happened a lifetime ago by intermingling political discourse with footage of American jazz musicians playing with a freedom unknown to the people of the Congo. But it would take a very strong-willed or extremely callous viewer not to come away with a sense of impotence. The forces for decayed morality were then very powerful, well-resourced, and seemingly untouchable. In these days it's not hard to connect the dots to our present circumstances. Patrice Lumumba has become a symbol and a martyr but before that he was a man with a modest but earthshaking mission - become the first democratically elected leader of the Congo, a large resource-rich country that had been up until then colonized nearly to death. The villains in this story are almost cartoonishly evil. Belgium's king represents white European arrogance without a trace of remorse or self awareness. The CIA as embodied by people like John Foster Dulles — a pipe-smoking American blue blood — have to bee seen and heard to be believed. President Eisenhower, who in other contexts came across as a reasonable moderate regarding Communism, here lies to the cameras like a used-car salesman. Even UN secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (someone I revered a little) falls desperately short - looking like  a man who has lost his moral compass and can only stand aside clearing the path as the most malevolent forces of history come barreling through destroying everything in thier wake.  It's hard to hear what suffering ordinary people had to endure just for being in the way. But it's also difficult to fathom how a man like Tshombe could so easily sell his people out. He is, sadly, an all too familiar historical figure. One we'd have no trouble finding under today's headlines. Have things gotten any better? Or are we just more adept at burying these vile acts of treachery under deeper and thicker layers of civilized ignorance? All we can take from it I think is a stronger determination to be on the right side of history.  To be inspired to take action that distinguishes us  from those who so eagerly do harm, those who profit from it, and the many who stand indifferent.