Controlled by Belgium since 1885, the Congo (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) gained independence in 1960 with leftist Patrice Lumumba as its first president. Lumumba was assassinated less than a year later. Although the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had previously been involved in a plot to remove Lumumba, a suspected Soviet sympathizer, the CIA claimed that it had not been responsible for his death.