Betting on the Africans: John F. Kennedy's Courting of African Nationalist Leaders

Philip Muehlenbeck, PhD ’07, closely examines former President John F. Kennedy’s policies toward Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Egypt, Algeria, Tanganyika and South Africa. Kennedy’s policies largely won the sympathies of people in those countries, while at the same time alienating more traditional American allies. Drawing on archival sources from the United States, United Kingdom and Africa, Betting on the Africans adds an important chapter to the historiography of Kennedy’s Cold War strategy as well as the history of decolonization.