Overview

As a presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy established a reputation across Africa as a sympathetic supporter of African nationalism, who if elected would realign Washington's priorities toward the continent. Once in office, Kennedy indeed made changing the image of America in Africa a top priority of his administration, believing that the Cold War could be won or lost depending upon whether Washington or Moscow won the hearts and minds of the Third World. Africa was particularly important because a wave of independence saw nineteen newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations during 1960-61. By 1962, 31 of the UN's 110 member states were from the African continent, and both Washington and Moscow sought to add these countries to their respective voting bloc. Kennedy feared that neglect of the newly decolonized countries of the world would result in the rise of anti-Americanism and needed to be addressed irrespective of the Cold War. Philip Muehlenbeck demonstrates how Kennedy used all means at his disposal-economic, cultural, personal-to appeal to the leaders of the developing world, including Nkrumah, Senghor, Touré, Nyerere, and Ben Bella.Drawing on archival sources from Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Muehlenbeck closely examines Kennedy's policies towards Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Egypt, Algeria, Tanganyika, and South Africa, which were to a large extent successful in winning the sympathies of its peoples, while at the same time alienating more traditional American allies. Betting on the Africans adds an important chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy's Cold War strategy as well as the history of decolonization.

Full Product Details

Author:   Philip E. Muehlenbeck (Professorial Lecturer, Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University, Montgomery Village, MD, United States)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.30cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 16.10cm
Weight:   0.522kg
ISBN:  

9780199380718

ISBN 10:   0199380716
Pages:   362
Publication Date:   15 May 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Introduction: JFK and the ""Greatest Revolution in Human History"" Abbreviations Part One 1: 'More Royalist than the Queen': Eisenhower/Dulles Policy toward Africa 2: JFK's Early Support of African Nationalism 3: Kennedy, Sékou Touré, and the Success of Personal Diplomacy 4: Kennedy, Kwame Nkrumah, and the Volta River Project Decision 5: Kennedy, Julius Nyerere, and Self-Determination in Southern Africa 6: Kennedy, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ben Bella, and North African Arab Nationalism 7: Kennedy, Felix Houphouët-Boigny, William Tubman, and Conservative African Nationalism Part Two 8: The Kennedy-de Gaulle Rivalry in Africa 9: The View from Pretoria 10: Cold War Civil Rights and Kennedy's Courting of African Nationalists 11: Contested Skies: US-USSR Competition for African Civil Aviation Markets and the Cuban Missile Crisis Conclusion: The Kennedy Legacy in Africa Notes Bibliography Index"

Reviews

Unlike other accounts of U.S.-Africa relations, Muehlenbeck's monograph covers the entire continent. Muehlenbeck's portrait of a charismatic American president engaged with the details of African political and economic aspirations is a contribution to the study of U.S.-Africa relations as well as the JFK era. --Larry Grubbs, Journal of American History Muehlenbeck's well-researched work offers a compelling challenge to the conventional wisdom of continuity in American Cold War foreign policy toward Africa. The book's deep examination of the courtship of African leaders by President John F. Kennedy provides a unique perspective on personal diplomacy, specifically, and U.S.-African relations, generally, during one of the more volatile periods of the Cold War. A thought-provoking opening to our ongoing analysis of Kennedy foreign policy. --George White, Jr., American Historical Review In this fine book, Muehlenbeck...makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on US policy toward Africa...[A] well-written, crisply argued book that scholars, students in applicable classes, and general readers with a serious interest in US foreign policy and African affairs will love. Highly recommended. --CHOICE Challenging the conventional wisdom that judges John F. Kennedy's Africa policies to be little different from those of other American presidents, Muehlenbeck argues convincingly that JFK's strategy of personal diplomacy won the friendship of radical nationalists that other American leaders deemed lost to the Soviet camp. Based on extensive archival research, Muehlenbeck's in-depth analysis of the courtship of African leaders offers a unique window into U.S.-African relations during the early Cold War years. --Elizabeth Schmidt, author of Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958 Phil Muehlenbeck provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of Kennedy's high-profile outreach to African leaders. He challenge

Unlike other accounts of U.S.-Africa relations, Muehlenbeck's monograph covers the entire continent. Muehlenbeck's portrait of a charismatic American president engaged with the details of African political and economic aspirations is a contribution to the study of U.S.-Africa relations as well as the JFK era. --Larry Grubbs, Journal of American History Muehlenbeck's well-researched work offers a compelling challenge to the conventional wisdom of continuity in American Cold War foreign policy toward Africa. The book's deep examination of the courtship of African leaders by President John F. Kennedy provides a unique perspective on personal diplomacy, specifically, and U.S.-African relations, generally, during one of the more volatile periods of the Cold War. A thought-provoking opening to our ongoing analysis of Kennedy foreign policy. --George White, Jr., American Historical Review In this fine book, Muehlenbeck...makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on US policy toward Africa...[A] well-written, crisply argued book that scholars, students in applicable classes, and general readers with a serious interest in US foreign policy and African affairs will love. Highly recommended. --CHOICE Challenging the conventional wisdom that judges John F. Kennedy's Africa policies to be little different from those of other American presidents, Muehlenbeck argues convincingly that JFK's strategy of personal diplomacy won the friendship of radical nationalists that other American leaders deemed lost to the Soviet camp. Based on extensive archival research, Muehlenbeck's in-depth analysis of the courtship of African leaders offers a unique window into U.S.-African relations during the early Cold War years. --Elizabeth Schmidt, author of Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958 Phil Muehlenbeck provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of Kennedy's high-profile outreach to African leaders. He challenges previous interpretations that placed the Cold War at the center of Kennedy's relations with that continent's new nations. Muehlenbeck emphasizes instead the ways in which U.S. policy toward Africa in the early 1960s responded to the imperatives of decolonization and nationalism. Kennedy's personal attention to individual African leaders, in Betting on the Africans, represents a farsighted exception to the more common pattern of American disinterest in the lands between the Mediterranean and the Cape of Good Hope. Important reading for all those interested in America's relationship with the world, in African history, and in the global history turning point of the early 1960s. --Thomas Borstelmann, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Betting on the Africans is the most comprehensive and well-researched look at the Kennedy Administration's African policy, a policy designed to sway newly-independent African leaders toward the United States. Philip Muehlenbeck makes a strong and persuasive case for the significance of President Kennedy's leadership in formulating and implementing this policy, especially in his personal relationships with African leaders. This is an essential book for anyone interested in understanding the development of American relations with African nations during a key period of the Cold War. --Thomas Schwartz, Vanderbilt University Muehlenbeck's illuminating comparative study will be of equal interest for those wanting to understand more about President John F. Kennedy's Cold War strategy as well as for those seeking further insights into the diplomacy of Africa's independent nations. Muehlenbeck works through each of the major US-Africa Cold War relationships to show how Kennedy's strategy, often in conflict with his own advisers and Cold War hawks, attempted to create important allies of Africa's new leaders. He skillfully argues that JFK's personal diplomatic gamble ultimately created more allies than enemies among Africa's first generation of post-colonial leaders. --Timothy Scarnecchia, Kent State University A remarkable addition to a growing body of works that explore Africa's complex and diverse interactions with external powers during the Cold War. Muehlenbeck brilliantly captures how the intense post-war nationalism and decolonization in Africa coincided with the Cold War politics to cause a significant shift from Dwight Eisenhower's indifferent attitude toward Africa to John F. Kennedy's commitment to the continent....It highlights the decisive and enduring influence of multinational corporations in shaping US foreign policy....Approachable and accessibly written....[I]t is a refreshing and well-documented insight into Kennedy's intricate and captivating encounter with Africa....Strongly recommended for...readers seeking to understand the hype, hypocrisy, and hysteria surrounding the US and the Soviet Union's engagement with Africa during the Cold War. --Ogechi Anyanwu, African Studies Quarterly Very thorough study...[that] emphasized JFK's successful 'courting' of Africans without lapsing into mere 'court history.'....[An impressive book that should be read by anyone interested in JFK foreign policy or U.S. relations with Africa.] --Andy DeRoche, Diplomatic History The most comprehensive account of Kennedy administration policy toward Africa to date....This was not panic-driven crisis management, but, rather, a substantial and prescient realignment of U.S. policy toward an entire continent. Africa, Muehlenbeck suggests, posed ordeals for the administration. Yet it also yielded real successes, which thus far have received only occasional recognition. --Robert Rakove, H-Diplo The archival base of this book is impressive, encompassing institutions from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Africa. It shows in Muehlenbeck's wonderfully detailed portraits of Kennedy's relations with Africa's leaders, from the overtly Marxist Sekou Toure of Guinea to Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the staunchly conservative and pro-American president of Cote d'Ivoire .[Muehlenbeck] is to be commended for pulling off an increasingly difficult feat: writing something interesting and original about the presidency of John F. Kennedy. --Patrick Andelic, 49th Parallel

Author Information

Philip E. Muehlenbeck is a Professor Lecturer in the Department of History at George Washington University.

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