Usa and africa during the cold war

Abstract

This paper evaluates the United States’ effort to win the hearts and minds of Africa ideologically and how it tried to counter socialist-communist ideological incursions on the continent. It would be evident that the United States engaged in most of the African governments with the aim to prevent these newly independent polities from turning to the socialist-communist orbit as a governing philosophy. The United States subsequently deployed a full toolkit of several containment arsenals for this purpose. These tools would include propaganda, development aid, military pacts, and supporting restive presidents, among others. The paper will also seek to find other factors, if available, that motivated the U.S. government in its dealings with African countries outside of the bloodless Cold War in the same era understudy. One such factor, for example, would be the cooperation with colonial authorities for American markets.