Nancy Mitchell - Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War

The Regional Cold Wars in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East

Crucial Periods and Turning Points

Edited by Lorenz M. Lthi

The Euromissile Crisis and the End of the Cold War

Edited by Leopoldo Nuti, Frdric Bozo, Marie-Pierre Rey, and Bernd Rother

Polands War on Radio Free Europe, 19501989

By Pawe Machcewicz

Translated by Maya Latynski

Battleground Africa

Cold War in the Congo, 19601965

By Lise Namikas

The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis

Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Missiles of November

By Sergo Mikoyan. Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya

Divided Together

The United States and the Soviet Union in the United Nations, 19451965

By Ilya V. Gaiduk

Marigold

The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam

By James G. Hershberg

After Leaning to One Side

China and Its Allies in the Cold War

By Zhihua Shen and Danhui Li

The Cold War in East Asia 19451991

Edited by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Stalin and Togliatti

Italy and the Origins of the Cold War

By Elena Agarossi and Victor Zaslavsky

A Distant Front in the Cold War

The USSR in West Africa and the Congo, 19561964

By Sergey Mazov

[continued after index]

Jimmy Carter in Africa

Race and the Cold War

Nancy Mitchell

Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Washington, D.C.

Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mitchell, Nancy, 1952 author.

Title: Jimmy Carter in Africa : race and the Cold War / Nancy Mitchell.

Description: Washington, D.C. : Woodrow Wilson Center Press ; Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2016. | Series: Cold War international history project series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015039576 | ISBN 9780804793858 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780804799188 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United StatesForeign relationsAfrica. | AfricaForeign relationsUnited States. | United StatesForeign relations19771981. | Carter, Jimmy, 1924

Classification: LCC DT38.7 .M58 2016 | DDC 327.730609/047dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039576

The Wilson Center, chartered by Congress as the official memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, is the nations key nonpartisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform actionable ideas for Congress, the Administration, and the broader policy community.

Conclusions or opinions expressed in Center publications and programs are those of the authors and speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individuals or organizations that provide financial support to the Center.

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Thomas R. Nides, Chair

Public members: William Adams, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services; David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States; John F. Kerry, Secretary of State; John King Jr., Acting Secretary of Education; David S. Mao, Acting Librarian of Congress; David J. Skorton, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Designated appointee of the president from within the federal government: Fred P. Hochberg, Chairman and President, Export-Import Bank of the United States

Private citizen members: Peter Beshar, John T. Casteen III, Thelma Duggin, Lt. Gen. Susan Helms, USAF (Ret.), Barry S. Jackson, Nathalie Rayes, Earl W. Stafford, Jane Watson Stetson

Wilson National Cabinet

Ambassador Joseph B. Gildenhorn & Alma Gildenhorn, Co-Chairs

Eddie & Sylvia Brown, Melva Bucksbaum & Raymond Learsy, Armeane & Mary Choksi, Ambassadors Sue & Chuck Cobb, Lester Crown, Thelma Duggin, Judi Flom, Sander R. Gerber, Harman Family Foundation, Frank F. Islam, Willem Kooyker, Frederic V. & Marlene A. Malek, Robert A. & Julie Mandell, Linda B. & Tobia G. Mercuro, Thomas R. Nides, Nathalie Rayes, Wayne Rogers, B. Francis Saul II, Diana Davis Spencer, Jane Watson Stetson, Leo Zickler

To Nancy Roman

Contents

Maps and Images

Maps

Images and Photographs

Acknowledgments

I am lucky. Writing these acknowledgments reminds me of just how fortunate I am to be buoyed by friends, family, and the generosity of strangers. I thank them all.

I dedicate this book to my true friend, Nancy Roman. Nancy is steadfast, smart, and loving. From the walks we took along the towpath when we were in graduate school together until today, we have talked over everything in our lives and minds. Nancy read this entire manuscript when it was an unwieldy draft, and she meticulously helped me refine and shape it. Her family has become my second family. Her husband Steven suited me up in raingear and took me on the back of his Honda 300 scooter to do research in the Communist Party archives in Rome; her son Daniel and her daughter Taylor Beth, as well as her parents, Dave and Ellen, and her brothers familyScott, Vo, and Mitchellhave listened to endless discussions about the book. Their extraordinary warmth and support fills me with gratitude.

I benefitted, more than I can express, from the friendship of Donald Easum and his family. Don, who served as US ambassador to Nigeria in the Carter years, shared his love of Africa and of the art of diplomacy with me. His enthusiasm and support for this book gave me courage.

I also thank all the people who agreed to be interviewed for this book. Their insights deepened my understanding of the events about which I was writing.

Lars Schoultz has been unfailingly supportive and has read many chapters in draft form. Michael Hunt very generously read a full draft of the manuscript and offered many helpful suggestions. The enthusiasm of Jim Hershberg, the editor of this series, has beenand continues to bea source of joy. His astute reading of the manuscript sharpened its argument. It has been a great pleasure and privilege to work with the director of the Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Joe Brinley, and its editor, Shannon Granville.