JFK: Ordeal in Africa

No conviction was more basic to JFK's foreign policy than his belif that America had to recognise the historic sweepnof the Third World nationalism. It was in Africa, one of the key crisis areas of the early 1960's that Kennedy used the full powers of his presidency to influence the course of self-determination The story of his African odyssey, told here for the first time is set forth in penetrating detail by Richard Mahoney. T his is a compelling account of how foreign policy is made at the highest level and will influence any future judgement of the quality of JFK's statesmanship in the Third World. The narrative is drawn from the raw materials of Kennedy's diplomacy, secret telephone conversations, which no scholar has used before the declassified minutes of white house meetings, state dpt memoranda, and CIA and embassy cable traffic. From these sources, as well as more than 200 interviews with the principles involved Mahoney reconstructs the full complexity of JFK"s response to the momentous events of those years