Economic Assistance And The Kennedy School Of Government On The African Diplomatic Strategy

Kennedy was a president with distinct thoughts in Africa issues. His interests in Africa was long-standing. When he came into power, Africa was becoming a very important power in the international political pattern increasingly, and had much to do with the struggle for hegemony between the America and the Soviet Union. However, his predecessor—the President Eisenhower's policy for Africa .didn't win the Africa's support, but lead to the falling down of the America's prestige. So, in order to adapt to the situation, the Kennedy administration increased the economic assistance for Africa. But, in fact, the Kennedy administration's economic assistance for Africa, only a diplomatic instrument of the America, didn't get a good result. This article tries to make a simple research and analysis on the background, content, result, and motive of the Kennedy administration's economic assistance for Africa.This article includes three parts:The first part discusses the background of the readjustment of the Kennedy administration's economic assistance policy for Africa. From the end of 1950's to the beginning of 1960's, the national liberation movement of Africa acquired a series of victories. Particularly in 1960, 17 African nations acquired independence. So, the year was called "African independence year". With the increasing of the African independent nations, the position of Africa was rising continuously in the international political pattern. At that time, western countries didn't rule the Africa, in order to fill the "vacuum", to vie with the Soviet Union for Africa, and to secure his own interests, America should pay more attention to Africa. However, the Eisenhower administration's policy for Africa was not satisfying. So, after his inauguration, Kennedy made a readjustment on the administration's economic assistance policy for Africa.The second part discusses the content of the Kennedy administration's economic assistance for Africa. The Kennedy administration went on with Food-for-Peace of the Eisenhower administration for Africa, and emphasized the "food for development" aspects of Food-for-Peace, in order to increase economic assistance for Africa. In addition, Kennedy tolerated neutralism, and decided to aid the Volta River Project of Ghana finally. The administration paid more attention to technical assistance having something to do with economy, to help the development of agriculture and industry of the Africa, and so on.The third part discusses the difficulties, the result, and the causes of the Kennedy administration's economic assistance for Africa. The Kennedy administration's...