This dissertation demonstrates a previously undocumented aspect of John F. Kennedy's Cold War strategy. At the start of his administration Kennedy launched a personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders. This policy was designed as a strategy to improve U.S.-African relations and held great personal importance to Kennedy. This constituted a dramatic change in the direction of U.S. foreign relations and illustrates one of the most significant differences in the way Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Kennedy fought the Cold War. The latter perceived befriending Third World nationalism as a necessity, while the former thought it was desirable but not at the risk of straining relations with his European allies.

The Kennedy administration believed 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.

This survey is centered upon five case studies of John F. Kennedy's relations with seven of Africa's most prominent leaders of the early 1960s. The African leaders examined are Sékou Touré (Guinea), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Gamal Abdul Nasser (Egypt), Ahmed Ben Bella (Algeria), William Tubman (Liberia), Felix Houphouët-Boigny (Ivory Coast) and Julius K. Nyerere (Tanganyika).

Kennedy devoted more time and effort toward relations with Africa than any other American president. His willingness to aid any African nation regardless of its political orientation clearly separates him from any other man who occupied the Oval Office during the Cold War. By making an in-depth examination of Kennedy's attempt to court African nationalist leaders, this study adds an important chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy's Cold War strategy. It also demonstrates that through understanding and personal diplomacy Kennedy realigned United States policy towards Africa and to a large extent won over the sympathies of its people.