Kissinger, Angola and US-African Foreign Policy
Kissinger, Angola and US-African Foreign Policy

Author: Steven O'Sullivan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1351022776

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Analysing US foreign policy towards Angola during the Ford administration, this book provides an intriguing insight into one of the most avoidable and unfortunate episodes in Cold War history and explores the impact on Henry Kissinger’s much vaunted reputation for being guided by realist principles. Kissinger has dominated political discourse and scholarship on US foreign policy since the 1970s, but although his legacy continues to generate controversy, little attention has been paid to the influence of Vietnam’s collapse on the US decision to covertly intervene in the Angolan civil war. This book argues that Kissinger’s concern for personal reputation and US credibility following the collapse of Vietnam led to a harmful and unrealistic policy toward Angola. Exposure of US covert intervention exacerbated domestic and international political tensions and the subsequent showdown between the excutive and legislative branches ironically resulted in Kissinger proclaiming a new departure in US–African relations. Thus, it is argued that Kissinger was an ‘unintentional realist’ rather than an intellectual proponent of realpolitik. Enhancing our understanding of Kissinger, his relationship with his subordinates and with Congress, and his approach to foreign policy, this book will be of interest to scholars of Cold War history, US foreign policy and all those fascinated by the personality of Henry Kissinger.

U.S. Foreign Policy in Southern Africa
U.S. Foreign Policy in Southern Africa

Author: Richard John Mahlum

Publisher:

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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This thesis is designed to demonstrate analytically three propositions: First, that the U.S. has maintained a foreign policy toward southern Africa which has been unevenly implemented and even neglected by various administrations, due to perceptual differences about Africa and due to other manifest priorities on the agenda of U.S. foreign policy concerns. Second, that a major determinant of U.S. policy in southern Africa has been the concern over potential superpower rivalry and intervention in the region as a dangerous and unwarranted element in the U.S.-Soviet competitive relationship. Third, that an overreaction in the U.S. to the perceived Soviet threat and a dramatic reinstitution of the East-West perspective in U.S. foreign policy priorities could lead the U.S. to set aside the regional approach toward southern Africa that has marked the Carter Administration's African policy since 1977. This development may create a situation of incipient crisis for future U.S. relations in the region. (Author).