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Ghana and the West

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Ghana and the West UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TRE DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE POLITICHE DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN SCIENZE POLITICHE CURRICULUM “STUDI EUROPEI E INTERNAZIONALI” XXVIII CICLO Tesi Dottorale From “Our Experiment” to the “Prisoner of the West”: Ghana’s Relations with Great Britain, the United States of America and West Germany during Kwame Nkrumah’s Government (1957-1966) Candidato: Matteo E. Landricina Supervisore: Prof. Alessandro Volterra Coordinatore del Dottorato: Prof. Leopoldo Nuti A Clea Table of Contents Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ vii Literature Review ........................................................................................................................................... x Outline and Methodology of the Present Study ............................................................................................ xx Chapter I: The United Kingdom and Ghana ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Ghana, Nkrumah, and Britain’s Decolonization .............................................................................. 1 Development for whom? ............................................................................................................................... 3 A Black Democracy? The “Ghana Experiment” ........................................................................................... 7 Money Matters, Part 1: The Soviet Threat and British Aid ......................................................................... 10 Money Matters, Part 2: The £200 Million That Were a Little Less ............................................................ 13 Ghana’s Pan-Africanism and British Policy in Africa ................................................................................ 16 1.2 Britain and Ghana’s Lurch to the Left .......................................................................................... 21 Means of Influence? The BJSTT and the Commonwealth .......................................................................... 34 1.3 From the “Pilgrimage to the East” to Her Majesty’s Visit ............................................................. 38 The Kaldor Budget and the Strike ............................................................................................................... 44 Ecce Regina ................................................................................................................................................. 52 1.4 De Freitas, Hopes and Disappointment .......................................................................................... 58 The President and the Press ......................................................................................................................... 62 Government by Conspiracy ......................................................................................................................... 66 The Swing of the Pendulum ........................................................................................................................ 71 1.5 Lord Home, Harold Wilson, and Denouement ............................................................................... 74 Moderation Again? ...................................................................................................................................... 76 The Tightening Noose ................................................................................................................................. 78 Wilson, Rhodesia, and the Regime Change ................................................................................................ 82 Excursus: Nkrumah, the West, and the Congo Crisis ......................................................................... 94 Ghana as Stabilizing Force .......................................................................................................................... 94 The Crisis Erupts ......................................................................................................................................... 98 The Katangan Issue ................................................................................................................................... 101 The Fall of Lumumba ................................................................................................................................ 104 Lumumba’s Death and the Widening Gap ................................................................................................ 112 Chapter II: The United States and Ghana ........................................................................................ 120 2.1 The Eisenhower Administration, Ghana, and the Cold War ....................................................... 120 Washington, London, and Beijing ............................................................................................................. 122 The Volta Scheme and the Search for American Aid ................................................................................ 125 America and the Quest for the Moderate African Nationalist ................................................................... 128 The United States and Ghana’s Lurch to the Left ..................................................................................... 132 2.2 The Volta River Project ............................................................................................................... 137 Early History of the VRP .......................................................................................................................... 138 The VRP, the Gold Coast Government, and the Search for Capital .......................................................... 140 The VRP Goes American - Part 1: The Eisenhower Administration ........................................................ 146 The VRP Goes American - Part 2: The Kennedy Administration ............................................................. 153 The VRP and its Results ............................................................................................................................ 160 2.3 Kennedy and Nkrumah: The Cordial Hostility? .......................................................................... 164 Kennedy’s Approach to Ghana .................................................................................................................. 167 Playing with Fire: Nkrumah, Kennedy, and Khrushchev .......................................................................... 171 The Return to Normalcy of the Best and Brightest ................................................................................... 176 Kennedy and the Ghanaian Puzzle ............................................................................................................ 179 2.4 The Johnson Administration, Ghana, and the Coup .................................................................... 185 Johnson and Africa: The End of the Entente? ........................................................................................... 185 Nkrumah and the Spectre of the CIA ........................................................................................................ 187 America, the Russians, and the Demonstrators ......................................................................................... 189 Pulling the Plug: The United States and the Termination of the Ghana Experiment ................................ 193 First the Lull, then the Storm: The Congo Crisis Again ............................................................................ 198 From the Ghanaian Experiment to the Ghanaian Menace ......................................................................... 201 Waiting for Good News: The Johnson Administration and the Coup ....................................................... 204 Chapter III: The Federal Republic of Germany and Ghana ............................................................. 211 3.1. The First Years ........................................................................................................................... 211 Putting Out Feelers: The FRG and the Gold Coast ................................................................................... 213 The Issue of Diplomatic Relations ............................................................................................................ 214 Ghana’s New Friends: The Other Germans Arrive ................................................................................... 218 West Germany’s Integration in the Experiment ........................................................................................ 221 From the Addis Ababa Conference to Ghana ............................................................................................ 224 Many Germanies in Ghana ........................................................................................................................ 227 3.2 The Going Gets Tough ................................................................................................................ 230 The FRG and the Lurch to the Left ........................................................................................................... 230 The Tough Get Going:
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