That Africa one of the superpowers' crucial diplomatic and economic battlegrounds now verges on political developments as dramatic as those of eastern Europe compels us to consider the tremendous influence that East and West have wielded in recent African political development. Drawing from American diplomatic archives, firsthand interviews, and the African and international press, Zaki Laidipresents a historical analysis of how the dialectical relationships of the United States, Soviet Union, and African actors evolved to their present state.
The lapse of European influence in the 1960s...