Cold War competition for African allies drove Kennedy’s civil rights push

Evidence

Secretary of State Dean Rusk sent out a circular to American diplomats assuring them that Kennedy was “keenly aware of [the] impact of [the] domestic race problem on [the] US image overseas and on achievement [of] US foreign policy objectives.” Rusk said Kennedy would take “decisive action.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 956

Categorization

• XREF: Directly tests the reader’s stated agenda: policy driven by self-interest (Cold War foreign policy) preceding the moral/internationalist framing.