BOOK REVIEW: NEO-COLONIALISM: THE LAST STAGE OF IMPERIALISM BY KWAME NKRUMAH

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
4
Document Creation Date: 
November 11, 2016
Document Release Date: 
June 3, 1999
Sequence Number: 
11
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
November 8, 1965
Content Type: 
MF
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6.pdf249.32 KB
Body: 
f1 XRL//?I tf, Kai4 i, e. Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 SUBJECT : Book Review: Neo-Colonialism: The Last - h MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence a Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrum 1. This memorandum is for information only to call your attention to the just-published book Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage Of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. The book is published in London by Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1965, and it is this edition which is also being utilized in Accra. Nkrumah's thesis is stated in his introduction as follows:, The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside." (p . ix) To support this view that neo-colonialist control is to a considerable extent exercised through economic or monetary means, Nkrumah devotes the major part of his book to a description of his views on neo-colonialist economic control of the African continent and includes chapters on such subjects as Imperialist Finance, Monopoly Capitalism, Mining Interests, Diamond Groups, and Economic Pressures. The. U. S, is the worst offender in Nkrumah's opinion, utilizing interest to CIA. Here Nkrumah explains how the imperialist powers achieve their modern objectives which they formerly achieved by naked colonialism. 3, Chapter 18,, "The Mechanisms of Neo- Colonialism," (pp. 239- 2541 is the one which has most caught the eye of the press and is of greatest Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 " .., the extended tentacles of the Wall Street octopus. And its suction cups and muscular strength are provided by a phenomenon dubbed 'The Invisible Government', arising from Wall Street's connection with the Pentagon and various intelligence services. " Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 Nkrumah then regales the reader with a quotation from Wise and Ross' iible Government and cites them to the effect that the intelligence Th I n s e v network employs about 200, 000 people and spends billions of dollars a year. 4. Nkrumah notes the imperialist use of labor through various international labor organizations, including thacAthie Africa- American CIA man Centre "under AFL-CIO chief George Mean) and in labour's top echelons, Irving Brown." (p. 244) 5. Nkrumah finds Hollywood's movies to be "loaded, " but effective. He notes that: H along with murder and the Wild West goes an incessant barrage of anti-socialist propaganda, in which the trade union man, the revolutionary, or the man of dark skin is generally cast as the villain, while the policeman, the gum-shoe, the Federal agent--in a word, the CIA-type spy--is ever the hero. Here, truly, is the ideological under- belly of those political murders which so often use local people as their instruments. " (p. 246) es a huge American ideological plan, cornmenc- i h sag env 6. Nkruma ing in 1961, which utilizes all facilities "from press and radio to Peace Corps." He cites various international conferences to accomplish these aims in which al ati I on ntern the participants allegedly included CIA, USIA, the Pentagon, the Development Agency (AID), the Peace Corps and others. "Programmes were vir- d i b n roa drawn up which included the systematic use of U. S. citizens a 247) k " (p. . tual intelligence activities and propaganda wor 7. Stressing the U. S. efforts to lead. the propaganda offensive of all Western countries, Nkrumah notes that: "Among instruments of such Western pyschological warfare are numbered the intelligence agencies of Western countries headed by those of the United States 'Invisible Government.' But most significant among them all are Moral Re-Armament (MRA), the Peace Corps and the United States Information Agency (USIA)." (p. 248) Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 Nkrumah notes further that several newspapers, including some in the West, have claimed that MRA is actually subsidized by CIA. However, feeling that MRA's influence was on the wane, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps under Sargent Shriver, "a millionaire who made his pile in land specu- lation in Chicago, was also known as the friend, confidant and co-worker of the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Allen Dulles. These two had worked together in both the Office of Strategic Services, U. S. war-time intelligence agency, and in the CIA. " (p. 249) Nkrumah states that Shriver made a mockery of Kennedy's instruction to keep the CIA out of the Peace Corps. noting? in support, that all of the latter's members are carefully screened by the FBI! 8. Nkrumah then turns his fire on USIA, noting its close coordina- tion with CIA as well as "even armed forces intelligence centres. " (p. 250) USIA, Nkrumah concludes, is "a top intelligence arm of the U. S. imperi- alists." (p. 250) Among USIA's alleged activities are the organization of networks of monitors for radio broadcasts and telephone conversations, recruiting informers from government offices, and collecting secret infor- mation. It allegedly supplies arms to anti-neutralist, forces such as those of Tshombe and General Pak in Korea; (p. 251), Nkrumah notes that: "It is by no means unusual for U. S. intelligence. to set up its own business firms which are merely thinly disguised espionage centres." (p. 251) Citing an article in the Soviet magazine International Affairs, he avers that CIA established Western Enterprises Inc., in Taiwan to send spies and saboteurs to South China and the New Asia Trading Company in India to cam- ouflage agents in South-east Asia. However, Nkrumah assures the reader that neo-colonialism can and will be defeated. 10. Copies of this book have been sent to the DDI, as well as CA Approved For Release. 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6 Staff, CI Staff and the African Division/ DDP for study and whatever action these components consider advisable. STATINTL 25X1A Walter orz eimer Curator Historical Intelligence Collection Distribution: prig & 1 - Addressee 1 - DDP (Att 25X1 A 1 - DDI 1-DDS 1-IG 1-Gen. C 1 - CA Staf 1 - CI Staff 1 D/Secu 1 -- Asst to 2-HIC Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600010011-6