ORIENTATION OF NKRUMAH REGIME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001100030013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 1, 2006
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 17, 1963
• Content Type: MEMO

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OCI No. 1359/63
17 April 1963
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Orientation of Nkrumah Regime
1. Ghana's vain and egocentric Kwame Nkrumah
is driven by his dreams of primacy in a united
Africa and of a world role as a leading figure
among the nonaligned states. His ambitions have
been fed in Ghana by adulation and attribution of
almost divine virtues. He now seems convinced
that the West is essentially hostile to his asps-
rations while the countries of the Bloc are his
firm allies in the fight against "neocolonialism."
2. To achieve his goals, Nkrumah has tried
to make himself the principal spokesman of anti-
colonialism, and this has made for a strong ideo-
logical bond between him and the Bloc. Moreover,
other short-term Communist aims frequently parallel
his militant African nationalist line, and he has
been flattered and pleased by Bloc attention. How-
ever, while he has a strong affinity for Socialist
doctrines, as adapted to the African milieu, he is
primarily concerned with advancing his own designs.
He certainly believes he can use Bloc aid and sup-
port without becoming so tied to the Communists
that he must take orders from them.
3. Nevertheless, Nkrumah's authoritarian re-
gime provides a fertile field for Bloc meddling in
Africa. In the past three years he has established
important economic ties with Bloc countries, from
nm
he has obtained approximately $200 million
worth of economic credits. He has also displayed
an increasing tendency to support, in domestic prop-
aganda and international meetings, Bloc positions
on world issues when he has believed such positions
to parallel his own interests. At the same time he
has become progressively more suspicious of the
West, notably the US.
State Dept. review completed
Appr4
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4. Nkrumah's present state of mind vis-a-vis
the Bloc and the West is a product of experiences
and events dating at least from his student days
in the US and the UK. In his autobiography, pub-
lished in 1957, he acknowledges being influenced
at that time by the writings of Marx, Engels, and
Lenin and'proclaims himself a "Christian
Socialist."
as. month,, in an interview given
av a s Accra correspondent, Nkrumah stressed
Ghana's close relationship and identification with
the "Socialist" countries. However, the basic in-
gredient in the ideology of Nkrumahism is still
adulation of Nkrumah and support for his personal
objectives.
5. In part,Nkrumah's developing relations
with the Bloc since Ghana became independent in
1957 are a function of his desire to obtain maxi-
mum aid and markets for his country and to demon-
strate that he is really a nonaligned leader, free
of any British colonial tutelage. They also stem
in part from the multiple frustrations he has met
in pursuing his pan-African ambitions. He has been
strongly affected by the Congo episode, in which
he sees Western financial interests in general and
the US in particular as responsible for the collapse
of.the regime of his protege, Lumumba. The Bloc's
tangible gestures to Lumumba's heirs and to other
radical African nationalists favored by Accra ap-
pear to have helped convince Nkrumah tht the Bloc
is really behind him and his grand design for a
united Africa in which Ghana, transformed through
Socialism, would be the leading power. Finally,
the almost successful attempt on his life at Kulun-
gugu last August contributed a major new impetus
to Nkrumah's suspicions of the West, because he
came quickly to the conclusion that the plot was
Western backed.
6. The proliferation of ties with the Bloc
has been paralleled by an augumented role within
the Nkrumah regime for anti-Western leftist ele-
ments.. Members of the coterie of pro-Communist..ad-
visers with whom he appears to be in closest com-
munion these days manage the regime's press and
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radio. All of them owe their positions to Nkrumah's
favor,
7. Nkrumah's deepening suspicions of the West
have given rise to a barrage of anti-Western and
specifically anti-US propaganda, much of it based
on Bloc material. Favorite targets are CIA, the
Peace Corps, and, most recently, American Negroes
serving in Africa. All these are portrayed as in-
struments of US imperialist subversion aimed at
undermining Ghanaian institutions and aspirations.
Last January he tried unsuccessfully to force the
removal of two Embassy officials for alleged im-
proper conduct, and he continues to believe the
two officers were involved with Ghanaian elements
seeking his destruction. The US Embassy thinks he
is genuinely afraid of covert US action against
him; he recently told the I ambassador
that he would "not stop lighting" CIA. Nkrumah
apparently is confident that he will. be able to
forestall any drastic US reaction--such as a with-
drawal of Volta project aid.
8. Notwithstanding the current climate in
Accra, we believe that Nkrumah, like Guinea's Sekou
Tour, still could abruptly reorient his country's
course if he chose to do so. Recognizing his need
for Western development capital, he has consistently
reserved a substantial area for the "private sec-
tor" in official expositions of economic policy.
Moreover, he has retained and is influenced by a
number of key pro-Western economic advisers. A
liberal capital investment bill, which officials
of the Kaiser corporation helped draft, was enacted
by Nkrumah's pliant legislature this month, although
he now seems to be temporizing over its implemen-
tation.
9. At the same time, Nkrumah has become in-
creasingly dissatisfied with the Bloc aid program.
Dismayed pariticularly by the heavy outlays of
local currency required to utilize the Bloc equip-
ment credits, he recently instructed his top econo-
mic aide to renegotiate all project agreements with
Bloc countries.
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10. The regime press also can on occasion
direct its invective against the "friendly Socialist
countries." Bulgaria for a while came under sharp
attack following the February clash in Sofia be-
tween African students and Bulgarian authorities.
This month Czech and Polish newspapers have been
taken to task for items regarded as derogatory to
Africans. Earlier this year Nkrumah closed down
the USSR information mission in Ghana while reject-
ing a proposal to take similar action against USIS.
11. Any major shift in Ghana's present orien-
tation seems unlikely, however, unless Nkrumah
should become persuaded that the Bloc has actively
conspired against him. He probably feels confident
of his ability to continue to play off the Bloc
and the West and may well strengthen his ties with
the Bloc still further. He will continue to be un-
responsive to efforts to get him to halt press at-
tacks--the main point of present frictions with
the US--and to be basically distrustful and anti-
pathetic toward the West and all it stands for.
Approve
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