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

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• 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
• Publication Date: November 8, 1965
• Content Type: MF

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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
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" .., 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. "
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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)
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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
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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
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