EN
The Kennedy Administration came to power convinced that its predecessor had demonstrated an appalling lack of imagination in its attitude toward the Third World nationalists like Gamal Abdel Nasser. Seen from the perspective of the New Frontier, the Eisenhower Administration's reluctance to accept nonalignment in the Cold War had created widespread opportunities for the spread of Soviet influence in the developing world. Two weeks before Kennedy took office, Khrushchev had publicly endorsed 'wars of national liberation' in the Third World. It seemed that the Soviets, by exploiting American inflexibility and by shrewdly distributing military and economic aid and political support to the Third World nationalists, had secured a commanding position on what had become the critical battleground between East and West.