The Cold War and the NDEA

One year after the meeting to form the African Studies Association was held in New York, the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed. This landmark legislation was a response to Soviet acceleration of the space race, and designed to forestall Soviet aggression, among other threats. The 1958 law provided federal funding to “insure trained manpower of sufficient quality and quantity to meet the national defense needs of the United States.”  

Titles IV and VI of the NDEA would have the most immediate relevance to the development of area studies programs, and IU's African Studies Program in particular.