American Sport Policy and the Cultural Cold War: The Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Years

Abstract

FROM ITS INCEPTION, THE COLD WAR WAS FOUGHT on a variety of fronts, which, fortunately, never extended into direct military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Instead, the two superpowers, aware of the catastrophic effects of a nuclear conflagration, avoided armed interchanges in favor of more subtle applications of power. The American containment doctrine thus deviated from its original focus on political and military applications of “counter-force” to encompass cultural isolation of the Communist world as well. The resulting propaganda campaign for world opinion included the development of an athletic rivalry between the United States and its Communist rivals. Although several works have touched on sport in the cultural Cold War, those addressing efforts by the U.S. government to influence international athletics are