Apprehension, Engagement, and Withdrawal: The U.S. Approach to Cold War Non-Alignment

: Although the United States (US) was a traditional practitioner of neutrality, the experience of the two world wars led American Cold War creators to take a sharper approach to non-alignment. This chapter charts Washington’s response to non-alignment in the early and middle Cold War years, with special attention to efforts by the Kennedy administration to engage the leading states of the Non-Aligned Movement, particularly at the Belgrade Conference. Despite initial successes in the Kennedy years, the policy of engagement foundered during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, amid the acrimony of the Vietnam War.