Ghana achieved its independence from Britain in March 1957. The gist of thi
s article is that Ghana started off on cordial terms with the USA, but for
September 1960 this relationship was close to rupture, with Washington char
ging that Ghana was taking too much after the Soviet Union. It is, however,
argued that the circumstances leading up to the chilling of USA-Ghana rela
tions in 1960 were more complex, and that the clear point of departure was
the Congo crisis. Almost from the onset, the USA and Ghana had substantial
differences over the crisis, and the more the crisis deepened, the more the
gulf between the two widened.