Civil Rights and the Cold War: How Racism Undermined United States Leadership on Human Rights

After World War II, the United States found itself in the difficult position of trying to be a human rights leader while also reckoning with its own record on race relations. Trying save its image, the United States entered a propaganda war with the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the United States was losing this war. The peak of the Civil Rights Movement (and the many atrocities it contained) weakened the United States' global leadership, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 redirected the human rights conversation away from solely legal equality. By the time the USSR signed the Helsinki Accords, the conversation had evolved in the United States' favor-there was a new global emphasis on social and cultural rights. The USSR's human rights record was scrutinized unlike before and the United States was once again a more respected leader on human rights issues around the world.