Globalizing the Great Society

Abstract

In 1958, the Soviet Union called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch a global campaign to eradicate smallpox worldwide. It was not until 1965, however, that President Lyndon Johnson threw US support behind the proposal. When the global eradication campaign was launched, smallpox still caused an estimated two million deaths annually, and its global eradication by 1977 was one of the most significant events of the postwar period. This chapter probes the political, ideological, institutional, and cultural contexts in which the US decision was made and the ways in which these contexts created and shaped this historic campaign. US officials showed genuine commitment to the cause of eradicating smallpox and demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in circumventing the strictures of the Cold War to achieve their goals.