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Synopsis: During the Cold War, as the United States and the Soviet Union competed for influence in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, it was widely acknowledged that poor race relations in the States were making the country vulnerable to the Soviets' anti-American propaganda. State-sponsored Jazz tours which visited these contested regions between 1954 and the early 1970s were meant to communicate an image of a color-blind American democracy that did not exist in reality. However, the artists often made connections between the emerging Civil Rights movement in the US, and the anticolonial revolts in the regions they were touring, and blurred the lines between promoting the interests of the United States and rejecting the white supremacy that was still a powerful force in America.