ABSTRACT The year of 1948 witnessed two elections that pushed race relations in the United States and South Africa in dramatically opposite directions. In November, the victory of Harry S. Truman placed the White House on the side of domestic civil rights and against racial oppression and segregation. His was the first presidential administration to publicly and privately embrace the struggle for racial justice in the United States. Five months earlier in South Africa, the victory of the Nationalist-Afrikaner coalition heralded the onset of the apartheid era. In this paper I explore the rationale behind the decision of President Truman in developing closer ties with Pretoria during the later 1940s and early 1950s. I specifically highlight the fact that despite the radically different racial trajectories of the two nations, the White House developed a policy of closer relations with the practitioners of apartheid due to their vehement anti-communism, support for Western actions against during the early Cold War era and a willingness to provide enriched uranium for the US atomic programme.

中文翻译：

---

“我的孩子们，你们被允许在非常危险的时候与魔鬼同行，直到你们过桥”：杜鲁门总统、种族隔离和早期冷战

摘要 1948 年见证了两次选举，将美国和南非的种族关系推向了截然不同的方向。11 月，哈里·S·杜鲁门 (Harry S. Truman) 的胜利使白宫站在国内民权一边，反对种族压迫和种族隔离。他是第一个公开和私下支持美国种族正义斗争的总统政府。五个月前在南非，民族主义者-南非白人联盟的胜利预示着种族隔离时代的开始。在本文中，我探讨了杜鲁门总统在 1940 年代后期和 1950 年代初期与比勒陀利亚发展更密切关系的决定背后的基本原理。我特别强调一个事实，尽管两国的种族轨迹完全不同，