ABSTRACT
American Protestantism was focused not only on enacting Social Gospel ideals in support of global health and development in the latter part of the twentieth century. The tradition was also used—sometimes willingly and sometimes not—by politicians in the U.S. government to articulate a civil religion during the Cold War. This chapter examines the relationship between mainline Protestants and Presidents Truman and Eisenhower as well as the first stirrings of a soon-to-be emergent evangelicalism. The chapter also examines the public health response to Cold War threats and the ways in which international aid was used as an instrument to further American interests during the period.
