Little Rock Nine

===Foreign affairs===
The crisis at Little Rock took place in a Cold War world. Civil rights historian [[Mary L. Dudziak]] argues that [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Dwight D. Eisenhower]] and the US federal government's primary concern in their response was the world's perception of the US. Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] was particularly aware of the global impact, telling Attorney General [[Herbert Brownell Jr.|Herbert Brownell]] over a phone call that "this situation was ruining our foreign policy". Brownell asked Dulles to look over a draft of the President's speech in Arkansas following the crisis, where he suggested that Eisenhower "put in a few more sentences...emphasizing the harm done abroad".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dudziak |first1=Mary |title=The Little Rock Crisis and Foreign Affairs: Race, Resistance and the Image of American Democracy |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |date=1997 |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=1641–1716}}</ref>

Dudziak highlights other evidence such as [[United States Department of Justice|US Department of Justice]] briefs and [[propaganda]] to show the global implications of Little Rock. The crisis came partly as a result of the [[Brown v. Board of Education|Brown vs Board of Education case]]. US Department of Justice briefs gave only one reason for involvement in cases like this; that segregation harmed US foreign relations. The briefs argued that the existence of discrimination had an adverse effect on relations with other countries, especially countries in the [[Third World|third world]] who had been targeted by the [[Truman Doctrine]]. Evidence of US propaganda can be seen in the booklet ''The Negro in American Life'', which was translated into fifteen languages and distributed to many countries. It aimed to reverse the global shame surrounding discrimination in America, accentuated by Soviet propaganda, and instead boasted of the progress that they believed could be achieved in an American democracy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dudziak |first1=Mary |title=Brown as a Cold War Case |journal=The Journal of American History |date=2004 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=34–42}}</ref>

The impact of foreign relations, foreign policy and America's global reputation played an important role in Eisenhower's response to the crisis at Little Rock. This eventually culminated in his decisions to order the intervention of the 101st Airborne Division and to federalize the National Guard.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Jean Edward |title=Eisenhower in War and Peace |date=2012 |publisher=Random House |page=723}}</ref>