Cold War Propaganda Analysis

Cold War Propaganda: Different in Medium and Message

The whistle of dropping atomic bombs, the flash of nuclear explosion, the nightmare of Red boots marching across American soil. These are the horrors that Cold War American propaganda planted in the minds of the public. Through the use of posters, films, pamphlets, and a variety of other mediums, the U.S. government has always had an interest in the adherence of the general populace to perceived American values. This is most important during times of stress for the nation, such as war or international tension. Or as put by Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins, Paul Linebarger, “Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public of mass-produced communication designed

to affect the minds and emotions of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic, or political.” The importance of this form of communication cannot be understated, and its relation to the Cold War is pivotal to the progression of the conflict. The fact that the Cold War was merely a political conflict and not a military one makes it all the more interesting and unique in relation to the propagandistic media distributed as a result of it.
My research began chiefly with propaganda posters and films related to both WWII and the Cold War. A multitude of scholars and historians have published works about these two periods of American history as well as the government and privately distributed propaganda associated with them. The sources to choose from when it comes to simply analyzing the propaganda are too numerous for one to consume in a lifetime. How then, was my research going to separate itself from the slew of other historians that had already ventured into the field of the 20th century American propaganda? To my surprise very little research had been done into comparison of the types of propaganda employed throughout different periods of U.S. history; primarily between the Cold War and WWII, two different types of conflicts which generated a significant amount of propaganda on both sides.
Relatively little time had passed between the end of WWII and the Cold War. WWII ended September 2, 1945, and while historians do not fully agree on the dates, it is largely accepted that the Cold War took place between 1947–91. Only two years separated the conflicts, yet there was a palpable shift in the methods and message of the propaganda distributed by both the U.S. government as well as special interest groups and Hollywood. This research paper will seek to ascertain the reason for this largely unexplained movement away from the more familiar propaganda that had seen extensive use in both of the World Wars, to an entirely different type of propaganda altogether.
Before the comparison of the two conflict’s propaganda it is essential to lay the groundwork upon which the facts pertaining to the research question’s answer will rest. Historian Connor Foley argues that, “the American people were united by their anger and sense of patriotism following the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. The Americans very well knew the enemies to be Nazi Germany, Mussolini-led Italy, and the Japanese. This proved to be particularly important for propaganda purposes, and it allowed the producers of propaganda to target the clearly identified
enemies and their actions.” Throughout the course of WWII, propaganda was used to great effect in order to increase support for the war and commitment to an allied victory whatever the cost.
This was repeated ad nauseam for Hirohito as well as Mussolini.
Following the end of WWII the American propaganda machine had little time to recover before the nation was hurled into yet another conflict. However, this time it was not a military conflict, but rather a political one. As such, the type of propaganda shifted in several key ways. Cold War propaganda, while largely not as iconic as its WWII counterpart, was still nearly as pervasive and widespread. During the Cold War itself, both the United States and the Soviet Union invested heavily in propaganda designed to influence the hearts and minds of people around the world, especially using motion pictures.
That isn’t to say there wasn’t still more traditional forms of propaganda employed.

“Is This Tomorrow [sic]” questions the viewer of this hellish cold war propaganda poster about their future. This 1947 poster sports flames that lick up at the aforementioned words as the American flag burns in the background. However, even more visually striking is the scene in the foreground of the poster, with a depiction of what appears to be Soviet soldiers murdering two American Soldiers and raping a third woman. A banner beneath this reads: America under communism! This presents the message of the poster; that a dystopic future awaits the American public if they allow their nation to succumb to the pressures of Soviet communism. However, it should be noted that this poster was not actually produced by the American government but rather by a catechetical

guild.
The production of such a poster by a catechetical guild shows that the religious institutions were also concerned about the spread of communism. Namely, how it would impact their ability to practice their religion as a result of communist literature tending to be highly critical of organized religion. Further, the Soviet Union was an atheist state, and therefore religion was either highly discouraged or persecuted depending upon the decade.
The fearful, cautionary theme of the previous poster
was largely present throughout the remainder of Cold War propaganda.

With the emergence of nuclear weapons, and the threat of atomic annihilation becoming a real outcome of war for the first time, the American public was understandably nervous. In 1950, 61 percent of those polled thought that the United States should use the atom bomb if there was another world war, and 53 percent believed there was a good or fair chance that their community would be bombed in the next war, further nearly three-fourths assumed that American cities would be bombed with atomic weapons. By 1956, nearly two-thirds of those polled believed that in the event of another war that the hydrogen bomb would be used against the United States. American politicians of the age fed off of this fear, and many used it to great effect in their

campaigns.
“Daisy”, was a highly controversial political advertisement aired during the 1964 United States presidential election by the Committee to Elect Lyndon B. Johnson. Though it aired only once, it left a lasting impact on the election as well as the nation as a whole and was, arguably, the most famous campaign commercial of the Cold War. The ad opens with a young girl picking petals off of flower in a idyllic meadow. This is interrupted by a harsh male voice that begins to countdown from 10. Upon the countdown reaching zero, various shots of a mushroom cloud resulting from a nuclear detonation are shown. The ad ends with a voiceover stating, “These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die”, this is followed by a second voiceover that urges the viewer "vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."
While it was not overt propaganda the advertisement contributed to the fear mongering surrounding the Cold War. Concerning the commercial, author Paul Rutherford writes “Above all, ‘Daisy’ played out that role of the distillation: it had staged a display of the ultimate horror of these years, nuclear holocaust, a spectre ever present in the Cold War era.” It is also of note that while this television spot was directly tied to the American government, it was privately funded and executed without any direction from the government. Thus this ad was a part of the Cold War trend of the privatization of propaganda. Additionally it remains one of the most controversial political advertisements ever made.
“Daisy” is emblematic of the American public’s greater feelings of fear surrounding the Cold War; however, this was not exclusive to the adults, children were subjected to propaganda as well. This occurred perhaps most famously in the government distributed guidance film
The 9 minute film, distributed to schools in 1952 and throughout much of the rest 50s geared towards children, sought to educate them about the dangers of nuclear weapons while simultaneously educating them about what to do in case of an attack. It urges children to duck down and cover their head in the event of a nuclear attack. The fact that this film “was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s” makes its use a piece of propaganda all the more important.
was produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration. Upon its creation by President Eisenhower in 1950, the chief function of the agency was to distribute “educational” materials pertaining to civil defense scenarios; that is, in a situation wherein American citizens would be under military attack. As one of the few instances of government produced film propaganda during the Cold War,
was undoubtedly an outlier. It propagated a fear of the Soviet Union and communism in general that would continue to shape American culture for decades after.
The attitudes of the American consumer in relation to the threat of Soviet attack remained largely unchanged even as late as the 80s.
serves as an indicator that even this late in the Cold War (1984) there was still a significant amount of fear regarding Soviet invasion, and Hollywood sought to exploit this.
chronicles a group of American high school students who band together and resist Soviet invasion using guerilla warfare tactics.
The film was wildly right wing and polarized many. Film critic Adam Arseneau dismissed it as largely fear mongering propaganda saying that the film, “often feels like a Republican wet dream manifested into a surrealistic Orwellian nightmare".
This trend of highly sensationalised depictions of Soviet-U.S. relations is important to the larger feelings surrounding the Cold War and the purpose of this research paper itself. With the advent of the Cold War, the American public became much more skeptical of its government on the whole. This can be largely attributed to the credibility gap that came about primarily during the Vietnam War. At the time, it was most frequently used to describe increasing public skepticism about the Lyndon B. Johnson administration's statements and policies on the Vietnam War.
The growing divide between the American Public and its government was reflected in public opinion polls of the era. When asked in 1954, "In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way the present officials in Washington are handling our foreign affairs?" it was found that 74% of those polled approved. This poll can be directly compared to a 1968 poll that found that only 44% of Americans who would agree with the following statement: The U.S. government was doing an acceptable job of “handling communism.” There is clearly a significant shift in public opinion in the course of only 12 years, and with this so was there a shift in U.S. propaganda. Throughout this time period, overt government propaganda all but ceased, and was instead replaced by its more subtle film counterparts as well as more ideological propaganda messages.
However, the growing skepticism of the American people was not the only factor in the changing of propaganda from WWII to the Cold War. There was a hatred and fear of anything that was labeled communist, primarily during the 1950s. A Gallup poll taken in 1950 asked Americans, “What do you think should be done about members of the Communist Party in the United States in the event we get into a war with Russia?" Pictured to the right are the responses.
The previous Gallup poll reveals perhaps the most telling fact about transitioning Cold War propaganda and the fact that this largely occurred in tandem with the rise of McCarthyism. During what would later be known as the Second Red Scare, from approximately 1950 to 1956 there was what can only be characterized as a greatly heightened level of fear mongering regarding the communist party in addition to the Soviets. During this time period thousands of Americans were accused of all manner of crimes relating to the communist par. These ranged from being merely communist sympathizers to American citizens being accused of spying for the Soviet Union. However, these accusations were not restricted only to individuals; rather, whole industries were often labeled as being promoters of communism, as can be seen in this anti-communist propaganda poster. Regardless of the accuracy of the claims made during what would be later dubbed a “modern day witch hunt”, the anti-communist caucus was large and growing larger. As a result, this new type of consumer required a new type of media to consume.
Thus Hollywood, taking advantage of public sentiment and a lack of governmental media related to the Cold War dove head first into the arena of propaganda. In the early years of the Cold War (between 1948–53), seventy explicitly anti-communist films were released. However, it was not the United States Office of War Information instructing the direction the films should take as they had in WWII. Rather special interest groups such as the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals were formed for the purpose of “defending the film industry, and the country as a whole, against what its founders claimed was communist and fascist infiltration.” The result of this was extremely ideologically based films such as
The melodramatic film reveals the evils of the Communist Party of America through the viewpoint of a recent recruit. Though, notably, there is seldom a mention of the Soviet Union or other communist powers throughout the course of the film. This was also the case in many other films of the period.
The end of Mccarthyism did not mark the end of Hollywood produced Cold War propaganda film. Instead, the industry adapted to fit the public demand just as it had done in years past. Films noticeably departed from being based more-so on communist ideology to actually focusing on the communists themselves, namely the Soviets. This happened in the form of spy films. They were used as an effective “weapon of confrontation between the two world systems.”
Even directors not typically known for the production of Cold War related propaganda films took advantage of the heightened demand for films pertaining to the conflict. Alfred Hitchcock’s
is perhaps one of the most famous examples of a propaganda spy film. The film, which chronicles the saga of an American scientist who pretends to defect behind the Iron Curtain in order to steal Soviet secrets, served to show the masses of American moviegoers the stark existence behind the Iron Curtain under communism.
It cannot be disputed that the propaganda of WWII and the Cold War had both a significant impact on both the conflict’s themselves, and American culture as a whole. However, a number of key differences, most notably the medium, message, and effectiveness of the implementation of American propaganda juxtaposes these two conflicts. Throughout this research paper I have sought to discover the motivation for the U.S. government to shift its propaganda techniques.