How did propaganda play a role in the Cold War? During the Cold War, propaganda was a powerful weapon used by both the US and the Soviet Union in their battle for control over the world. Propaganda had many different forms like TV, the Internet, etc., cultural diplomacy, and psychological warfare and it played an important role in shaping and influencing public opinion and accomplishing strategic goals. This essay explores the complex role played by propaganda throughout the Cold War and takes a look at how it changed the public opinion and had a lasting effect on worldwide politics. Definition of propaganda Propaganda is the intentional distribution of information through various means to influence the public opinion. It's characterized by …show more content…
Friendship!” Soviet Union, early 1950s. Emotional appeal Both sides used fear, also known as fear mongering, as a powerful tool to manipulate the emotions of the people. Propaganda typically portrays the enemy as an apathetic threat to national security and emphasizes the potential consequences of their actions, like what could be nuclear war or communist infiltration. By instilling fear, propaganda was meant to rally public support for aggressive foreign policies and military buildup. The height of anti-Soviet fear occurred during the McCarthy era, marked by the House Un-American Activities Committee's successful campaign to purge leftist individuals (communists, socialists, and those critical of capitalism) from various areas including media, arts, music, publishing, unions, academia, Hollywood, and government. This resulted in a cultural backlash. Cold War propaganda became deeply intertwined with American commercial culture. Everyone was instilled with fear, and the constant reminders of a potential Soviet nuclear threat did not help. These eventually led to mandatory air raid drills where children had to practice "duck and cover" for safety. The propaganda campaign effectively tattered the term "socialism" for generations to come (Sage Journals). Figure
With the onset of the Cold War, a growing Red Scare would cripple American society – effectively plunging the nation into mass hysteria and unrest over the fallacious threat of communist infiltration. This reaction was precipitated by Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy, in his speech, “Enemies from Within”, delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950. McCarthy paints communists in a particularly harsh light to generate anti-Soviet sentiment within the American public. He uses juxtaposition to engender both indignation and fear in the audience to achieve this effect.
Both the superpowers have made use of the propaganda to fight the Cold War. Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause of point of view. Especially, the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics efficiently manipulated the prop...
Words and images were silent weapons used by all governments involved during World War II. Wars are generally fought between soldiers, but the different ideologies often meet on the battlefield as well. The support of the people is crucial during these times since general knowledge of strength relies on numbers. Propaganda targets people’s emotions and feelings and changes people’s perception about a particular idea, people, or situation. Propaganda goes hand in hand with the art of persuasion and convincing; these tools can control and manipulate the collective minds of a massive amount of its audience.
President Eisenhower implemented policies in order to keep Communism and Communist threats of war out of the United States, but these policies caused much fear in the American people concerning Soviet bombings and Communist spies. One such fear-inducing policy was McCarthyism, which was began by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and involved blaming innocent people for Communist activity in America, and President Eisenhower did not stop this incrimination of guiltless U.S. citizens. Eisenhower states in Document A that investigators either implementing McCarthyism or working for groups such as HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) were spreading hysteria among Americans, as they feared spies and deceit, as well as being accused as such by people who implemented McCarthyism. Paranoia of being thought of as, or blamed for being a Communist caused much conformity among Americans in order to seem “normal”, as well as a return to religion and traditional family values. Desp...
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon once said, “Communism is never sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” From 1919 – 1921, a hysteria over the perceived threat of communism spread like wildfire across the nation. Known as the First Red Scare, the widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism quickly invaded the infrastructure of the U.S. government and radically influenced the American people. American citizens, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, were convicted and found crimes that evidence showed otherwise only because they supported anarchism. The US government arrested and deported radicals only because of their political standing. Although The First Red Scare may have begun as a cultural movement, private business owners actually catalyzed and facilitated the wide spread hysteria over communism.
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
The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now. Major and still important was the First Red Scare stemming from the First World War’s end and America’s Great Depression beginning to kick off. With food and living expenses drastically increasing certain propaganda began to appear.
Beginning in the late 1940s, as the Cold War escalated between the United States, the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China, the United States went through a period of intense anti-communist tensions and suspicion. Many thousands of individuals were suspected of being Soviet spies, Communists, or communist sympathizers. Although the American Communist Party was never illegal under Federal law, membership in the party or support of its goals were regarded by many as tantamount to treason. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of this era of anti-communism. The term McCarthyism was coined that same year to describe and condemn the senator's methods, which were widely seen as demagogic and based on reckless, unsubstantiated accusations. Later the term was applied more generally to the anti-communism of the late 1940s through the late 1950s; today, it is often used even more broadly, to describe public attacks made on persons' character and/or patriotism that involve the sort of tactics associated with McCarthy.
The attitude of the citizens of the United States was a tremendous influence on the development of McCarthyism. The people living in the post World War II United States felt fear and anger because communism was related with Germany, Italy, and Russia who had all at one point been enemies of the United States during the war. If the enemies were communists then, communists were enemies and any communists or even communist sympathizers were a threat to the American way of life. "From the Bolshevik Revolution on, radicals were seen as foreign agents or as those ...
Along with the Korean War, many Americans were also affected by the tensions between America and communist Russia. The Russian hydrogen bomb of 1953 had scared people into believing that Communist Russia could start an atomic war, ending life as most people had known it. Scholars of the time period were scared to teach anything about what Marxism (communism) was about. According to Daily Life in the United States, 1940-1959, Shifting Worlds (Kaldin, 2000). There were also very few communists teaching at universities such as Harvard during the 1950s because of the fear that Americans had of communists during this time. From the years 1951 to 1957, 300 teachers were fired from New York City public schools because they did not give the names of teachers who were supposedly communists. This shows how uneasy of a topic communism was for Americans to talk about, even when the culture had started to become more liberal towards the end of the decade, when the 1960s began.
Propaganda is intended for those who are seeking a greater understanding of what goes on in the minds of those
Snowball, David. "Propaganda and its Discontents." Journal of Communication 49.3 (2009): 165-71. ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Both powers waged a war of global politics and misinformation, with propaganda posters playing a critical role in the Cold War. These posters serve as a powerful tool for shaping public opinion, both in the US and for the Soviets,
ABSTRACT: The topic of incarceration often relates to conversations of systematic oppression and culture of policing and profiling in America. Within the United States, Tennessee is one of the states with the highest rates of incarceration; Tennessee’s incarceration rates are consistently higher than the national average. The composition of those incarcerated in Tennessee was the primary intention of this research and analysis of data. Prior to conducting analysis of the data, we hypothesized that a disparity would exist between incarceration rates of African American residents and those of White residents. The data used are from the Vera Institute of Justice and the Tennessee Department of Corrections, specifically incarceration statistics
The Media Effects of the Cold War Between the USA and the Soviet Union Media or medium of communication has been conceptualized to effect and drive information to the greater masses because it’s the venue where information can be a linear form of communication. This essay will discuss what it means by media according to online Business Dictionary definitions as the communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated.” This may include broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet, the Business Dictionary further includes in this definition. From this definition of media, it has a certain wide effect and impact upon the audience to which it is addressed. The impact upon the audience can be positive or negative.