Cold War Propaganda in the USA

A Culture of Fear

Water Contrasts

IS THIS TOMORROW? AMERICA UNDER COMMUNISM (Published by the CATECHETICAL GUILD Educational Society,1947)

 

 

 

Task

 

1. Read the booklet entitled "Is this tomorrow? America under communism" .

  • Introduce the document: nature, source, historical context.
  • Study the cover: what does it show? What types of feelings is it meant to evoke and how does it achieve its aim?
  • Summarize the main ideas contained in the booklet:
  1. Inside cover and page 4:
  2. page 5:
  3. pages 6 and 7:
  • What other messages (other than the direct purpose message) are being sent
    by this propaganda?

2. Look at this 1950 Civil Defense booklet:

  • What new element of fear appears here? Why?
  • What is the purpose of this publication? Is it the same as the previous document?
  • How did this type of document contribute to the Culture of Fear during the Cold War?

3. Read these excerpts from Senator Joseph McCarthy's speech at Wheeling, West Virginia on Feb 9, 1950:

Five years after a world war has been won, men's hearts should anticipate a long peace—and men's minds should be free from the heavy weight that comes with war. But this is not such a period—for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of “the cold war.” This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps—a time of a great armament race.
Today we can almost physically hear the mutterings and rumblings of an invigorated god of war. You can see it, feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores of Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself. [...]
The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral. [...]
Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. [...]
Six years ago, . . . there was within the Soviet orbit, 180,000,000 people. Lined up on the antitotalitarian side there were in the world at that time, roughly 1,625,000,000 people. Today, only six years later, there are 800,000,000 people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia—an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500,000,000. In other words, in less than six years, the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. [...]
I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department...

4. Watch the video "When they drop the atomic bomb" or read the song lyrics: In what way is this a propaganda song?

5. Look at these two cartoons:

What is the message of the cartoonist?