US Propaganda and the Cold War: The Real Story

Everywhere people looked there was propaganda.“There were posters on every lamp post that read things such as “help the troops, buy war bonds”. In this article, what glorifies war was the propaganda that was portrayed through Hollywood movies. The movies consisted of “propaganda themes” that aimed at influencing the American people. “The propaganda consisted of six main themes: The Nature of the Enemy, The Nature of the Allies, The Need to Work, The Need to Fight, The Need to Sacrifice, and The Americans-What we are fighting for”. These themes were created to target the American people in some way. For instance, in the theme, “The nature of the Enemy”, “The goal of this was to make Americans hate the enemy so much that they were willing to do anything to help the United States defeat them”. This was also to build interest in people. In the film “Education for Death: the making of the Nazi” by Walt Disney, it showed how Nazis had absolute control over Germans lives and how the children in schools were being brainwashed by the Nazis, making them believe Germans are a superior race. This made it appealing to people to get involved because this type of propaganda made people feel bad for the

Analysis of “The Power of Words in Wartime” In her essay “The Power of Words in Wartime,” Robin Lakoff employs several exemplifications and historical facts to describe the copious reasons for the use of derogatory wartime language and its impact on war. For instance, Lakoff documents countless examples of the slanderous terms used by nations during wartime.

What is Realism? Realism is defined in the book as a school of thought that explains international relations in terms of power. This basically means that realism is a political view on global issues that puts stress on both the conflict side and the competition side in the scenarios. “Realists tend to treat political power as separate from, and predominant over, morality, ideology, and other social and economic aspects of life” (Goldstein 44). Now after learning all this information about realism, the question being asked is does it do a good job of explaining the end of the Cold War? Everyone can have their own answers and reasonings behind why they think it does or doesn 't explain it well enough. Realists view the Cold War as an attempt to keep the balance of power between the states and inside the states themselves. Neither states were able to dominant over everything or declare all out war against each other, therefore both the United States and the USSR would dominate international relations without a lot of conflict occurring.

War propaganda is a tactic often used throughout history in order to increase nationalism and involve citizens in war efforts. World War Two was no different when it came to the use of this propaganda. The United States specifically used all sorts of propaganda against the Axis powers. In particular, the United States targeted Japan with loads of racially charged wartime propaganda, and Japan did the same thing back at the United States. Two countries with vastly different customs and looks were quickly able to make propaganda that made the other side look like awful people to their own citizens. John Dower outlines this sort of propaganda in his novel War Without Mercy. In this novel, Dower goes over how propaganda is made effectively and

The novel, The Culture of the Cold War, is the all about the cold war and how that time period effected America in the 1960s. It talks about how the Cold War era haunted America with constant threats, and the talk of communism all across the nation. The author of the book, Stephen J. Whitfield, described that the Cold War gave the nation an identity crisis and that suspicion started to arise. The novel is very descriptive on that topic and elaborates on certain ideologies during that time.

During World War II, a lot of aggression was present among many nations. The textbook defines aggression, a physical or emotion behaviour that is deliberate to bring harm to others (Lilienfeld et al., 504). Some factors that evoke aggression are “interpersonal provocation, frustration, media influences, aggressive cues, arousal, alcohol, drugs, and temperature” (Lilienfeld et al., 505). Also an increase in testosterone, increases physical aggression (Lilienfeld et al., 506). Discrimination is a “negative behaviour toward members of out group” (Lilienfeld et al., 517). An example of discrimination from the textbook is when an Iowa school teacher Jane Elliot divides her class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed individuals (Lilienfeld et al., 518). She deprived blue-eyed kids from basic rights, and they soon became insecure and submissive (Lilienfeld et al., 518).Whereas the brown-eyed kids became arrogant and condescending (Lilienfeld et al., 518). In the TEDTalk, it is very clear that the Americans were discriminating and had an in-group bias, the “tendency to favour individuals within our group over those from outside the group”(Lilienfeld et al.,

Throughout history, there have been a multitude of examples of wars brought too close to home. At times, there comes a point in war where consideration of innocent lives becomes thin, and all energy is put towards war efforts, rather than any other aspect of human life. These points in history are referred to as total war. Examples of total war can be seen as far back as in the ancient civilizations of Rome and Persia, however, the paragon of total war can be found in World War Two. Based on the overall involvement of a vast multitude of civilians, economies and countries targeted and impacted throughout the war, World War Two is the strongest example of total war in American history.

The Cold War was a significant time for the United States and the Soviet Union, while the rest of the world watched intently. Although no actual war took place, both of these powerful countries did their best to promote their political and ideological ideas while trying to gain some ground in the seemingly never ending arms race. This war was driven by both fear and the strive to become the strongest and most powerful country. During the time of the Cold War, the United States proved to be a strong influence over Canada. Given its location, it was obvious as to which side Canada was on. While Canada believed in the same ideologies as the US, this nation was still reluctant to fully emerge themselves into the hysteria that had been emerging in the US. However, even though Canada had just received world recognition for its contribution during the Second World War, this large yet acutely populated country had much still to prove. During this time, Canada just recently became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But while Canada was making huge steps in their peacekeeping and military growth, there were still rumours of espionage circling the country.

During the second World War, the United States government produced and circulated several forms of propaganda with varying intentions. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, posters and leaflets dehumanizing the Japanese promoted racial and cultural hatred towards an entire country. Though the targets of American WWII propaganda varied, a major sentiment expressed throughout the war was a cultural and racial hatred toward Axis powers which emphasized stereotypes and harbored an unfounded hatred for an entire culture that acted as a short term causation for more Americans to support the war effort at home but also catalyzed long term effects such as the establishment of Japanese internment camps within the United States.

There were many tactics used by the United States in order to unify citizens because the government felt as if Americans didn’t know who the real villain was. The government thought it was necessary to get everyone on America’s side in order to, “convince men to go to war with the risk of sacrificing their life to kill others.” (From Lecture) In order to accomplish this, the U.S created the Committee on Public Information otherwise known as CPI that was headed by Herbert Hoover. Their task was to oversee all war propaganda and ensure that it met their standards. One way the CPI tried to persuade Americans included creating movies that informed Americans about how Germans or “Huns” were the ones that needed to be eradicated. Another form of

Matthew W. Dunne’s A Cold War State of Mind: Brainwashing and Postwar American Society, Dunne attempts to reconsider the history of postwar America through the idea of brainwashing and look at the mind-set the idea created. Very early in the novel he reminds the audience that this is not a piece of work written to examine the legitimacy of the method of brainwashing to control minds. Rather, he focuses on not only why brainwashing was so accepted by the American public, but also how it had many generations of the United States thinking that their individuality was under attack. The book spans from a time of external fears of the Communists using brainwashing techniques on Americans, then shifts to where the fear turned to the state of American

“People go to war because of how they see, perceive, picture, imagine and speak of others: that is, how they construct the difference of others as well as the sameness of themselves through representations,” they argue.

More than any other wars, the Cold War was fought with words, mainly through the media as psychological warfare. Popular culture was used as a decoy to sway the opinions of the general public in support of various governmental institutions. In East Germany, political propaganda was frequently incorporated into film, journalism, and the mass media to promote socialism. East Germany was a close ally to the Soviet Union who fought to keep western influences and capitalism out of their culture. To do so, films and newspapers idealized socialism and steered clear of capitalistic ideologies. In 1961 a permanent blockade was built as an “iron curtain” to keep East Germany completely

The fact that wars give rise to intensive propaganda campaigns has made many people suppose that propaganda is something new. The truth is, it is not. The battle with persuasion for power and men’s minds is as old as human history (Casey, 1994d)

After World War II, the United States had effectively become the most powerful and influential country in the world both militarily and politically. During America’s rise to power, however, hostilities mounted between America and the Soviet Union, resulting in a fierce rivalry. The Cold War, which never involved direct military confrontations between the two nations, involved of the struggle to contain the spread of communism, extreme anti-communist attitudes in America, and a reemergence of the civil rights issue.