Culture during the Cold War

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The Cold War was reflected in culture through music, movies, books, and other media. One element of the Cold War often seen relates directly or indirectly to the threat of nuclear war. Another is the conflict between the superpowers in terms of espionage. Many works use the Cold War as a backdrop, or directly take part in fictional conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The period 1953-1962 saw Cold War themes first enter mainstream culture as a public preoccupation.

The Cold War was also reflected in the attitudes of people in their every day lives. The Hollywood blacklist determined who would create, work on, and star in motion pictures; in politics the House Un-American Activities Committee questioned those thought to be communist sympathizers; in the US Senate, Joseph McCarthy created difficulties for many as well.

Contents

[edit] Music

There were many protest songs during the 1980's that reflected general unease with the escalating tensions with the Soviet Union brought on by Ronald Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's hard line against the Soviets. For example, various musical artists wore military uniform-like costumes, as a reflection of the increased feeling of militarism seen in the 1980's. Songs symbollically showed the superpowers going to war, as in the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "Two Tribes." This song's MTV music video featured caricatures of US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko in a wrestling match. Other songs expressed fear of World War III, as Sting in the song "Russians" where Sting eloquently states "I don't subscribe to his [Reagan's or Kruschev's] point of view" (that Reagan would protect his people, or that Kruschev would "bury you"). Other examples include Sly Fox's "Let's go all the way," a song about "going all the way" to nuclear war; The Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" with its various references to the Cold War; the Genesis song "Land of Confusion" expressed a desire to make some sense out of the world, especially in relation to nuclear war.

Probably the most famous of the 1980's songs against increased confrontation between the Soviets and the Americans was Nena's "99 Luftballons," which described the events that could lead to a nuclear war.

Imperiet -- "Coca Cola Cowboys" -- a Swedish rock song about how the world is divided by two super powers that both claim to represent justice.

[edit] Movies and Television

[edit] Films depicting nuclear war (The Cold War gets Hot)

On the Beach
On the Beach

The 1959 film On the Beach, depicted a gradually dying, post-apocalyptic world in Australia that remained after a nuclear Third World War. Other films include:

[edit] Films depicting a conventional US/USSR war

In addition to fears of a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, there were also fears of a direct, large scale conventional conflict between the two superpowers.

  • Amerika (ABC, 1987), a peaceful takeover of the United States by the Soviet Union.
  • Red Dawn (1984) -- presented a conventional Soviet attack with limited, strategic Soviet nuclear strikes on the United States, aided by allies from Latin America, and the exploits of a group of high schoolers who form a guerrilla group to oppose them.
  • Invasion U.S.A. -- The 1952 film showed a Soviet invasion of the U.S. succeeding because the citizenry had fallen into moral decay, war profiteering, and isolationism. The film was later parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000. (This is not to be confused with the similarly-titled Chuck Norris action vehicle from 1985.)
  • A 1962 government-sponsored short subject, Red Nightmare, narrated by Jack Webb, imagined a Soviet-dominated America as a result of the protagonist's negligence of his "all-American" duties.

[edit] Films depicting Cold War Espionage

  • Firefox (film) The film details an American plot to steal a highly advanced Soviet fighter aircraft (MiG-31 Firefox) which is capable of Mach 6, is invisible to radar, and carries weapons controlled by thought.
  • James Bond first appeared in 1954. Fans loved the beautiful scarcely dressed women, exotic locations, tricky gadgets, and death-defying stunts. The films were based vaguely on the Cold War, but fans probably paid less and less attention to the politics. Bond movies followed the political climate in depicting Soviets and "Red" Chinese. In Casino Royale (1954), Bond was an American agent working with the British to destroy a ruthless Soviet agent in France, but he worked better as Agent 007, James Bond, of Her Majesty's Secret Service, was played by Sean Connery in 1971 and many actors since. Although the first Bond films involved the Cold War as a backdrop, later Bond films during the Cold War had with less and less Cold War and more and more sex and stunt work in each version.
  • «TASS Upolnomochen Zayavit...» (TASS is Authorized to Announce...) - a Soviet TV series based on Julian Semenov's novel. The plot of the movie is set around fictional African country Nagonia, where CIA agents are preparing a military coup, while KGB agent Slavin is trying to prevent it. Slavin succeeds by blackmailing the corrupt American spy John Glebe.

[edit] Films reflecting non-military competition between the superpowers

[edit] TV Shows

[edit] Arts

The U.S. and Russia engaged in a competition in the arts as well- mainly ballet. They would send previews of their country's ballets to prove their superiority. In the U.S., this caused a dramatic increase in government funding. In both countries, ballet was turned into powerful political propaganda, and they used dance to reflect life style in the "battle for the hearts and minds of men."

[edit] Musicals and Plays

  • Chess The game of chess was another mode of competition between the two superpowers, which the musical demonstrates.

[edit] Video Games

[edit] Books and other works regarding nuclear war

  • Masters of Deceit -- a non-fiction work written by the FBI, through J. Edgar Hoover's office, extolling the vices of Communism, and the virtues of Americanism. [2]

[edit] Commercials

Wendy's Hamburger Chain, had a commercial showing a "Soviet Fashion Show," with the same woman wearing the same outfit for various situations, the only difference being in the accessory she had with her.

Apple Computer's "1984" ad.

[edit] Sports

  • 1980 Boycott of the Summer Olympics by the US
  • 1984 Boycott of the Summer Olympics by the USSR

Jackie Robinson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, specifically stating that he was not a Communist. [3]

[edit] Politics

[edit] House Un-American Activities Committee

Main article: House Un-American Activities Committee

The House Un-American Activities Committee interfered in American cultural life through its questioning of actors, directors, and others who produced movies in Hollywood. The effect of this questioning was the Hollywood blacklist, and was felt far beyond Hollywood.

[edit] Political Campaigns

[edit] 1950 Defeat of Senator Claude Pepper

A pamphlet was circulated with the title The Red Record of Senator Claude Pepper, [4] which painted him as a communist sympathiser, and cost him the election. He later served in the US House of Representatives.

[edit] Daisy

Daisy the most famous campaign commercial of the Cold War. Aired only once on 7 September 1964, it was a factor in Lyndon B. Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.

The commercial begins with a sweet young girl standing in a meadow with chirping birds, picking the petals of a daisy while counting each petal slowly. Her sweet innocence and several mistakes in her counting endear her to the viewer. When she reaches "9", an ominous-sounding male voice is then heard counting down a missile launch, and as the girl eyes turns toward something she sees in the sky, the camera zooms in until her pupil fills the screen, blacking it out. When the countdown reaches zero, the blackness is replaced by the flash and mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion. The contrast between her sweet innocence and the harsh reality of nuclear war is very disturbing for many viewers.

As the firestorm rages, a voiceover from Johnson states, "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." Another voiceover then says, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."

[edit] 1976 Presidential Debate

In 1976, President Gerald Ford made a mistake in saying that he believed that Poland was free from Soviet influence.

[edit] Protest Culture

[edit] Other

Barbie -- Barbie represented the American way of life, because she was the ultimate consumer. [5]

[edit] References

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since August 2006.
  1. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War, page 66
  2. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War, page 68
  3. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War, page 194
  4. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War, page 29
  5. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War, page 71
  • Orwell, George. (1949). Nineteen-Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg. (later edn. ISBN 0-451-52493-4)

[edit] External links

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