The culture of the Cold War: key concepts and analysis

Culture of the Cold War

Espionage and the threat of nuclear drove the two superpowers. According to Whitfield, this is the point in time that highlighted the belief about other communist agents infiltrating the United States. This led to panic among government and military officials. Once this occurred, is when there was massive response to this threat leading to a Red Scare. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 27 -- 56)

True, with the character Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, is using him to show a loner who is patriotic. Yet, he is also above the law. As, he supports a variety of different anti-communist themes to include: helping U.S. troops in Korea and American involvement in Vietnam. Shows like this, encouraged people to do their part and report anyone they believed was a communist. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 153-178)

The five pieces of evidence that were used to illustrate the popularity of the U.S. Army in the 1950's were: in comic books, on television, radio, novels and newspapers. This is significant, because the combination of these tools were used to influence the public. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 101 -- 125)

4. The reason why Barbie was a Cold War figure was based upon the different American ideals that she embraced. Most notably: consumerism, living a fast paced lifestyle, freedom and personal wealthy. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 153-180)

5. No. In the 1950's Eisenhower advocated that all Americans should be practicing a religion of their choice. This is because he believed that, this gave everyone greater amounts of freedom in determining their own destiny. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 53-77)

6. The movie On the Waterfront was an example of how deep the anti-communist forces had penetrated inside Hollywood. What happened was the FBI gave their final approval of the script. During the process of writing it, there were a number of revisions that were required until they agreed. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 127-151)

7. In the movie My Son John what pushed the main character to become a communist was higher education. The viewpoint of the film, is when someone has become a communist you should confess everything that you know to government officials. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 127-151)

8. The way the movie High Noon is critical of the anti-communist movements in the 1950's is to depict Will Cane as a rationale person. This meant that he was focused on truth and justice. Instead, being swayed by outside elements. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 127-151)

9. American TV treated John Foster Dulles very easy. This is because they wanted to paint him as someone who was an elder statesman. The way that this led to the Vietnam War is to hide the truth from the public about what happens behind closed doors. As there was no lengthy debate about U.S. involvement. Instead, this was seen as something that everyone should support. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 205-229)

10. The reason why Whitfield believes that Paul Robeson deserved criticisms for things he said was because he was going after an already fearful system. This increased the chance of him eventually being targeted and black listed. (Whitfield, 1996, pp. 179-205)