IndexIntroductionUnder PropagandaPropaganda in CinemaPropaganda in LiteratureConclusionIntroductionMention the Cold War to young adults, people much like me, and you will typically get reactions of feigned interest at best and indifference in the better than worse. Compare this reaction to what you find by asking someone who actually experienced the crisis and the difference is astonishing. For those who lived through the Cold War, a view of hatred and derision towards the Soviet Union and even modern Russia is much more common. This perspective does not consider citizens of the former Soviet Union as ordinary people who simply live in another country. Instead, the Soviet Union is seen as a demonic entity bent on causing destruction and evil wherever it goes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To understand how pervasive this defamation of the Soviet Union was, take for example a speech given by US President Ronald Reagan to the National Association of Evangelicals at the University of Virginia on March 3, 1983. In this speech the president Reagan addressed the crowd, exhorting them: Beware the temptation of pride, the temptation to blithely... uh... declare yourself above it all and label both sides equally guilty, ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, simply call the arms race a gigantic misunderstanding and thus distance ourselves from the struggle between right and wrong and between good and evil. the American president has never hesitated to talk about the Soviet Union, as an “evil empire” many speak of the demonization of the USSR by the United States. In the same speech, President Reagan compared the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union not simply as a war between armies, but rather as a war of spiritual ideals, stating: “I have always maintained that the struggle now underway for The world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is spiritual; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith. By likening the Cold War between the United States to a spiritual battle and calling the enemy evil, President Reagan opened the door to further demonization of the Soviet Union. let's say that President Reagan was the first to demonize the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The attitude of fear and hatred that emerged during the Cold War era did not simply appear out of nowhere. Indeed, in the more than thirty years preceding his speech in Charlottesville, Virginia, the demonization of the communist USSR was already in full swing. Rooted in the paradigm of territoriality that has been seen throughout history (i.e., the ancient struggle between Judaism, Christianity and Islam over the holy sites at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the modern competition between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza Strip ), the Cold War led the United States to vilify the Soviet Union as the embodiment of evil, rather than seeing it as a people in its own right. Unlike other examples of the territoriality paradigm, competition between the United States was not isolated to a specific location. . Instead, the goal of the United States and other Western powers was to limit the expansion of communist powers into other parts of the world. Gaining popular support for efforts to counter the spread of the Soviet Union and its communist system was not a difficult task for the United States, as it effectively used propaganda and speechesincendiaries in cinema, literature and everyday life to mark the Soviets as an evil enemy who could not be allowed to succeed at all costs. Under the Propaganda While an unquestionable amount of Russian anti-communist propaganda was spread in the United States, during the Cold War, an undeniable fear of war with the USSR was the driving force that fueled the propaganda (which in turn fueled a greater fear of 'Soviet Union). The tension between the United States and the USSR was not created in a vacuum. To understand the origin of this fear, it is necessary to look at the history of communism in the Soviet Union and the closely related history of communism in the United States. In what was officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, Russia's Provisional Government that had been established after the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy in 1912, was itself overthrown by the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party which led to war civil and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. These events were the source of great panic regarding workers' revolution and political radicalism in the United States, resulting in the first Red Scare. Political scientist Murray B. Levin described the Red Scare as: “A nationwide anti-radical hysteria brought on by a growing fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America was imminent – ​​a revolution that would change the Church, the home, marriage, civilization and society”. the American lifestyle. In the United States, workers' strikes were increasingly viewed with fear and derision. Support for the strike from foreign left-wing organizations such as the International Workers of the World did little to allay fears held about the working class. In response to a series of attacks by political anarchists, the Palmer Raids were initiated, resulting in the deportation of left-wing immigrants, including members of the Communist Labor Party of America. The advent of the Great Depression led many communists, both foreign and domestic, to believe that Karl Marx's prediction of the collapse of capitalism was coming true. The Communist Party of America reached new heights of popularity during the early 1930s, marked by organizing the working poor and supporting African Americans against prejudice. 1932 saw the election of Franklin Roosevelt, quickly followed by union organizing. Although the Communist Party of America continued to field its own candidates during elections of this era, it generally tolerated Democrats as the lesser of two evils. American Communism saw a brief surge in popularity at the start of World War II, but numbers quickly declined after Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with fascist Nazi Germany and did not recover after the Soviet Union joined the Allies against Hitler. In the aftermath of World War II, President Truman's Pledge of Allegiance program legitimized the reputation of Communists as subversives who needed to be exposed. This attitude persisted throughout the Cold War. With the advent of the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers in the 1950s, the territoriality paradigm was used even more effectively due to the Soviet invasion into countries neighboring the United States and its anti-communist allies. it was seen as an explicit nuclear threat. The conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union was just one example of the American response to this threat. Indeed, the fear of nuclear Armageddon with the Soviet Union was one of the most powerful agents in demonizing the Soviet Union. theirpeople, while the United States government and its citizens began to worry about the escalation of nuclear arsenals. One result of this concern was the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, also known as mutual deterrence, which was outlined in a speech by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on September 18, 1967. It is important to understand that assured destruction is the true essence of the entire concept of deterrence. We must have a real assured destruction capability, and that capability must also be credible. The point is that a potential attacker must believe that our capability for assured destruction is indeed effective and that our willingness to use it in retaliation for an attack is in fact unshakable. The conclusion, then, is clear: If the United States wants to deter itself or its allies from a nuclear attack, it must possess a real and credible assured destruction capability. This line of thinking led to further escalation of the arms race and increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. By portraying the Soviet Union as the antithesis of the United States and a threat to its very existence, the Soviet Union was dehumanized and vilified at all levels of American society. During the 1960s the Cold War reached new heights with the construction of the Berlin Wall. , the Cuban missile crisis in the fall of 1962, and the growing competition of the space race following Soviet Yuri Gagarin's successful journey into space and President Kennedy's announcement of the race to the moon. During this period, the Cold War struggle between the United States and the USSR was increasingly seen as an ideological battle. American capitalism clashed with Soviet communism. Consumerism, lauded as the flagship of American society, was contrasted with the utilitarianism of the USSR. Perhaps an even bigger problem was the religious dichotomy between the two superpowers. In the Billy Graham Evangelical Association's Hour of Decision, Billy Graham used his influence to crusade against the Soviet Union, intertwining Christian teachings with anti-Communist sentiment. A staunch supporter of Joseph McCarthy and other "Cold Warriors," Graham condemned those who would allow communism to take root in America, stating, "The mysterious pull of this satanic religion is so strong that it has led some American citizens to become traitors , betraying a benevolent land that had showered them with countless blessings, attracting some of our famous entertainers, some of our best politicians, and some of our outstanding educators Christian leaders contributed greatly to the defamation of the USSR. They effectively turned the Cold War into a holy war and condemned those who did not defend the so-called Christian lands such as the United States and other democratic nations they give an idea of ​​America that is difficult to portray in any other way.” , and the reason, the main reason, we think, is because our photos are not obvious propaganda. This statement was made by Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, during his testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in June 1953. However, only because propaganda in Cold War-era cinema wasn't obvious, doesn't mean it was ineffective. Indeed, American cinema's subtlety in promoting capitalist values ​​and demonizing communism was perhaps its greatest asset. Hollywood executives boasted about producingbenevolent, even-handed entertainment since the dawn of the film industry, but in truth American cinema has been political since its inception. In particular, the American film industry has historically been biased against extremism in many forms. Long before the Cold War, Hollywood turned against Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In what has become known as the first Red Scare of 1918-1920, the film industry portrayed the Russian Bolsheviks as murderers, rapists, and anarchists in silent films such as Dangerous Hours (1920) and Starvation (1920). While the more violent images of Russians depicted in Hollywood largely subsided during the 1920s and 1930s, subtle criticisms of Communist Russians as humorless, old-fashioned, and uncaring in films made during that period were probably more effective thanks to their credibility. before World War II they were different from their successors in that the US government had no direct involvement in their production. However, by the time of World War II, the Hollywood film industry was effectively being used, at the request of the Office of War Information (OWI) in the United States, as a propaganda agent: extolling the evils of fascism, calling for support from Allied nations and asking citizens to do their part by buying bonds, going to work or saving resources. At the request of the OWI, the American film industry produced films that portrayed Allied Communist Russia in a positive light in films such as Mission to Moscow (1943) and Tender Comrade (1943) during World War II. World War. In these films, and others like them, the Soviet Union was depicted valiantly defending the Eastern Front from Japan, although in reality the Soviet effectiveness as a buffer was largely due to the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact signed in 1941. In the 1940s, Hollywood had a new enemy to demonize, and the change in direction led to a series of problems that would come back to haunt it, including but not limited to the praise given to Russian allies in films made during World War II. However, the ties established between Hollywood and the OWI would be useful in producing propaganda against the Soviet Union for years to come. Under the watchful eyes of conservative Hollywood groups like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and federal agencies like the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the film industry has been quick to demonize the Soviet Union if it meant taking the pressure off their pro-Communist films of the past. Some members of Hollywood didn't even need government pressure; big names like Walt Disney and John Wayne were staunch conservatives and willingly helped create films with anti-Soviet agendas. The "Hollywood blacklist" was an effort by HUAC to reveal whether communist sympathizers had planted propaganda in American films. Based on accusations made by Hollywood elite such as then-Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan, screenwriters, directors and other entertainers were called before Congress to testify whether they had ever had involvement in the Communist Party. Ten of those subpoenaed refused to testify, citing First Amendment rights, and were held in contempt of Congress. These “Hollywood Ten” were banned from working until they were cleared of the charges and swore they had no communist affiliation. The list of names added to this "Hollywood blacklist" would continue to grow until the early 1960s, when member.