The Cold War and Political Cartoons

Criticizing Arms Race
The artist of the cartoon is criticizing the countries which put large amounts of money into trying to build more and better weapons to attack other countries. This cartoon shows the negative side effects of the massive spending on the arms race. Like what the US President, Eisenhower, pointed out, “every gun that is made…a theft from those whose hunger…those who are cold…” Too much money had been spent on the arms race, less money could be provided for the public’s use. The more money spent on the arms race, the more people are left hungry and cold. The artist of this cartoon thinks that such action taken by these countries are futile and that they should have been trying to improve the lives of their people instead of trying to make both the lives of their people and the lives of the other countries’ people worse.
Image from:
Longman History Project: Superpower Rivalry p 40

Agent Orange Cartoon
The artist of the cartoon is criticizing the Americans and their war tactics. By drawing an old, mean looking man holding a bottle labeled Agent Orange, the artists shows that the Americans were bad and evil for having used Agent Orange to get rid of their obstacles. Agent Orange, as mentioned above, was a harmful toxic that was meant to kill trees. However, not only were trees harmed, large numbers of people were also affected by Agent Orange. By putting the quote “I can do anything to you in the US Army”, the artist is implying that the US always gets things to go their way, even if it may mean causing unnecessary damages. The artist criticize the US for not have fully understood the effects of the toxic that they were spraying over Vietnam.
Image from:
http://www.hannekevanveen.nl/assets/images/agent-orange.jpg

MAD
The artist of the cartoon is against war. This is a cartoon that shows the aftermath of missiles from both superpowers bombing each other. The skulls in the cartoon represent the death of people, and by making the skulls big in comparison to the size of the cartoon itself, it shows that many people will die as a result of such bombardment. By having gravestones with the words “hope”, “peace” and “justice” craved on them, it shows that hope, peace and justice will perish. “The cost is the earth” – these words, written with a sloppy handwriting, tell the viewers that such action cannot be allowed to happen, for it will lead to the destruction of the world.
Image from:
http://www.mohawkradio.com/showdates/mad/madflyer.jpg

Korean War Propaganda
The artist is Chinese and he criticizes Russia for leading China into a war that she did not ask for, nor did want to join. The writing in Chinese says that the Chinese soldiers were forced by the Russians to help them fight (in the Korean War). In the cartoon there are three men – to the furthest left labeled Russian pushing a Chinese general, and a Chinese soldier being pushed by the general into the fire labeled to be the Korean War. Having made the Russian and Chinese general look like they were applying large amount of force in trying to push the Chinese soldier into the fire, and the soldier with a grumpy face trying all he could go back out from the fire, the artist is implying that the Chinese soldiers did not want to take part in the Korean War.
Image from:
http://www.psywar.org/psywar/images/thumbnails/1951716701.jpg