Cold War Photo Gallery

Man on moon VS man in space
During the arms race, to show their country was better, both countries tried to improve their technology. By improving the technology of their country people will think that either way or ruling, capitalism or communism, is better and thus become a country ruled by that way of thinking. One of the main achievements was being able to send human beings into space. On April 12, 1961, Russia was able to send Yuri Gagarin of Russia into space, given the title of first man in space. The United States was in return put Neil Armstrong on the moon on July 21, 1969. I like this photo because I would also like to go to space and these two men helped open the door for human beings to go to outer space.
Images from:
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/145500/145757LQsp_w.jpg
http://www.spaceistheplace.ca/gagarin1.jpg

Burning Monk
This is one of the most famous images of the Vietnam War. President Diem of South Vietnam was a corrupted leader. He was a strict Christian and opposed of all the other religions. Among the religions that he hated was Buddhism. He mistreated Buddhist people so badly that monks chose to burn themselves to death over having to live under the rule of Diem. Yet Diem did nothing to improve his way of ruling in order to stop the monks from burning themselves. I chose this picture because I want everyone to know how cruel and disgusting a ruler Diem was.
Image from:

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/photo1_sm.jpg

Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuba had always been a target of the United States because Cuba was a communist country that lied only a few kilometers away from the states. Cuba had asked for aid from Russia, and this is a photo of the set up of a launch site with missiles that came from Russia. On October 14, U-2 reconnaissance of United States took a series of photos like the ones shown above and alarmed the US forces to aim their arms on Cuba. Images like this could have been the trigger to the beginning of a nuclear war. I chose this photo because I admire the advanced technology of spying and secret services and how they can get precise information without being detected.
Image from:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/images/phot_1962_cmissilecrisis.jpg

Agent Orange
As a result of the well trained fighters of Vietnam the United States had to use their advanced technology to get rid of obstacles that laid in their way, such as the trees, and one of the technologies that were used was “Agent Orange”. However, the US did not fully understand the effects of the toxic that they were spraying over Vietnam. Both living Vietnamese and American soldiers and babies to be given birth by these people were affected by this toxic. The picture above is a picture of a baby bore by parents who were affected by Agent Orange. I chose this picture because I am discouraged by the actions of the United States. They chose to use things that they did not fully understand about, including the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Image from:
http://www.amber-online.com/visuals/philip_jones_grnt_2.jpg

Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War. To keep massive numbers of East Berliners (under Russia’s communist control) from moving to West Berlin (under United States’ capitalist control), Russian leaders decided to start their construction of a wall around West Berlin on Sunday August 13, 1961. The wall made many people lose their jobs and separated family members and friends. When the Berlin Wall was broken in November 1989, people knew and felt that the Cold War was coming to an end. This photo is filled with happiness and it gives me a warm feeling to see this much people finally able to reunite after the long years of the Cold War.
Image from:
http://www.andreas.com/pixs/berlinwall.jpg

Duck and Cover
During the Cold War people were always in fear of the war becoming a missile war at any second of their daily lives. In school images like the one above was shown to students, and students were instructed to “duck” under the desks and “cover” themselves when they are informed that a missile will be attacking their area, thinking that such action would protect them from being hurt by the missiles. However such action is considered to be completely useless because the missile war that would have occurred during that time would bring about total destruction to the earth – MAD. I chose this photo because it is a simple, yet effective drawing. I like the idea of using a turtle shell to show that the turtle is ducking inside its shell.
Image from:
http://planetmiles.net/Images/duckandcover.gif

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

The Cold War and Maps

Domino Theory
This is the map that supported President Eisenhower of the US's ‘Domino Theory’. This theory explains that if people do not take action in stopping the communist Russia and China from invading other countries in South East Asia, then all the countries would eventually all become under communist rule, falling like dominos – one country after another. With his theory, Eisenhower warns other nations and itself that when all the nations had fallen under communist rule, the communist fever will move around the world and, eventually, be able to make the whole world a communist state. On the map arrows with a communist symbol are drawn from communist countries, such as China, to non-communist countries, such as Thailand, showing that communists are on their move to invading and conquering these countries with their communist ideas.
Image from:
http://www.johndclare.net/images/Domino_theory_full.GIF

Missiles Deployed in Europe
This map shows how bad the tension was between the two superpowers. America, being in fear of Russian attacks, had located some of their missiles in proxy countries such as Britain, France and Italy. The more missiles deployed closer to Russia, the more tension forced Russia to produce more powerful nuclear weapons. This tension only made fear of MAD rise higher and higher, especially in Europe. Europe was the land between USA and Russia, and Europe was where many US missiles were hid. If the Cold War did really turn into a missile war, Europe would, with no doubt, be severely damaged.
Image from:
Longman History Project: Superpower Rivalry p 36

Using your Historical Imagination

Hey!

How are you doing there in Thailand? Britain is nothing but a disaster man! I’m sure that you have already heard about the US missiles in Europe. I’m sure you also know about the other few billions of missiles scattered around the world. And incase you have not been notified … I happen to be living on the land in between the two rivalry superpowers!!! Heck with the Cold War! People hear in Europe live in dear of being blown up any second … and it’s no fun at all. I participated in a demonstration today *Thank God demonstrations exist* Hundreds of people, including me, stayed resting on the ground blocking the way to the Cruise Missile base at Greenham Common. Many people feel the same fear that I am facing and there is no way that we are going to let these mindless army people get to the missile bases to start off World War III and blow us up! We didn’t know if the police would take us to jail or would they just run over us with their big fat tanks like the Tian An Men incident in China. Lol. I stayed there for a few hours and the place got a little too tight and humid. But overall the experience was fun, and if sure feels good to know that there are still people out there who are concerned about this issue and are willing to fight against it! It’s been a while since I’ve gone back to visit Thailand. Are there demonstrations back in Thailand too?
Peace (I’m not sure if I still know the meaning of the word anymore =P)
Your friend,
George Shakespeare

PS Yeah I saw the TV people taking videos of us at the demonstration – I’m going to be on TV man!! Want my autograph? >”<