Propaganda In The Cold War: Washington's Dove Of Peace

Soviet Propaganda

Famous for its lack of direct warfare, the majority of battles in the Cold War were fought via propaganda. Although the theme of the propaganda between the United States of America and the Soviet Union ranged from the science to sports, I focused on the nuclear arms race. The first poster I analyzed, named “Washington’s Dove of Peace”, was created by a Soviet civilian with military ties. This is evidenced by the fact that the language is Russian, and the blatant targeting of the USA. The poster consisted of a gang of criminals, representing Americans, stuffing a dove with an atomic bomb (with a “US” label), accompanied with the statement “Though artfully disguised, it does not hide your cowardice”. However, the creator can be narrowed down to a civilian related to the military because of the context of the poster. It was most probably released after the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan (August 6, 1945), and before the Soviet Union tested their first atomic bomb (August 29, 1949). This is corroborated by the fact that the poster explicitly criticizes the use of atomic bombs. The Soviet military was the most upset about Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This technique contributes to the overall message as it creates an incentive to hoard atomic bombs. Consequently, the effectiveness of the poster is extremely high as it instills just the right amount of fear in the Americans, mirroring the “Goldilocks Effect”.

Other than fear, the poster uses bad logic to contribute to the overall message and propagate the worldview. The poster draws a conclusion that because the Soviet Union could nuke the USA, even though that would never make sense, the notion is enough reasoning to annihilate a complete nation. However, the technique is very effective because it draws the connection between the the Soviet Union have nukes and the need for the USA to hoard