How the Soviet Union Was Demonized in the United States feigned, at best, and indifference at best. worse. Compare this reaction to what you find when you interview someone who actually lived through the crisis and the difference is stark. For those who lived through the Cold War, a view of hatred and derision toward the Soviet Union and even modern Russia is much more common. This perspective does not view citizens of the former Soviet Union as ordinary people simply living 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 Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayTo understand how pervasive this vilification of the Soviet Union was, take for example a speech given by the President of the United States Ronald Reagan at the National Association of Evangelicals at the University of Virginia, March 3, 1983. In this speech, President Reagan addressed the crowd, exhorting them: "Beware of the temptation to pride—the temptation to... uh... blithely declare yourself above all else and call 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 withdraw from the struggle between good and evil, between good and evil. the American president has never hesitated to speak about the Soviet Union, as an “evil empire” speaks en masse about the demonization of the USSR by the United States. In that same speech, President Reagan compared the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union not simply to a war between militaries, but rather to a war of spiritual ideals, stating: "I have always maintained that The ongoing struggle for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is spiritual; at its core, it is a test of moral will and faith. By comparing the Cold War struggle 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. 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 did not appear out of nowhere. In fact, in the 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 observed throughout history (i.e. the ancient struggle between Judaism, Christianity and Islam for the holy sites of Jerusalem's Temple Mount and the modern competition between Israel and Palestine for the Gaza Strip), the Cold War led the United States to denigrate the Soviet Union as a personification of evil, instead of seeing it as a people in its own right. Unlike other examples of the territoriality paradigm, competition between the United States was not limited to a specific location. . Instead, the goal of the United States and other Western powers was to limit the expansion of communist powers in other parts of the world. Building popular support for efforts to thwart the spreadof the Soviet Union and its communist system was not a difficult task for the United States, as it effectively used propaganda and inflammatory speeches in films, literature, and daily life to make the Soviets a leading country. evil enemy who could not be allowed to succeed at any cost. Under the Propaganda While an undeniable amount of Russian anti-communist propaganda was disseminated in the United States, during the Cold War, the undeniable fear of war with the USSR was the driving force that fueled the propaganda (which, in turn, , fueled greater fear of the Soviet Union). The tension between the United States and the USSR did not arise in a vacuum. In order to understand the source of this fear, it is necessary to examine 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, the Russian Provisional Government which had been established after the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy in 1912, was itself overthrown by the Bolshevik faction of the Social Labor Party -Russian Democrat, which led to the Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. These events caused a great panic about workers' revolution and political radicalism in the United States, triggering the first red scare. Political scientist Murray B. Levin described the Red Scare as "a nationwide anti-radical hysteria brought on by growing fear and anxiety about an impending Bolshevik revolution in America—a revolution that would change the Church, home, marriage, civility and the American way of life. Increasingly, strikes in the United States have been viewed with fear and derision. Support for the strike from foreign left-wing organizations such as the World Workers' International has done little to allay the fears raised by the working class. In response to a series of bombings carried out by political anarchists, the Palmer Raids were launched, 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 I believe that Karl Marx's prediction about the collapse of capitalism is coming true. The American Communist Party reached new heights of popularity in the early 1930s, marked by organizing the working poor and supporting African Americans against prejudice. 1932 saw the election of Franklin Roosevelt, followed quickly by labor organizing. While the Communist Party USA continued to field its own candidates in elections of that era, it generally tolerated Democrats as the lesser of two evils. American communism enjoyed a brief surge in popularity at the start of World War II, but its numbers quickly fell after Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with fascist Nazi Germany and did not recover after the The Soviet Union joined the Allies against Hitler. In the aftermath of World War II, President Truman's loyalty oath program legitimized the reputation of communists as subversives who needed to be exposed. This attitude would persist throughout the Cold War. With the advent of the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers in the 1950s, the paradigm of territoriality was used even more effectively due to Soviet encroachment on countries close to the United States and its anti-communist allies. was considered an explicit nuclear threat. The conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for passing on secretsatomic bombs to the Soviet Union were 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 the demonization of the Soviet Union. their people, as the United States government and its citizens began to worry about escalating 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 very solution. the essence of the whole concept of deterrence. We must have a real capability for assured destruction, and that capability must also be credible. The point is that a potential aggressor must believe that our capacity for assured destruction is in fact real, and that our willingness to use it in retaliation for an attack is in fact unwavering. The conclusion is therefore clear: if the United States wants to deter a nuclear attack against itself or its allies, it must possess a real and credible capacity for assured destruction. This line of thinking led to a further escalation of the arms race and greater 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 from the space race after Soviet Yuri Gagarin's successful trip to space and President Kennedy's announcement of the race to the Moon. At this time, the Cold War between the United States and the USSR was increasingly seen as a battle of ideologies. American capitalism collided with Soviet communism. Consumerism, considered the jewel of American society, opposed 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 lead a crusade against the Soviet Union, blending 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 driven some citizens Americans to become traitors. betraying a benevolent land that had showered them with countless blessings. It has attracted some of our famous artists, some of our best politicians and some of our exceptional educators. By using Christian rhetoric to denounce the communist Soviet Union, Billy Graham and other Christian leaders contributed greatly to the defamation of the Soviet Union. USSR. They effectively made the Cold War a holy war and condemned those who did not defend so-called Christian lands, such as the United States and other democratic countries. Propaganda in cinema “The images give an idea of America that is difficult to represent otherwise. , and the reason, the main reason, in our opinion, is that our images 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, this is not because propagandaIn Cold War-era cinema it wasn't obvious that this meant it was ineffective. In fact, American cinema's subtlety in promoting capitalist values and demonizing communism was perhaps its greatest asset. Hollywood executives have prided themselves on producing innocuous, unbiased entertainment since the beginning of the film industry, but in reality, 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 targeted Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In what became known as the First Red Scare of 1918-1920, the film industry portrayed Russian Bolsheviks as murderers , rapists and anarchists in silent films such as Dangerous Hours (1920) and Famine (1920). While the more violent images of Russians depicted in Hollywood largely toned down during the 1920s and 1930s, the subtle criticisms leveled at communist Russians as humorless, old-fashioned and indifferent in films made during this era were arguably more effective because of their credibility. before World War II were different from their successors in that the United States government was not directly involved in their production. However, by the time of World War II, the Hollywood film industry was effectively used at the request of the Office of War Information (OWI) in the United States as an agent of propaganda: extolling the evils of fascism, asking 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 depicting 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 as valiantly defending the Eastern Front against Japan, although in reality Soviet effectiveness as a buffer was largely due to Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact signed in 1941. By the 1940s, Hollywood had a new enemy to demonize, and changes in leadership led to a number of problems that would come back to haunt them, including but not limited to limit, the praise addressed to the Russian allies in films made during the Second World War. Nevertheless, the connections established between Hollywood and the OWI would be useful in producing propaganda against the Soviet Union in the years to come. Under the watchful eye of Hollywood conservative groups like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and the federal government. With agencies such as the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the film industry was quick to demonize the Soviet Union if it meant relieving its pro-communist films of the past. Some in Hollywood didn't even need government pressure; big names such as Walt Disney and John Wayne were staunch conservatives and happily contributed to the creation of films with anti-Soviet intentions. The “Hollywood Blacklist” was an effort by HUAC to reveal whether communist sympathizers had planted propaganda in American films. Building on allegations made by the Hollywood elite, including Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, screenwriters, directors and other artists were summoned before Congress to.

Essay / How the Soviet Union Was Demonized in the United States feigned, at best, and indifference at best. worse. Compare this reaction to what you find when you interview someone who actually lived through the crisis and the difference is stark. For those who lived through the Cold War, a view of hatred and derision toward the Soviet Union and even modern Russia is much more common. This perspective does not view citizens of the former Soviet Union as ordinary people simply living 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 Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayTo understand how pervasive this vilification of the Soviet Union was, take for example a speech given by the President of the United States Ronald Reagan at the National Association of Evangelicals at the University of Virginia, March 3, 1983. In this speech, President Reagan addressed the crowd, exhorting them: "Beware of the temptation to pride—the temptation to... uh... blithely declare yourself above all else and call 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 withdraw from the struggle between good and evil, between good and evil. the American president has never hesitated to speak about the Soviet Union, as an “evil empire” speaks en masse about the demonization of the USSR by the United States. In that same speech, President Reagan compared the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union not simply to a war between militaries, but rather to a war of spiritual ideals, stating: "I have always maintained that The ongoing struggle for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is spiritual; at its core, it is a test of moral will and faith. By comparing the Cold War struggle 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. 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 did not appear out of nowhere. In fact, in the 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 observed throughout history (i.e. the ancient struggle between Judaism, Christianity and Islam for the holy sites of Jerusalem's Temple Mount and the modern competition between Israel and Palestine for the Gaza Strip), the Cold War led the United States to denigrate the Soviet Union as a personification of evil, instead of seeing it as a people in its own right. Unlike other examples of the territoriality paradigm, competition between the United States was not limited to a specific location. . Instead, the goal of the United States and other Western powers was to limit the expansion of communist powers in other parts of the world. Building popular support for efforts to thwart the spreadof the Soviet Union and its communist system was not a difficult task for the United States, as it effectively used propaganda and inflammatory speeches in films, literature, and daily life to make the Soviets a leading country. evil enemy who could not be allowed to succeed at any cost. Under the Propaganda While an undeniable amount of Russian anti-communist propaganda was disseminated in the United States, during the Cold War, the undeniable fear of war with the USSR was the driving force that fueled the propaganda (which, in turn, , fueled greater fear of the Soviet Union). The tension between the United States and the USSR did not arise in a vacuum. In order to understand the source of this fear, it is necessary to examine 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, the Russian Provisional Government which had been established after the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy in 1912, was itself overthrown by the Bolshevik faction of the Social Labor Party -Russian Democrat, which led to the Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. These events caused a great panic about workers' revolution and political radicalism in the United States, triggering the first red scare. Political scientist Murray B. Levin described the Red Scare as "a nationwide anti-radical hysteria brought on by growing fear and anxiety about an impending Bolshevik revolution in America—a revolution that would change the Church, home, marriage, civility and the American way of life. Increasingly, strikes in the United States have been viewed with fear and derision. Support for the strike from foreign left-wing organizations such as the World Workers' International has done little to allay the fears raised by the working class. In response to a series of bombings carried out by political anarchists, the Palmer Raids were launched, 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 I believe that Karl Marx's prediction about the collapse of capitalism is coming true. The American Communist Party reached new heights of popularity in the early 1930s, marked by organizing the working poor and supporting African Americans against prejudice. 1932 saw the election of Franklin Roosevelt, followed quickly by labor organizing. While the Communist Party USA continued to field its own candidates in elections of that era, it generally tolerated Democrats as the lesser of two evils. American communism enjoyed a brief surge in popularity at the start of World War II, but its numbers quickly fell after Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with fascist Nazi Germany and did not recover after the The Soviet Union joined the Allies against Hitler. In the aftermath of World War II, President Truman's loyalty oath program legitimized the reputation of communists as subversives who needed to be exposed. This attitude would persist throughout the Cold War. With the advent of the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers in the 1950s, the paradigm of territoriality was used even more effectively due to Soviet encroachment on countries close to the United States and its anti-communist allies. was considered an explicit nuclear threat. The conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for passing on secretsatomic bombs to the Soviet Union were 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 the demonization of the Soviet Union. their people, as the United States government and its citizens began to worry about escalating 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 very solution. the essence of the whole concept of deterrence. We must have a real capability for assured destruction, and that capability must also be credible. The point is that a potential aggressor must believe that our capacity for assured destruction is in fact real, and that our willingness to use it in retaliation for an attack is in fact unwavering. The conclusion is therefore clear: if the United States wants to deter a nuclear attack against itself or its allies, it must possess a real and credible capacity for assured destruction. This line of thinking led to a further escalation of the arms race and greater 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 from the space race after Soviet Yuri Gagarin's successful trip to space and President Kennedy's announcement of the race to the Moon. At this time, the Cold War between the United States and the USSR was increasingly seen as a battle of ideologies. American capitalism collided with Soviet communism. Consumerism, considered the jewel of American society, opposed 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 lead a crusade against the Soviet Union, blending 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 driven some citizens Americans to become traitors. betraying a benevolent land that had showered them with countless blessings. It has attracted some of our famous artists, some of our best politicians and some of our exceptional educators. By using Christian rhetoric to denounce the communist Soviet Union, Billy Graham and other Christian leaders contributed greatly to the defamation of the Soviet Union. USSR. They effectively made the Cold War a holy war and condemned those who did not defend so-called Christian lands, such as the United States and other democratic countries. Propaganda in cinema “The images give an idea of America that is difficult to represent otherwise. , and the reason, the main reason, in our opinion, is that our images 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, this is not because propagandaIn Cold War-era cinema it wasn't obvious that this meant it was ineffective. In fact, American cinema's subtlety in promoting capitalist values and demonizing communism was perhaps its greatest asset. Hollywood executives have prided themselves on producing innocuous, unbiased entertainment since the beginning of the film industry, but in reality, 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 targeted Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In what became known as the First Red Scare of 1918-1920, the film industry portrayed Russian Bolsheviks as murderers , rapists and anarchists in silent films such as Dangerous Hours (1920) and Famine (1920). While the more violent images of Russians depicted in Hollywood largely toned down during the 1920s and 1930s, the subtle criticisms leveled at communist Russians as humorless, old-fashioned and indifferent in films made during this era were arguably more effective because of their credibility. before World War II were different from their successors in that the United States government was not directly involved in their production. However, by the time of World War II, the Hollywood film industry was effectively used at the request of the Office of War Information (OWI) in the United States as an agent of propaganda: extolling the evils of fascism, asking 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 depicting 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 as valiantly defending the Eastern Front against Japan, although in reality Soviet effectiveness as a buffer was largely due to Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact signed in 1941. By the 1940s, Hollywood had a new enemy to demonize, and changes in leadership led to a number of problems that would come back to haunt them, including but not limited to limit, the praise addressed to the Russian allies in films made during the Second World War. Nevertheless, the connections established between Hollywood and the OWI would be useful in producing propaganda against the Soviet Union in the years to come. Under the watchful eye of Hollywood conservative groups like the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and the federal government. With agencies such as the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the film industry was quick to demonize the Soviet Union if it meant relieving its pro-communist films of the past. Some in Hollywood didn't even need government pressure; big names such as Walt Disney and John Wayne were staunch conservatives and happily contributed to the creation of films with anti-Soviet intentions. The “Hollywood Blacklist” was an effort by HUAC to reveal whether communist sympathizers had planted propaganda in American films. Building on allegations made by the Hollywood elite, including Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, screenwriters, directors and other artists were summoned before Congress to.

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