pwd+political+cartoons

ATG -

Published in a United States newspaper at the start of the 1948 elections, the press along with the public believed that the election would be a blow out in favor of Presidential Candidate, Thomas Dewey. It is important to recognize the time of the election, because following Truman’s actions in WWII and the contagious fear of communism in the United States would inspire mixed feelings among many Americans. Truman showed he wanted to do what was right even if it meant risking the election, as shown with his civil rights policies among African Americans in the United States armed forces. Cartoons like these were posted in newspapers all across the United States, however, Truman’s extensive campaign work would turn out to play in his favor, shocking people all across the United States. This cartoon was not meant to influence the viewer, as much as it was used to demonstrate the dominance of Dewey, merely expressing the news to the people of the United States. Although not part of the primary use of the cartoon, the author expresses Dewey’s snide remark to Truman in the cartoon to show the persistence of Truman and his desire to serve the United States.

JML- Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Herbert Block, Herblock, made this cartoon. Block was a liberal and attacked both foreign policy and domestic issues of the time. Block’s point of view is that the government’s “anti-subversive” committees that were getting teachers fired were wrongfully hurting innocent teachers. This cartoon was published in the __Washington Post__. It came out April 24th 1949, a time when the firing of teachers in response to fears of subversive communist action was going on. People would have originally encountered this material in the __Washington Post__. This material largely addresses all of the unjust actions that happened due to fear of communism, the others of that time and those of the first Red Scare. It would help to know about the prevalent anti-communist feelings of the time as caused by the USSR’s rise in power under Stalin following World War Two and the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. It would also be beneficial to consider the fact that anti-communist feelings were recurrent in United States history, starting with the first Red Scare following World War One. The mean looking men in hats represent the state and local “anti-subversive” committees as their brief case states and the woman being interrogated represents the innocent teachers that they wrongfully got fired. The intended audience was he teachers of America as well as the committees. The teachers were likely to pay attention to this cartoon as it was concerning a current threat facing them, being fired under suspicion of being communists, and the already fired teachers would pay attention to this drawing as they could relate to the teacher being depicted, and the committees would pay attention to this picture as it displayed their actions, albeit in a negative light. The fired teachers and teachers would feel good about their troubles being recognized and the teachers might also be made more scared, and the committees would react negatively as the cartoon depicted them as the villains and they considered the allegedly communist subversive teachers the true bad guys. This material was produced during the time that the teachers were being fired to bring public attention to this wrongdoing and hopefully incite people to stop it before more were fired unjustly. Block is arguing that the widespread firing of teachers by these “anti-subversive” committees was wrong and that the teachers were innocent and the committees were the criminals and that they were being silly, scrutinizing teachers for harmless things. Block means that the government ought to stop these committees. This material is important because it reflects the problems caused by the anti-communist hysteria following World War Two during the Cold War. It implies that the government actions of the time were silly and wrong. This material might have made public opinion of the “anti-subversive” committees turn sour and support for the fired teachers rise.

KHW:

“Stand Fast Men… They’re Armed with Marshmallows” by Herb Block (aka Herblock) on August 11th 1954

Herb Block was born in Chicago on October 13th 1909 and first began his career as an editorial cartoonist in 1929. He worked for the Chicago Daily News for some time but then began his career at the Washington Post in 1946 where he worked for more than fifty years. Throughout his career Herb Block won many prestigious awards including three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning in 1942, 1954, and 1979. This cartoon was published in the Washington Post, a liberal and widely read newspaper, on August 11th 1954 after the Illinois branch of the American Legion condemned the Girl Scouts for being communist sympathizers because of their “one world” message. Communist hysteria in the U.S. reached a high point during the Cold War and lead to a communist witch-hunt so to speak. This is why one of the spies in the cartoon is reading a book on detecting witchcraft. The unjust persecution of people as communists was comparable to the accusations made during the witch trials in the seventeenth century. Branding people as communist sympathizers largely began with Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950, when he claimed to have a list of 205 known communists, which he later reduced to 57. He, along with the assistance of two lawyers, began to make unsubstantiated allegations against whoever he pleased and the public believed that he was telling the truth. Here, McCarthy is pictured on a flag as the groups “hero” and sadly the public bought into his web of lies until the McCarthy-Army Trials in April through June of 1954. The trials were televised and the Army brought recorded proof of McCarthy claiming to be untouchable. McCarthy had no evidence but rather only baseless claims. As a result he was publicly humiliated and his career was ended. The damage, however, was done and American fears of communist infiltration had exploded as a result of McCarthy’s deception. The denunciation of the Girl Scouts was just one example of the absurdity that became known as McCarthyism or the practice of making unsupported allegations especially against communist activities. McCarthy was a republican senator from Wisconsin and since Herblock is a democrat it is likely that he was biased against McCarthy which is why he would depict him here as the leader of the ridiculous attempts to “expose communists” by organizations like the American Legion and HUAC. Despite this bias most people had stopped supporting McCarthy after his public exposure as a fraud and would likely agree with the message that Herblock portrays in this cartoon. That message was that communist hysteria and delusions had gone too far and that people needed to realize that the communist threat did not exist to the degree that the majority of the population believed. Therefore it can be determined that this message was aimed at the general public and that, even though Herb Block had strong political opinions, the message was reliable because it didn’t matter what party you belonged to; everyone was mislead into thinking that communist forces had invaded the U.S. The general public was living through the Second Red Scare and although we look back now and see that their fears were unnecessary, at the time people had every reason to believe that they were targets and to feel threatened. History shows us that when people feel threatened, they tend to over-react and try to find a reason to justify there fear. This took form in McCarthyism and resulted in the unfair persecution of many innocent people.



Printed in May of 1950, this political cartoon represents what was going on during the majority of the 1950s. Herbert Block, or "Herblock" as he signed his cartoons, was a liberal cartoonist who heavily disagreed with McCarthyism and the HUAC trials going on at this time. Many of his cartoons dealt with the hysteria brought on by the suspicion of the 1950s. When this cartoon was made, it was believed that Soviet spies were infiltrating the United States and that everyone needed to be suspicious of everything and everyone around them, filling the era with a sense of anxiety and fear. The Cold War had brought with it a sense of hysteria in respect to Communism and the United States saw the hysteria peak in the McCarthy trials. The McCarthy trials did nothing to ease the fear since each of his accusations was worse than the last, and the HUAC trials were becoming more like circuses than trials.McCarthy would deliberately attempt to distract the jury and judge by accusing the "suspected Communist" with several different accusations and then bring in "never before seen" evidence. This craziness brought on by these trails caused many government employees to resign from their jobs and take off in order to avoid being falsely accused. This political cartoon was probably aimed at those under attack, to make it a humorous situation, or at those who were starting to realize the ridiculousness of the McCarthy trials. While the McCarthy trials were filled with many unsubstantiated claims and false evidence, the political cartoon exaggerates only to make a point that the trials were doing no one any good by increasing fear and imprisoning innocent people. The cartoon was to show the people that while it might be nice to think that communists were being caught by McCarthy, in all reality, it was all smoke and mirrors when it came to evidence. Much of the evidence brought to light may very well have been created or adulterated by McCarthy. This cartoon's importance lies in the idea that while many people took comfort in McCarthy's persecution of suspected communists, some people, including Herbert Block, saw through the unbacked claims and remained disillusioned. It signals the beginning of the United States' naive nature when it came to politics.

KLM: 

“You using a pinch of salt, dearie?” “You using a pinch of salt, dearie?,” published in the //Washington Post// by Herbert Block, depicts two witches brewing cauldrons of suspect people. One of the cauldrons is labeled “accusations” and a list sits next to the cauldron detailing that the government is inspecting people based on “common sense” and word-of-mouth, suggesting that the security practices were basically “witch-hunts” that were barely based on truth. The salt added to the recipes demonstrate that the justice department “flavored” the decisions, altering the verdicts, further distancing them from the truth. Like how the mass hysteria stimulated the Salem witch trials, anti-Communist hysteria was rampant, causing the persecution of innocent Americans to allay fears. The cartoon is drawn with dark shadows surrounding the witches. These shadows suggest that the occurring practices were not very ethical and were done secretly; the public was not completely made aware of the invalidity and injustices of the security protocols. Nobody wanted to speak up against the injustice in fear of getting accused of having Communist allegiances as well. Published on May 17, 1956, “You using a pinch of salt, dearie?” appealed to a population that was starting to protest McCarthyism. During the McCarthy Era, innocent US citizens had been accused of being a Communist sympathizer, invoking a “witch-hunt” atmosphere. In //Slochower vs. Board of Education// (1956), the Supreme Court protected a professor from backlash after protesting McCarthy’s interrogation. Also, in the Army-McCarthy hearings McCarthy’s suspect interrogation practices were highlighted, increasing public sentiment against him. So, even though Herblock had never feared McCarthy’s crusade, the public was more open, and less afraid, to hear criticisms about him. The Atomic Energy Commission had increased the security regulations for its personnel, using, according to Herblock, unfair and unjust practices to monitor employees, infringing on their privacy. The uproar against McCarthy’s practices translated into uproar against similar practices, such as that of SEC. Herbert Block depicted the criticisms that all others were afraid to print during the 1950s. Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt for “Communists” had left most journalists and politicians, even President Eisenhower, wary of crossing McCarthy in order to hopefully avoid McCarthy depicting them as Communists as well. In fact, Block, commonly known as Herblock, was the one to coin the term “McCarthyism,” referring to the campaign in which McCarthy targeted so-called “Communists.” Herblock had long criticized presidents and important figures, not fearing the backlash because he had a great deal of public support. During the Election of 1952, Block heavily criticized Republican candidate Eisenhower, upsetting his employer, //The Washington Post//, which then limited his circulation during the campaign//.// However, the public prevailed, urging the continued publication of Herblock’s campaign. Thus, Herblock was never limited in his publication over controversial topics. As a liberal democrat, Herblock was not a fan of Eisenhower and Nixon, criticizing their practices and Nixon’s perceived immorality. Based in D.C.,//The Washington Post// has always focused on national politics. During the Watergate Scandel, //The Washington Post// led the onslaught against President Nixon. Thus, //The Washington Post// had nearly always campaigned against governmental injustice.

NMD-"Awake at Last?"

This cartoon was created by   news paper only two days after the American people received word of the Russian satellite going into orbit. Flannery was personally a Democrat, and an enormous advocate for the advancement of the quality of the American public school system far before the launch of Sputnik, but his grievances only became widely known to the American people after the launch. This cartoon was published by Thomas Flannery   in the October 6th, 1957 edition of the __ Baltimore Sun __ newspaper. Before the launch of Sputnik, many Americans were still riding high on the United States victory in World War II, and many people naturally assumed that if the United States simply stayed the post-war course, they could remain the most dominant nation in the world. However, this attitude bred complacency amongst the American people, as many people began to disregard the huge leaps which the Soviets were making after the war, since many American believed that the USSR could never fully recover from the enormous loss of both life and resources which Russia suffered during Operation Barbarossa. Yet, the strides being made by the Soviets while many Americans remained asleep at the wheel led to the Soviets launching the first man-made satellite into space. The target audience for this cartoon are those Americans who believed that doing nothing would be an acceptable course of action. However, the cartoonist strives to show the people that a lack of adaptability on behalf of the US would lead to its ultimate destruction, and that while the US still was flying high, the USSR was flying just a little bit higher. The reason this cartoon was published was to serve as a wake up call to the American people that America needed to begin reinvesting in technology, science and mathematics in order to compete with the Soviets in aerospace, because if the Soviets could put a satellite in space, what would stop them from putting an ICBM in space next? The main idea of this passage is that while the USA in the 1950s still was one of the most powerful nations in the world, illustrated by the high flying nature of the jet plane, the satellite and its constant working with aerospace technology had put the Soviets scientifically ahead of America, which was just asleep at the wheel. The cartoon also works to encourage the reinvestment of US resources in science and technology, suggesting that the US retaking dominance in the world through space is not a forgone conclusion. The source is significant because the enormous psychological effect which the launching of Sputnik had on the American people, and with the rise of China in the present day, many put foerth the conclusion that a Sputnik for today's complacent Americans could not be far off. 

SAF- Though the precise author of this political cartoon is unknown, it is clear to see that they are firm believers in the red scare and concerned about Russian tactics. This cartoon was published in the New York World, which was a very influential however short-lived paper that specialized in illustrations and cartoons on political matters. Clearly in this picture, a Russian citizen is shown holding up an American flag, our symbol of independence and freedom, and has extracted all the parts of the flag except for the red ones. Which based on the title of the cartoon is “all they want in our flag”. In order to make the Russians race look worse the drawing features a dirty and overall unappealing man. Based on the notion that communism could take over the American government, this cartoon could strike fear in many people because of the symbolism in the American flag in that it is representative of the government and political structure. More so during the second red scare many citizens were worried about communism affecting government whereas during the first it was a fear more focused toward socialist worker infiltrations and political radicalism. After WWII was the second time in history when Americans had been increasingly frightened by communist threat, the first being after WWI. The vulnerable position left on America’s culture, economy, political structure was a perfect time for Americans to be especially fearful of incoming threats. This material was most likely produced to help Americans realize that the fear many already had was still eminent and to show that it was a popular topic of the times.