American Cultural Icons Defining the Cold War

Prior to World War II, the European powers, Japan, and the United States controlled multiple spheres of influence over most of the world. The conclusion of the planet's greatest conflict left the Axis nations in ruins and America's Allies severely weakened. In the postwar era, America emerged as the dominant leader of the Western world and engaged Joseph Stalin's Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in a struggle for global dominance. As the former colonial societies developed into independent nations, the two superpowers sought to align the emerging countries within their respective spheres. The so-called Third World became the quarry in a bipolar conflict. Since the advent of atomic weapons made a direct clash unthinkable, the contest dragged on for decades as both superpowers utilized diplomacy, political maneuvering, and propaganda on surrogates in limited conflicts.

This Cold War conflict between superpowers imposed appalling stress on American society. The United States government and a wide variety of media continuously reminded the citizenry that the worldview constituted an East/West or them-against-us structure that illuminated "good versus evil". The possibility of nuclear holocaust generated significant cultural anxiety for a nation in the immediate aftermath of World War II. To counter this black/white challenge, society obsessed over security and military preparedness.

During the binary struggle for global dominance, still photography and motion pictures generated images, which gained widespread societal exposure. These photographic and electronic representations evolved to iconic status within American culture. To many members of society, these emblems expressed powerful traits that citizens found desirable and, hopefully, descriptive of their nation. This work examined four cultural icons: the Joseph Rosenthal Iwo Jima flag-raising, John Wayne screen persona, Apollo images, and the Berlin Wall. These symbols embodied powerful traits articulated in government documents, especially the Congressional Record, and popular media. The research sought a synthesis between the official record and commercial media, which projected these cultural icons and the traits that they reflected.

In this study, investigation focused on the Congressional Record and commercial media, both print and film, which senators and representatives entered into that official document. When the four icons garnered attention, the work assessed the traits that national leaders addressed. This dissertation explored American culture that embraced these representations during the Cold War. Following the conclusion of that bipolar struggle, these icons with fundamental attributes endured to the present.