Introduction
The Cold War was a time of cultural as well as political and military rivalry. Two competing ideologies fought over hugely different visions of art, architecture, design, theatre and film. State attempts to control and manipulate culture in both communist and non-communist worlds illustrate how seriously culture was taken as a propaganda tool. At the same time, the Cold War had a profound effect on culture. It provided inspiration for a wide range of artists, writers, designers and film-makers. Culture was also employed as a weapon of protest, most notably by the anti-nuclear and anti-Vietnam war movements.
Britain: Fighting the Cold War with Culture
For Britain, less militarily powerful than the United States but determined to play its part in the Cold War, culture was an important way of joining the ideological war against communism.
In 1955 the British Council set up the Soviet Relations Committee (SRC), a programme for British-Soviet cultural exchanges. Described as part of the cultural Cold War, the aim of the SRC was to gain control over the image of Britain being supplied to the Soviet people. Alongside organisations such as the Royal Society and the BBC, the SRC organised visits to the Soviet Union by British scholars, artists and scientists, as well as touring theatre productions.
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The government had other vehicles for fighting ideological battles with communism. Under the Attlee government, in 1948 the Foreign Office established the secret Information Research Department (IRD). The IRD researched and disseminated anti-Stalinist material with the intention of countering communist propaganda which was seen as spreading unchallenged, particularly in the developing world.
World Expositions and the Cold War
During the Cold War, world expositions were a unique environment for all nations, including the superpowers, to confront each other and promote the values and advantages of their ways of life.
In 1951, Britain held a national exposition to commemorate the centenary of the Great Exhibition. Like an international exposition it was intended to celebrate achievements from science, technology, industry and culture, as well as national recovery after the Second World War. Despite initial criticism that the project was diverting resources from more important international events such as the deepening Cold War and the Korean War, the Festival was a great success.
At the Brussels Exposition of 1958 - the first major World Fair after the Second World War - the United States and Soviet Pavilions were located opposite one another, enhancing the sense of rivalry. The Americans displayed the fruits of capitalism through consumer goods, while the Soviet Union promoted communist achievements. With Sputnik launched only a year before, Soviet displays of futuristic technology helped to emphasise their scientific and industrial successes to the world. It was not until the Osaka Exposition in 1970, a year after the moon landings, that the Americans could demonstrate their own superior achievements in the Space Race.
Culture, Art and Consumerism
Surprisingly, given its sometimes conservative policies, the United States produced progressive and alternative art forms. In the 1950s, the avant-garde art movement Abstract Expressionism was heralded as a beacon of American achievements and a symbol of freedom of expression. In contrast, Socialist Realism, a figurative style portraying an idealised image of strength and health, was the dominant art movement in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Stalinist years. Soviet artists were forbidden from exploring any other styles.
A significant British visual art movement which developed in the mid 1950s was Pop Art. It drew on the discussions of the ‘Independent Group’ of painters, sculptors, architects and writers who believed that the mass produced and popular culture traditionally rejected by the art establishment had major social and political implications. The 1956 exhibition This Is Tomorrow at London’s Whitechapel Gallery helped define Pop Art and included Richard Hamilton’s iconic collage Just What is it that Makes Today’s Homes so Different, so Appealing?
Hamilton’s piece was intended as a critique of consumer culture, which was itself becoming a Cold War battleground. After Stalin’s death in 1953, there was a period of liberalisation in the Soviet Union known as ‘the Thaw’. In an attempt to contain dissent and keep pace with the widespread availability of consumer goods in the West, communist leaders tried to improve living conditions across the eastern bloc. Products from this period like the Mini in Britain and the Trabant in East Germany have since become cultural icons.
Culture and Protest
The often interlinked campaigns against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War proved to be a particularly fertile field for artists. CND’s most memorable images came from artist Peter Kennard, whose photomontages empowered protestors around the country. In music, John Lennon and Yoko Ono created innovative publicity campaigns to promote peace and their ‘Give Peace a Chance’ became an anthem of the American anti-Vietnam movement.
Fashion was also interwoven with politics and protest. British designer Katherine Hamnett created T-shirts with bold political messages and, in 1984, wore one proclaiming ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing’ when she met Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This was a reference to public opinion polls which showed that a majority did not want American Pershing II missiles deployed in Europe. Designer Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren adorned the punk clothing they sold with political symbols and slogans from the communist-inspired Situationists.
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Outright bans were placed on dissenting artists and writers in the Soviet Union, and many were imprisoned for their views. Although there was no equivalent in the United States, in the 1950s actors, writers and musicians suspected of having communist sympathies were ‘blacklisted’ and some left the country.
The Cold War in Popular Culture
Some of the most popular and enduring images of the Cold War come from literature. George Orwell’s 1984 is one of the best known and most influential works of the Cold War, describing a world where totalitarianism – ‘Big Brother’ – ruled.
Ian Fleming’s spy hero James Bond glamorised the world of espionage by mixing sex, violence and designer goods. In marked contrast to Bond were the spy novels of John Le Carré, whose characters exist in a bleak and morally complex world far removed from that of Fleming’s creation.
Bond’s transition from page to screen provided another array of iconic Cold War imagery. Other influential Cold War films of the period included Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, released the year after the first James Bond film. Kenneth Adam’s iconic design for the War Room at the Pentagon was so convincing to real life Cold War warrior Ronald Reagan, that when he became president in 1981 he asked to visit it.
The small screen played its own role in influencing perceptions of the Cold War. In 1966, Peter Watkin’s TV film The War Game, which depicted the effects of a Soviet nuclear attack on Britain, was banned by the BBC as too extreme. It was not transmitted until 1985. Although it was thought inappropriate to broadcast a film about the effects of nuclear war on TV, in 1980 the British government produced a series of short TV films called Protect and Survive to advise the public on practical ways to deal with a nuclear attack.
Sport and the Cold War
Even sport became a Cold War battleground, particularly during the Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984. The United States and 64 other countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In retaliation, the Soviet Union and 13 allied nations boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
