Schiff p1American CultureDeception and Dominance

The Rocky and Bullwinkle

show

that aired from 1959 to 1964 was entertainingand witty, but also had a deep rooted connection to the Cold War and PresidentEisenhower’s foreign policy. Rocky and Bullwinkle depicted and satirized a number of anxieties that were prevalent in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The show would use particular diction to poke fun at American’s knowledge regarding the occurrences in theCold War. This paper will illustrate the elusive nature of the Eisenhower administration intheir regards to a coup in Iran. Furthermore, the show made explicit Cold War referencessuch as Rocket J. Squirrel and Upsidasium. While these two references broach the armsrace and race for resources, it is important to remember the race for culture and theinsidious nature in which the United States and Russia would sneakily try to inculcate theother culture with their own. Ultimately,

The Rocky and Bullwinkle show

introduce ideasabout the Cold War that can further be explained by the Eisenhower Administration’sactions.In

the Rocky and Bullwinkle show

, Bullwinkle starts out one of the episodes bysaying hello to his viewers by uttering, “Hello low IQers!” This is a comical element, butat the same time it is a critique of American culture and its understanding and conceptionof the Cold War. The introduction that Bullwinkle makes calls out to the American publicand says that they are unaware of their government’s actions. In regards to Eisenhower’sforeign policy and his methods this critique is partly true. Eisenhower’s Administration performed covert operations in Congo, Indonesia, Syria, Tibet, and Cuba while alsocoordinating coups in Guatemala and Iran. While Eisenhower worked to put these coupsinto motion using his newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the rest of the

Schiff p2American Culturecountry was left in the dark and even more so, led astray as to what really occurred.In Iran, Eisenhower created a CIA led coup that was meant to overthrow thecurrent democratically elected Prime Minister, Muhammad Mussadiq. The conflict arosedue to the “nationalization of oil,” and how Mussadiq and Iran were “unable to export oildue to Western support for British claims” (Foran, 159). However, even more so thanthat, Mussadiq “sought to break with a history of dependency and Western influence inhis country’s economy and political affairs” (Foran, 181). Mussadiq’s want for Iran to beautonomous and break itself free on its Western ties was his demise as prime minister.Orchestrating the coup was a process. The CIA had worked on the Tudeh, acommunist party in Iran, and the Soviet influence in that region since the late 1940s(Foran, 177). “The CIA used propaganda, organized anti-Tudeh fighters, and paid peopleto attack with the Tudeh in sermons” (Foran, 178). All of this was in an effort to growdissent and force the coup. On the day of the coup, there was absolute chaos in the streetsof Tehran that was orchestrated by the CIA, and finally “a nine-hour battle was fought atMussadiq’s home in which three hundred people were killed,” but ultimately Zahidi became the prime minister just as the United States wanted.Clearly, this coup was just a motion set in place by the United States andEisenhower’s Administration, but the American public, echoing Bullwinkle’s earlier critique, knew a far different story. “The mainstream media saw the coup as ‘a whollyinternal matter brought about by widespread dissatisfaction with the ineptitude of Mosaddeq’” (Foran, 178). This was the image that all of the media portrayed, including

Newsweek

The Washington Post

The Christian Science Monitor

, and

The New York Times

. These are all very reputable publications and they all depicted a story that was far

Schiff p3American Culturefrom the truth. The Cold War was definitely a time of covert operations, but it was also atime in which there was a distinct race and heated pursuit of excellence from theAmerican and Soviet side.Rocky and Bullwinkle made references to the arms race and the race for resourceswith Rocket J. Squirrel and Upsidasium, respectively, but it is also important to themention the attempts at infusing culture between the United States and the Soviets. “AsCold War hostilities raged, cultural exchange had become cultural competition and bothsides jockeyed for control over what would be deemed appealing and ideologicallycorrect” (Von Eschen, 98) In a bold move, America’s State Department sent BennyGoodman to the Soviet Union as the first representative of American jazz. He wasoriginally not well received (Von Eschen, 94). During this cultural exchange, both sideslobbied for equal representation: “The

New York Times

reported that the State Department‘refused to sanction the appearance of the Soviet Army’s chorus and ensemble. TheSoviet Union has not accepted any leading jazz band’” (Von Eschen, 95). Obviously,America did not want to take in any Soviet culture unless the act was reciprocated.Although the race for cultural dominance is a little harder to measure than the arms raceor the race for resources, it is just as much a part of the Cold War culture.Eisenhower’s Administration during the Cold War links heavily to some of theideas and concepts that are brought up in

The Rocky and Bullwinkle

show

. One woulddefinitely notice how hard the discrepancy between right and wrong must have beenunclear during Eisenhower’s Administration due to his work with the CIA and his coup inIran. Furthermore, Eisenhower’s term in office bolstered the Cold War, because it addeda new element to the “race” that was on between the Soviets and the US. Eisenhower