RESEARCH NOTE Philatelic Propaganda U.S. Postage Stamps during the

✣ Matin Modarressi

After the United States joined with eleven other countries in April 1949 to establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. officials had to convince the public that the formation of NATO was necessary to prevent another world war. This task, they believed, was likely to be difficult. After all, for more than 150 years the U.S. government had heeded George Washing- ton’s warning in his Farewell Address to “steer clear of permanent alliances.” One of the ways policymakers sought to increase public support for NATO was through the issuance of carefully designed postage stamps. Gov- ernments around the world have long recognized the potential for stamps to serve as tiny billboards for informing, educating, influencing, and sometimes even manipulating people. In the United States, proposals for stamp designs are typically considered two to three years in advance, demonstrating how much deliberation and planning goes into each stamp’s creation. During the Cold War, the U.S. Post Office Department (which was a cabinet-level de- partment until 1971) and the U.S. Department of State used stamps to help promote U.S. foreign policy. In 1952, for example, the United States issued a special commemorative stamp on the third anniversary of the formation of NATO. During a cere- mony at the White House, President Harry S. Truman, accompanied by the general and secretary of state, autographed a sheet of stamps to be presented to the leader of each of the other NATO countries.1 The stamp was then sold at post offices around the country for six months, in place of the regular 3-cent stamp (the domestic letter rate).2 The total number of NATO stamps printed was the second highest in U.S. history at nearly 2.9 billion, compared to a normal print run of around 110 million.

1. Daily Appointment Sheet for President Truman, 2 April 1952, in Box 7, Matthew J. Connelly Files, Harry S. Truman Library; available online at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study _collections/trumanpapers/connelly/index.php?documentid=hst-mjcwhf_naid4655680-02&pagenu mber=1. 2. Robert Young, “Two Billion U.S. Stamps Sold to Publicize NATO,” Chicago Daily Tribune,21 December 1952.

Journal of Cold War Studies Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2017, pp. 196–201, doi:10.1162/JCWS_a_00758 © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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1952 NATO Stamp Source: U.S. Government

Just seven years later, in 1959, the U.S. government issued another com- memorative stamp for NATO’s tenth anniversary. According to the official announcement, the U.S. State Department had “strongly supported” France’s proposal that all the NATO countries issue a stamp—and indeed most of them ultimately did so.3 During the ceremony, which coincided with a NATO summit being held in Washington, DC, the postmaster general described NATO as “one of the most notable achievements of our western civilization” and expressed the hope that, with the issuance of this stamp, “more of our citizens will be made aware” of NATO’s importance for peace and security.4

1959 NATO Stamp Source: U.S. Government

3. Post Office Department, Press Release No. 24, 7 February 1959, in Box 6, Press Release Books, 1953–1962, Record Group (RG) 28, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). 4. Post Office Department, Press Release No. 74, “Comments by Postmaster General Arthur E. Sum- merfield, NATO Stamp Ceremony,” 1 April 1959, in Box 6, Press Release Books, 1953-1962, RG 28, NARA.

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For the next major anniversary, the 25th, the United States issued a NATO-themed aerogramme (a sheet of paper that can be folded into the form of an and sealed). The additional value of promoting NATO on being sent abroad was recognized by the State Department, which described the aerogramme as a “unique and useful means of helping spread world-wide throughout anniversary year an awareness of significance [of] NATO and U.S. support of organization.”5 At the same time, the State Department was aware of a dispute in the Netherlands over whether a NATO stamp might cause problems for people trying to send mail to relatives in East European coun- tries.6 These concerns were not unfounded. In the aftermath of the Soviet inva- sion of Hungary in the fall of 1956, the Hungarian government started return- ing mailed from the United States that had a inscribed “Support Your Crusade for Freedom.” Crusade for Freedom was the name of a fundraising campaign for Radio Free Europe that had been launched by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry claimed that the postmark was “obviously intended to incite” the local population to oppose the government.7 (Hungary also objected to a Canadian post- mark that read “Why wait for spring? Do it now,” apparently in the belief that “spring” was being used as a euphemism for revolution.8 In reality, the Canadian government was using the slogan to encourage people to undertake home improvements during the winter months, when plenty of workers were available). Similarly, in 1960, Czechoslovakia refused to deliver envelopes bearing a stamp of former President Tomáš Masaryk. This stamp was part of the “Champions of Liberty” series, which honored people outside the United States who had fought for freedom in their own countries. The Czechoslovak government warned that relations between the two countries could “worsen”

5. U.S. Department of State, Cable 136232 to U.S. Mission to NATO, 12 July 1973, in Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973–1979, RG 59, National Archives at College Park (NACP); available online at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=54941&dt=2472&dl=1345. 6. U.S. Mission to NATO, Cable 0348 to Department of State, “Proposed NATO Stamp,” 23 January 1974, in NACP; (available online at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=10820&dt =2474&dl=1345. 7. U.S. Department of State, Press Release No. 254, “United States Replies to Hungary on Postal Cancellation Stamp,” 29 April 1957, reprinted in Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 935 (May 1957), pp. 849–850; available online at https://archive.org/stream/departmentofstat3657unit#page /848/mode/2up. 8. John W. Finney, “Hungary Bars U.S. Letters with ‘Crusade’ Postmark,” The New York Times,27 March 1957.

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because of the stamp, a reaction the State Department characterized as “be- yond comprehension.”9

1960 Masaryk Stamp Source: U.S. Government

Just four years after the aerogramme was issued, the State Department asked the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to consider issuing a stamp or postmark commemorating NATO’s 30th anniversary but was told the request had been submitted too late.10 (The next, and so far last, NATO stamp was issued in 1999, for the organization’s 50th anniversary.) The U.S. government also had to decide whether to block stamps it viewed as undesirable. In 1966, Cuba issued three stamps (including one for ) that depicted the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and had the words “Genocide in Vietnam” written in Spanish. One of the stamps also depicted a gas mask, insinuating that the United States was using chemical weapons. Seeking to avoid a response that would “undo” the progress the United States had made in strengthening relations with the developing world, the Post Of- fice worked with the State Department in writing a letter of protest to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in Berne in January 1967.11 The letter from

9. U.S. Department of State, Press Release No. 696, “U.S. Replies to Czechoslovak Note on Masaryk Stamp,” 14 December 1960, reprinted in Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 1123 (January 1961), p. 17; available online at https://archive.org/stream/departmentofstat441961unit _0#page/16/mode/2up. 10. U.S. Department of State, Cable 114737 to U.S. Mission to NATO, “CONIO,” 5 May 1978, in NACP; available online at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=114412&dt=2694&dl=2009; and Department of State, Cable 227836 to U.S. Mission to NATO, “Recommendation for Com- memorative Stamp to Recognize NATO’s 30th Anniversary,” 8 September 1978, in NACP available online at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=221280&dt=2694&dl=2009. 11. Walter F. Sheble [Special Assistant to the Postmaster General for International Postal Organiza- tions], Memorandum to Lawrence F. O’Brien [Postmaster General], “Provocative Cuban Stamp,” 10 January 1967, in Folder No. 02-06–23, Third Assistant Postmaster General Files, National Postal Museum (NPM) Library, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

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the postmaster general called on the UPU director general to press Cuba to remove these stamps from international mail, insofar as they violated the gen- erally accepted standards of stamp design.12

Cuban Stamps Denouncing the Source: U.S. State Department

During the , the U.S.-backed rebel group known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) commis- sioned a private company in Florida to print “stamps” as a way to spread awareness and raise funds. The first set from January 1986 featured two im- ages of Jonas Savimbi, the brutal rebel leader, dressed in military uniform; a tiger; and the flag of UNITA. A small number of the stamps were supposedly sent to Angola to serve as official postage, and the rest were sold to collec- tors. A press release about the “Freedom Fighter Stamp” was issued by U.S. Congressman Dan Burton, a member of the House Post Office and Civil Ser- vice Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who explained that “the creation of this unique stamp represents the supportiveness of the American people for the cause of freedom throughout the world.”13 Even though the designs on postage stamps are often taken for granted, stamps in many cases can provide insight into how governments around the world have tried to influence world opinion. The NATO stamps, for exam- ple, issued within a relatively short period of time, demonstrate that the U.S.

12. Lawrence F. O’Brien [Postmaster General] to Michel Rahi [Director General, Universal Postal Union], 12 January 1967, in NPM Library. 13. Office of Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN), Press Release, “Burton Unveils Angolan Freedom Fighter Stamp,” 29 January 1986, in Box 84, Dan Burton Congressional Papers, 1983–2012, Indiana University Libraries.

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government was concerned that many people lacked knowledge about the or- ganization or considered it unnecessary. Small details, such as the fact that the second stamp no longer spelled out the organization’s name in full, sug- gest that the government was probably successful in accomplishing its goal of having the alliance become widely known in public consciousness. In this case and others, stamps often provide useful information about policy and are worthy of receiving greater attention from scholars of the Cold War.

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