sign in sign up
<<
Home , Apollo Crews, Big Jim McLain, Bill Downs, Captive Nations, Captive Nations Week, Cold War (Doctor Who)

A Dissertation

Entitled

American Cultural Icons Defining the : A Study of the Attributes Embodied in the Rosenthal Photograph, the Screen Persona, Apollo Images, and

Berlin Wall

By

John T. Nelson

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History

______Dr. Ronald Lora, Committee Chair

______Dr. Michael Jakobson, Committee Member

______Dr. Robert R. Smith, Committee Member

______Dr. Leonne Hudson, Committee Member

______Dr. Patricia R. Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies

The University of Toledo

August 2010

Copyright 2010, John T. Nelson

This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

An Abstract of

American Cultural Icons Defining the Cold War: A Study of the Attributes Embodied in the Rosenthal Iwo Jima Photograph, the John Wayne Screen Persona, Apollo Images, and

by

John T. Nelson

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for of Philosophy Degree in History

The University of Toledo August 2010

Prior to World War II, the European powers, Japan, and the 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 world and engaged ‘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-

iii

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 . 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 , 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.

iv

Mary Nelson genuinely deserved the dedication of this dissertation. As a professional, she has wrangled a herd of elementary students with four preparations a day, five days a week. As a , she has skied in minus 60 degree Fahrenheit wind chill and has climbed to 13,000 feet above sea level. Moreover, she also has scuba dove with poisonous invertebrates and schooling sharks, and once has vacationed in a Central

America coup d’état. While never faltering, she continually has admonished me to

―think about what you are doing‖ with but occasional success. Nevertheless, as a stalwart typist who really knew how to ―Cowboy up,‖ she faced her greatest challenge when she grimly supported my pursuit of a Ph.D. in history. Motivated by the mantra of keep firing, keep moving, meet production, the completion of this research has rested on the foundation of her loyalty and love. It is not possible to extend either sufficient credit or adequate thanks.

Acknowledgements

Dr. Ronald Lora has patiently guided this dissertation while he allowed me the academic latitude to explore research in unconventional corners. For a dissertation advisor and committee chair, I would wish for no other. Dr. Michael Jakobson welcomed me in his capacity as graduate coordinator for the History Department and served as my first point of contact at the University of Toledo. Your enthusiastic support and unique perspective for my research on the bipolar conflict called the Cold War represented an invaluable contribution. Another committee member, Dr. Robert Smith, held me accountable both in his seminar class and as his graduate assistant. Under your command, you kept me marching forward and focused on the academic mission. I extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Leonne Hudson of Kent State University who agreed to serve as an outside reader on my committee. No description of staff excellence would be complete without the mention of Debbie MacDonald, Department administrator extraordinaire. Without her expertise, daily operations within the Department surely would suffer. Finally, I extend my deepest thanks to Natalie Dickendasher who answered my call in the middle of the night. Your technical expertise and computer skills prevented hair loss, which I could ill afford, and possibly averted a stomach ulcer.

vi

Table of Contents

Abstract iii

Acknowledgements vi

Table of Contents vii

List of Figures viii

1. Cultural Impact of Still Photography and Motion Pictures Reflected in the Congressional Record and Other Documents 1

2. American Cold War Culture Exposed in Popular Media 12

3. The Impact of Still Photography and Joseph Rosenthal‘s Iwo Jima Photograph as an Icon in the Cold War 32

4. Motion Picture Cinematography and the John Wayne Screen Persona as an Icon in Cold War Culture 64

5. Apollo Iconic Images and Their Traits in the Cold War 107

6. The Berlin Partition: A Study in Negative Iconic Traits During the Cold War 129

7. A Window About to Close: Early Berlin Division Presages Iconic Wall 162

8. Berlin Wall Rises; Tensions Soar; An Icon Assured 188

9. American Cold War Icons: The Joseph Rosenthal Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Photograph, John Wayne Screen Persona, Apollo Images, and Berlin Wall Explored in the Post Cold War Era 212

10. Enduring Icons 258

References 265

vii

List of Figures

3-1 Figure 1: Rosenthal Photograph 36 3-2 Figure 2: Map of Iwo Jima 38 3-3 Figure 3: Lowery Photograph 40 3-4 Figure 4: Flag Exchange on Iwo Jima 43 3-5 Figure 5: Bronze Statue Dedication 47 3-6 Figure 6: Ground Zero/Iwo Jima Comparison 60 3-7 Figure 7: Poster from 61 3-8 Figure 8: Political Iwo Jima Cartoon 62 3-9 Figure 9: Political Iwo Jima Cartoon 63 4-1 Figure 1: Rooster Cogburn, True Grit 84 4-2 Figure 2: John T. Chance, Rio Bravo 86 4-3 Figure 3 Ringo Kid, Stagecoach 88 4-4 Figure 4: Tom Dunson, Red River 91 4-5 Figure 5: Ethan Edwards, The Searchers 94 4-6 Figure 6: Davey Crockett, The Alamo 100 4-7 Figure 7: Sergeant John M. Stryker, Sands of Iwo Jima 105 4-8 Figure 8: Key Scene from Sands of Iwo Jima 106 5-1 Figure 1: Fill ‗Er Up—I‘m in a Race 123 5-2 Figure 2: They Went Thataway 124 5-3 Figure 3: Whole 125 5-4 Figure 4: Earthrise 126 5-5 Figure 5: Lunar Footprint 127 5-6 Figure 6: With Flag 128 8-1 Figure 1: Berlin Wall 208 8-2 Figure 2: Check Point Charlie 209

viii

8-3 Figure 3: Viewing Stand 210 8-4 Figure 4: Brandenburg Gate 210 8-5 Figure 5: Memorial Crosses for Slain Defectors 211

ix

Chapter 1

Cultural Impact of Still Photography and Motion Pictures Reflected in the Congressional Record and Other Documents

Still photography and motion pictures constituted two of the greatest communication advances in the twentieth century, and each produced images that made powerful impressions on American society and achieved iconic status. This work will examine and compare four of those icons. The first is the Joseph Rosenthal photograph of the Iwo Jima flag-raising on and another is a motion picture image, the John Wayne screen persona. Both were significant icons during and after the Cold

War. Wayne‘s portrayal of the character, Sergeant John M. Stryker, in the film Sands of

Iwo Jima became a benchmark in his career.1 Since its release, this exemplary has connected to the Joseph Rosenthal battle photograph because that image was integral to the production‘s plot and conclusion. Lunar images from the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA) comprise the third icon. The fourth and last media representation is the Berlin Wall, which stood as a figurative and literal divide between the western and eastern spheres of influence during the Cold War struggle. This study will investigate to what extent American society embraced these linked images and examine the political and military figures who endorsed these icons. All of these images

1 Sands of Iwo Jima, directed by (Republic Pictures, 1949): 109 min.

1

appeared repeatedly in mass media and popular literature.2

Still photography is an integral part of mass media. Virtually all newspapers and periodical literature utilize photographs, especially on the front pages and covers.

Scholarly research identifies the role photography has had on culture.3 Art historian

Naomi Rosenblum‘s A World History of Photography is a comprehensive study covering the development of the media and placing it in historical context. It reviews the various ways photography communicates ideas.4 Fred W. and Gloria S. McDarrah in The

Photography Encyclopedia provide a comprehensive overview of prominent photographers and the cultural impact of their work.5 Snapshot: America Discovers the

Camera, by Kenneth P. Czech, and Photographers: History and Culture Through the

Camera, by Jackson, are concise surveys of the subject.6 Literary and Image scholar Graham Clark analyzes notable images and places them in the context of culture

2For the purpose of this study, an icon is defined as an object of reverence and representing exemplary characteristics, attributes, or traits. Emanuel Levy, John Wayne: Prophet of the American Way of Life (Methuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1988) is an excellent summary of John Wayne‘s career. This research will use Levy‘s definition of a screen persona, which is an image constructed over time by an actor; he accomplishes this by a significant career and body of work. The audience expects certain behavior and characteristics from the performer in any given role based on their memories of previous performances.

3Richard P. Horowitz, ed., American Studies Anthology (Wilmington, Delaware: A Scholarly Resources Inc., Number 4, 2001). The author asserts that culture is a pattern or regularity in the lives of a group of people, characteristics that, though certainly not uniform, the members of the society can be expected to recognize.

4Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography (New York, New York: Abbeville Press, third edition, 1997).

5 Fred W. McDarrah and Gloria S. McDarrah, The Photography Encyclopedia (New York, New York: Schirmer Books, 1982).

6 Kenneth P. Czech, Snapshot: America Discovers the Camera (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company, 1996); Nancy Jackson, History and Culture Through the Camera (New York, New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1997).

2

and ideology in his work, The Photograph. He notes that still photography represents not only individual ―mirror‖ images, but also reveals much about the society that produced them, concluding that ―the photograph is a distinctive cultural product which reflects a culture‘s way with the world.‖7 In The Power of Photography, historian Vicki Goldberg chronicles the interplay of culture, history, and mass media in over one hundred still photographic images, labeling some as icons, including the Rosenthal photograph.8

In addition to still photography, the media of motion pictures offer a profound impact on culture. In his monograph Culture as History, Warren Susman asserts that communication technology achieves its greatest effect in modern culture a characteristic of society itself.9 In Image as Artifact: Analysis of Film and Television,

John E. O‘Connor notes that the film image is powerful evidence for social and . For O‘Connor, film provides a window of the times‘ stereotypes and propaganda.10 Cultural historian Robert Sklar in his book Movie-Made America: A

Cultural History of American Movies states that the vast majority of moving image products targets towards a mass audience. He believes this broad appeal can only be achieved by expressing or reflecting values, traits, and attitudes common to society,

7Graham Clark, The Photograph (Oxford, New York: , 1997).

8Vicki Goldberg, The Power of Photography (New York, New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1991).

9Warren I. Susman, Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New York, New York: Pantheon Books, 1973, 1984). A nation‘s mythic heroes and icons provide insights into its values. These cultural images reveal how a society views itself and how it wants other nations to regard it. During seminal events in a nation‘s history such as the Cold War, cultural icons emerge which display the traits, values, and attributes that society embraces. Some cultural icons can also be used as metaphors, which will be addressed in later chapters. For more on myths and heroes, see Otto Rank‘s Myth of the Birth of the Hero; Joseph Campbell‘s The Hero with a Thousand Faces; and John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett‘s The Myth of the American , which addresses the John Wayne screen persona.

10John E. O‘Connor, ed., Image as Artifact: The Historical Analysis of Film and Television (Malabar, Florida: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc., 1990).

3

therefore allowing one to ―look into or through the moving image screen and see there the minds and feelings of a people.‖11 Another related work is The Movies as History:

Visions of the Twentieth Century, edited by David W. Elwood. He examines movies as sources of history and notes seminal productions that characterize their respective film genres.12 In ―Part One: War Stories,‖ he cites the John Wayne film The Green Berets.13

American Cinema: One Hundred Years of Cinema, by film historian Jeanine Basinger, assesses one hundred years of film as American .14 In War Movie

Posters, Richard Allen and Bruce Hershenson study the artwork of war movie posters for benchmark productions. The work‘s cover uses the poster for John Wayne‘s film Sands of Iwo Jima that, not surprisingly, incorporates the Rosenthal image entitled ―The

Marines Greatest Hour.‖15

While there is a great deal of research on still photography and motion pictures and their impact on culture, the studies have focused on the images themselves.

However, scholarship of neither still photography nor motion pictures seldom has examined the Congressional Record and government documents. In an assessment of

11Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (New York, New York: Smith Publishing, 1989). The dynamic between business and the members of its target market is a reflexive one. For more detail on marketing theory, see Pamela ‘s, Marketing Management, course supplement, (Kent (OH) State University, 1998); Paul J. Peter, A Preface to Marketing Management (New York: Irwin Book Team, 1997); and Alf H. Walle, III‘s Rethinking Marketing: Qualitative Strategies and Exotic Visions.

12David W. Ellwood, ed., The Movies as History: Visions of the Twentieth Century (Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Redwood Books, 2000).

13The Green Berets, directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg (Warner Brothers-Seven Arts, 1968): 141 min.

14Jeanine Basinger, American Cinema: One Hundred Years of Filmmaking (New York, New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1994).

15 Richard Allen and Bruce Hershenson, War Movie Posters (West Plains, Missouri: Bruce Hershenson Publisher, 2000). 4

government documents, certain words tend to stand out during descriptions of significant images that have become associated with seminal events. These words and their synonyms are notable in that many different legislators and government officials repeatedly use particular terms to describe certain photographic and motion picture images. The research will study those descriptors in the public records and ascertain the attributes described by those key words. Emphasis will be on the most common terms determined by the frequency of usage and references by the largest number of speakers.

By examining the Congressional Record and government documents with attendant key words describing traits, attributes, or characteristics, this work will assess the Rosenthal

Iwo Jima image, the John Wayne screen persona, Apollo pictures, and Berlin Wall representations, which maintain iconoclastic stature in mass media and popular literature.

This study will research to what extent numerous politicians, military leaders, and other social commentators utilized the Joseph Rosenthal Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph from World War II to the present. Throughout 1945, the 79th Congress made repeated references to the Iwo Jima image. The photograph was also the subject of two reports to the House Committee on Naval Affairs, and later, in 1980, a Senate Report and a Presidential Proclamation. Government documents indicated that many legislators viewed that photograph as an excellent example of exceptional American attributes.

Rosenthal‘s image revealed many politicians‘ of heroism and patriotic as well as military success and teamwork. By examining the testimony expressed in

1945 documents and numerous newspaper articles, this study will assess those statements as a means of evaluating the Iwo Jima battle photograph and its contribution to American culture. The record of these documents will determine the exact nature and significance

5

of those attributes. The research will analyze statements made in the 79th Congress, 1980

Senate Report and Presidential Proclamation, as well as newspaper articles and correspondence cited in the Record.

The Congressional Record also is a valuable primary source for researching the

John Wayne screen persona and the views held by various politicians, military leaders and notables in the Hollywood industry.16 The John Wayne screen persona incorporates and symbolically expresses key attributes embraced by many American citizens, such as heroic courage and rugged individualism. This image also reflects those officials‘ vision of the ideal military leader and patriotic nationalist. The 96th Congress authorized a Gold

Medal in 1979 that honored Wayne‘s service to his country, the highest award that

Congress could bestow for distinguished service to this nation other than deeds performed in combat. Discussion for this honor took place in Hearings before the

Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs. The Record revealed that many legislators viewed

John Wayne‘s body of work as a prime example of exceptional American attributes.

Many Americans also see these qualities as admirable and the John Wayne image as a sterling icon during the Cold War and its aftermath. Even though Wayne had never served in the military, his celebratory image survived. By analyzing the views expressed by legislators, celebrities, and social commentators at the 1979 Gold Medal Hearings, this study will assess their statements as a means of evaluating Wayne‘s effect on the culture of America. The records of the 1979 government documents will determine the exact nature and significance of those attributes. When the government documents refer to specific movies produced, characters portrayed, or dialogue spoken, this work will

16 In this work, “Hollywood” refers to the American filmmaking system including, but not limited to, its executives, producers, directors, and actors within the studio system.

6

evaluate those big screen creations. The assessment will confine Wayne‘s movie career to what his supporters thought significant and will buttress the argument regarding the key attributes and their significance during John Wayne‘s career spanning a portion of the Cold War.

During the Depression and World War II, the public sought entertainment in the new electronic media of motion pictures. Despite the harsh economic constraints of the

Great Depression, movie attendance increased: two out of three people went to view a motion picture at least once per week, and following World War II, that figure climbed above three out of four per week. The American public desired escapist fare in the

1930s; the most common major films were elaborate musicals starring the likes of Fred

Astaire and Ginger Rogers. For only twenty-five cents, the studios packaged a major motion picture, cheap ―B‖ movie, an episode of a serial feature, and a cartoon. This marketing strategy maximized the entertainment for the public in a depressed economy. Many of these serials and low budget works starred the singing cowboy Gene

Autry and John Wayne, whose major breakthrough into ―A‖ films came with Stagecoach in 1939.17 Hollywood supported the World War II efforts with a number of propaganda works showing the United States military in its best light. While actors and actresses worked on bond drives to raise funds, war movies encouraged enlistment in the armed forces; among those works were Wayne‘s four combat films: Reunion in France, The

Fighting , Flying Tigers, and Back to Bataan.18 Following World War II,

17Stagecoach, directed by (,1939): 96 min.

18Reunion in France, directed by (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1942): 104 min; , directed by Howard Lydecker and (Republic Pictures, 1944): 100 min; Flying Tigers, directed by David Miller (Republic Pictures, 1942): 101 min; Back to Bataan, directed by Edward Dmytryk (RKO Radio Pictures, 1945): 97 min.

7

Wayne‘s film Sands of Iwo Jima became a benchmark in the war movie genre after the

Rosenthal photograph gained honor with a U.S. postage stamp. After his death, Wayne also was honored with a postal issue, Scott number 2448 (CM1376) in 1990.19

An examination of photographic icons associated with the NASA Apollo missions during the Cold War reflected at least four traits that the United States ascribed to its national identity. The single images known as the Whole Earth and Earth Rising, as well as collections of prints representing lunar footprint and astronaut with flag embody the traits of heroic courage, patriotic nationalism, rugged individualism and technological prowess. A review of the popular literature will support this contention, as well as statements entered into the Congressional Record and other government documents. In his special address to the joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy outlined the goals that became the mission statement for the Apollo program. He justified the effort and expense of the proposal as he linked it directly to Cold War objectives. Characterizing this point in American history as an extraordinary time, he noted the nation‘s role as leader of the free world and categorized this position as the most difficult and important responsibility in the record of . He described

19Sands of Iwo Jima; United States Postal Service, The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps, 27th Edition, (New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 2000); Maurice D. Wozniak, ed., Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps, (Iola, : Krause Publications, 2002). When the U.S. Postal Service produced its ―Folk Heroes Issue‖ in 1996, it paid tribute to imaginary and exaggerated figures. Characterized as America‘s earliest supermen, these larger than life heroes displayed strength, bravery, and pride. In those tall tales, their outlandish endurance and skills transformed a continent. The postal service notes that these figures are illustrative of American society. The legend of Paul Bunyan points to the American belief that man can both dominate and control his environment while the tall tale of Pecos Bill portrays a sense of individualism and industry. The story of John Henry besting a steam-drilling machine reveals an admiration for technology, but still holds man to be the ultimate industrial . These mythic symbols are the product of nineteenth-century America, literate but with a strong oral of entertainment. The following century with its new communication media would provide the basis for modern American icons.

8

those events as a worldwide battle between freedom and tyranny. Kennedy reasoned that dramatic achievements in space would influence the unaligned nations in making their political choice between East and West. In his request for congressional funding, the president stated:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.20

Although the first three icons reflect celebratory traits, which many Americans ascribe to their culture, the Berlin Wall image represents the negative connotations that society attributes to a totalitarian . Erected in 1961, the Wall epitomized the

Iron Curtain metaphor coined in Winston Churchill‘s speech in Fulton, Missouri. The

Berlin border became a focal point of American criticism of expressed in both and government documents. President ‘s challenging speech, ―Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!‖ best illustrated United States revulsion to this icon that represented the negation of the First Amendment‘s five guaranteed freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. For much of American society, the Berlin Wall icon embodied the traits of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and criminality.21

The Cold War constituted the most significant political and cultural event of the post World War II era. The specter of nuclear holocaust provided the potential of not

20 Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs no. 205, 87th Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, May 25, 1961 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1962), 404, John F. Kennedy. Hereafter referred to as U.S. President, Public Papers, Kennedy.

21Edwin Meese, III, ―Morality and Foreign Policy: Reagan and Thatcher,‖ Imprimis, Vol. 31 (August 2002): 1-7.

9

only surpassing the destruction and death of World War II but actually ending and terminating all of humanity. While children practiced ―duck and cover‖ at school, parents built fallout shelters at home and agonized over McCarthyism and the Cuban

Missile crisis. The limited wars in Korea and threatened to escalate from conventional warfare to nuclear conflict. The United States endured a conflict in the

Cold War that lasted longer than all its previous military clashes combined.22 When the

United States faced a new burden of world leadership and changing role of foreign policy, American society embraced photographic and film images, which embodied exceptional attributes. The study of these icons should provide insights into the nation‘s people and culture.23

There are continuing references in government documents and popular literature concerning the Joseph Rosenthal Iwo Jima photograph, the John Wayne screen persona,

Apollo pictures, and Berlin Wall representations. This research will evaluate American

22 , ―Face-Off,‖ U.S. News & World Report, Vol. 127, no. 15 (October 18, 1999): 38-47; Warren P. Strobel, ―Archives Slowly Yielding Their Secrets,‖ U.S. News and World Report, Vol. 127, no. 15 (October 18, 1999): 44. Also see Gaddis‘ We Now Know, Rethinking Cold War History; Strobel‘s The Sword and the Shield.

23During its history, many citizens of the United States regarded several individuals as heroic and embraced them as cultural icons for their respective eras. In Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age, historian John William Ward asserted that early nineteenth-century America based its ideology on three concepts: Nature, Providence, and Will. He stated that the country embraced Andrew Jackson as a heroic symbol because the people believed this leader embodied those ideals, which reflected national pride. He cited Washington McCartney‘s eulogy for Jackson, ―The spirit of an age sometimes descends to future generations in the form of a man….Because his countrymen saw their image and spirit in Andrew Jackson, they bestowed their honor and admiration upon him.‖ The work, Lincoln in Caricature, by Rufus Rockwell Wilson, a scholar of , noted that the Civil War leader assumed majestic proportions following his assassination. He called the president the grandest figure from that conflict, holding an august place (and therefore iconic) in American history. In Leonard Moseley‘s Lindbergh: A Biography, the author cited the aviator‘s solo flight from New York to Paris as single-handedly launching the air era. Mosley asserted that America and the civilized world regarded Charles Lindbergh as the greatest heroic symbol of the day. The biographer reflected that many people elevated the to an icon because they believed that Lindbergh exemplified the boldness, courage, and initiative of the aviation age.

10

attitudes toward the traits that these icons reflect and enhance understanding of the four images by synthesizing a review of government documents and mass media. For much of American society, the continuing political struggle between the two superpowers was a major issue and made a powerful impact on its citizens. This concern manifested in

American motion pictures, television, print media, political cartoons, and even comic art, which revealed three cultural themes. The first constructed a binary worldview that reflected an East/West, black/white, ―other‖/us simplicity. The second posited the constant possibility of immediate nuclear war and overwhelming devastation. The third theme described a national obsession with security and military preparedness to counter the first. With two generations born and raised during this era, many people could not envision an end to East-West tensions, thus the collapse of the and resultant

American victory in the Cold War caught many by surprise. A review of Cold War history and its representation through mass media coverage will provide a framework to place these icons in contemporary context.

11

Chapter 2

American Cold War Culture Exposed in Popular Media

The Cold War represented the longest and most expensive conflict in American history. Its roots and origins began with the rise of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks in

Russia, which prompted limited but armed intervention by the Allied forces following

World War I. Subsequent to the failure of the Western powers to restore the White

Army, first Lenin and then Joseph Stalin solidified Communist control during the 1920s and 1930s. During the Great Depression, American and European nations suffered economic and social upheaval while the perceived failure of democracy and free markets prompted a search for alternative political systems. As both and communism developed increasing grass roots support, entrenched government and capitalist forces saw the unrest as a threat to their power. These factions viewed the Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics (USSR) with suspicion and claimed that agents of Stalin‘s Comintern infiltrated progressive and union movements in their nations. The Nonaggression Pact

1939 between Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin exacerbated the distrust within the

Western democracies toward communism. Only after Germany‘s invasion of the USSR did Stalin join the Allies, a marriage of convenience riddled with distrust and suspicion.

Therefore, it was not surprising that with the Axis threat removed at of World

12

War II, Western democracy, led by the United States, would come into conflict with

Stalin‘s Communist . democracy focused on respect for the individual and property rights that held government answerable to the people. This John

Locke philosophy stood diametrically opposed to the twentieth century communism, which embraced the concept of a centralized government directed economy and subjugated the individual to state.

Many significant events inform and chronicle the development of the Cold War.

Numerous scholars regard Winston Churchill‘s ―‖ speech at Fulton,

Missouri, on March 5, 1946, as the formal opening of hostilities between the East and the

West. Dictator Joseph Stalin immediately issued an angry response in an interview published in the Soviet newspaper on March 13, 1946, which characterized the former British leader‘s speech as a call for war against the Soviet Union. The following year, on March 12, President Harry S. Truman proposed his in a speech before Congress. The President defined the world as sharply divided between ways of life that reflected either freedom or oppression, and he urged that American policy support free peoples against armed minorities. That spring at Harvard‘s commencement exercises, Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlined a proposal for economic aid to

Europe. This eventually provided over $12 billion for European redevelopment, which stabilized governments and strengthened Western European and

American relations. During the Korean conflict in 1950-53, Truman

American armed forces under the auspices of the United Nations to oppose the

Communist invasion of the South by first and later Red .

13

The Cold War resulted from the growing East/West tensions and found expression in United States domestic policies. The Taft-Hartley act forbade union leaders‘ membership in Communist organizations, and loyalty programs required government employees to affirm that they had not joined a Communist faction.

Furthermore, the McCarran Internal Security bill demanded the registration of

Communist organizations and their members with the office of the Attorney General.

The late 1940s and early saw the rise of the movement termed McCarthyism, which questioned and destroyed the reputations of citizens by mere accusation without proof. Later in the decade, the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik prompted a massive commitment of American funds and technology to compete in a Cold War with the Russians.

The scholarship on this bipolar conflict reflects three historiographic schools of thought. The first interpretation assigned primary responsibility to Stalin‘s totalitarian regime, which promoted Russian expansionism, Marxist-Leninist ideology, and the destruction of capitalist democracies. This traditional or orthodox school gained popularity early in the struggle with advocates like John W. Spanier and Arthur M.

Schlesinger, Jr. Later a revisionist branch of scholarship challenged the traditionalist view and charged the United States with initiating the conflict through its economic expansionism, which sought to broaden overseas markets for the benefit of American trade. The revisionists found inspiration in the polemical works of William A. Williams,

Gar Alperovitz, and LaFeber. Following the 1970s, a third interpretation, the post-revisionists, advanced a more nuanced view that assigned blame in varying degrees upon both participants of the struggle. Foremost among these were John Lewis Gaddis

14

and the detailed researcher Melvyn P. Leffler, who posited that ―fear‖ and ―power‖ drove the Truman administration‘s foreign policy. During the Cold War America felt that it possessed the power to enforce world order and expressed fear at the possibility of

Soviet-inspired disorder.

Having established a baseline of Cold War reality with original documents, this study will explore the myth or imagery of the conflict portrayed in popular culture and mass media. Editorial cartoons and amusement comics comprise a major part of popular culture. In Cartoons and Lampoons, Samuel A. Tower states that editorial illustrations offer a graphic perspective on events. Chris Lamb‘s Drawn to Extremes: The Use and

Abuse of Editorial Cartoons notes the early of American cartoons citing Benjamin

Franklin‘s ―Join or Die‖ snake whose severed parts represent the colonies. According to political science scholar Charles Press in his monograph, The Political Cartoon, the medium offers valuable data for students of politics. The Ungentlemanly Art by Stephen

Hess and Milton Kaplan credits nineteenth-century cartoonist Thomas Nast with exposing William ―Boss‖ Tweed and ‘s Tammany Hall ring. In Comic

Art in America historian Stephen Becker also praises Nast as a against corruption.1 Literary scholar Arthur Asa Berger asserts that elements of mass culture have artistic and philosophical significance in his groundbreaking work Comic-Stripped

American. Edited by Richard A. Lupoff and Don Thompson, All in Color for a Dime

1Samuel A. Tower, Cartoons and Lampoons: The Art of Political (New York, New York: Julian Messner, 1982); Chris Lamb, Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons (New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), x, 43; Charles Press, The Political Cartoon (East Brunswick, : Associated University Presses, Inc., 1981), 8-33; Stephen Hess and Milton Kaplan, The Ungentlemanly Art: A History of American Political Cartoons (New York, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968), 13; Stephen Becker, Comic Art in America: A Social History of the Funnies, the Political Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons and Animated Cartoons (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959), vi, 298-9.

15

notes that comic art represents a significant culture element for American juveniles and young adults. In the anthology, The Funnies: An American Idiom, cultural scholars

David Manning White and Robert H. Abel characterize the art in comic strips as a cultural force that reflects people‘s interests. The last work considered is Les Daniels‘

Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, which traces the color medium from its newspaper inception in the 1890s to the underground comics of the 1960s.2

After he gained recognition for his ―Willie and Joe‖ illustrations in Yank

Magazine in World War II, the cartoonist Bill Mauldin continued to produce political cartoons in the Cold War. Mauldin won the 1959 for his work that addressed ‘s oppression of its own citizens. While two prisoners toiled in the snow, hand-splitting logs in a Siberian gulag, one asked the other: ―I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?‖ This and other cultural images described purported Russian expansion and totalitarianism.3

Editorial cartoonist Herbert Block won three individual Pulitzer prizes with his graphic illustrations, and a fourth award with colleagues of for coverage of the Watergate scandal. One of the Pulitzer illustrations showed the robed specter of death with scythe who walked beside Stalin while blood dripped from his

Communist sickle. The spirit stated, ―You Were Always A Great Friend Of Mine

Joseph.‖ Some of his other images addressed Soviet repression in with one caption that ironically stated, ―Workers Arise,‖ to West German citizens while prone

2Arthur Asa Berger, The Comic Stripped American (New York, New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc., 1973); Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson, All in Color for a Dime (New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1970), 11-8; David Manning White and Robert H. Abel, eds., The Funnies: An American Idiom (London: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), vii, 2-6; Les Daniels, Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (New York, New York: Books, 1971).

3Becker, 337.

16

East Germans lay dead before a Soviet tank. Another illustration represented a Russian tank factory, which redirected its shipment from North Korea to suppress riots in Eastern

Europe. The next cartoon featured Nikita Khrushchev and Mao Tse-tung at a conference table as they told the non-Communist world that the two were always ready to bargain.

Behind the Soviet and Chinese leaders stood groups of bound prisoners labeled Japanese,

German, and American. In a pair of illustrations on the Hungarian Revolution, one depicted a slain protester behind a Soviet soldier who wiped off his bloody bayonet and stated, ―I‘ll Be Glad To Restore Peace To The Middle East, Too.‖ The second Hungarian cartoon showed a row of bullet holes beneath a wall graffiti phrase, ―Russkies Go

Home,‖ as a Soviet tank rolled by dead protesters in the image entitled, ―Handwriting On

The Wall.‖4

Herblock also lampooned the program and McCarthyism in many of his works. The first entitled, ―It‘s Okay---We‘re Communists,‖ featured a car, which represented the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that careened onto a sidewalk and crushed innocent pedestrians. Another depicted an employment advertisement for government positions behind Uncle Sam who bemoaned,

―It‘s sure hard to get help these days.‖ Various figures labeled loyalty probes, political smears, Congressional badgering, lack of executive support, and low salaries tormented the job applicants and drove them away. In his assaults on Joseph McCarthy, depicted the senator who stood with burning documents in either hand that bore the inscriptions ―Doctored Photo‖ and ―Fake Letter‖ with the caption: ―I have here in my hand____.‖ Adding a suffix to the name, the cartoonist coined the phrase McCarthyism

4 Herbert Block, Herblock’s Here and Now (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955), 176, 182-3, 208; idem, Herblock’s Special for Today (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958), 37-41. 17

as political smearing and blacklisting symbolized by a teetering stack of buckets topped by a bursting tar barrel. While senators led by Robert Taft pushed a reluctant elephant that represented the Republican Party towards the dark liquid, the frightened pachyderm cried out, ―You Mean I‘m Supposed to Stand on That?‖ These cultural images revealed the discomfort some elements of society experienced during the red baiting in the early part of the Cold War.5

In addition to political cartoons, Cold War issues and themes found expression in the mass media of comic books and comic strips. British anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer observed, ―With the notable exception of , almost every American newspaper carries comic strips. They are one of the few important bonds (the film being another and the presidential elections a third) uniting Americans in a common experience.‖6 Since the creative illustrators operated in commercial media, they naturally tailored their work to appeal to a wide audience and many broadly held societal beliefs.

Following World War II, Milton Caniff‘s characters in Steve Canyon and Terry and the

Pirates turned their efforts from battling Fascists to combating Communists and their subversive plots against America. In the strip Little Orphan Annie, Harold Gray portrayed the industrialist Daddy Oliver Warbucks in a positive role that opposed socialist agents. Pulp hero faced a Communist robot named Red

Dynamo while another protagonist, Blackhawk, dealt with gulag slavery in Siberia.

Using Li’l Abner as a platform, artist Alfred Capp satirized the Soviet Union as a nation of ignorant peasants in the frozen land of Lower Slobbovia. Capp also aimed barbs at the

5 Library of Congress, Herblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium (Washington, D.C., 1977), 30; Tower, 175; Hess and Kaplan, 157-8; Lamb, 110, 90-125.

6 White and Abel, 2.

18

intellectual ineptitude of the United States government versus the common sense of the uneducated citizens who inhabited Dogpatch in his comic strip. In the early 1960s,

Marvel Comics writer and artist created the magazine Fantastic

Four. Since they felt that the American bureaucracy responded too slowly in space exploration, the quartet privately funded and built a ship to ―beat the Reds to the stars.‖ In addition to the issue of the Cold War space race, the work indirectly addressed the topic of nuclear radiation because the characters developed their fantastic powers after exposure to cosmic rays that were similar to radiation.7

Periodical literature provided a vast opportunity to analyze Cold War culture. A

Time book review entitled, ―The Cold War and the Small War,‖ assessed the work of 34- year-old Harvard political scientist, . His Nuclear Weapons and Foreign

Policy volume asserted that communism was ―an irreconcilably hostile bloc‖ bent on the goal of world domination; the future secretary of state advocated both strategic and limited military response capabilities to meet the threat. Using three cartoons, the magazine‘s October issue addressed Soviet success in the space race with the United

States. The first image featured Khrushchev, whip in hand, who lorded over Warsaw‘s citizens while he pointed to the moon and Sputnik in ―A Tale of Two Satellites.‖ In

―Down Boy,‖ a cautious space scientist blocked an American politician as he attempted to press a large panic button on the wall. The third illustration had Uncle Sam who held a newspaper with the headline, ―Ike Promises U.S. Satellite in Dec.‖ While a beeping

Sputnik with hammer and sickle circled overhead, Uncle Sam assured a little boy that

7 Moira Davison Reynolds, Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945-1980 (Jefferson, Missouri: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003), 105-8; Brian Walker, The Comics since 1945 (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 2002), 15-35, 44-5, 50-5, 78; Daniels, 153-8; Lupoff and Thompson, 141-6; White and Abel, 3-6. 19

Santa would indeed bring him an American artificial satellite as Sam alleged, ―And Ours

Will Play Jingle Bells.‖ A section on foreign news in Time featured a world map that highlighted the Communist nations in bright red contrasted against the rest of the globe in white. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan warned, ―Never has the threat of Soviet Communism been so great, or the need for countries to organize themselves against it.‖8

Life magazine carried examples of an anti-Communist underground magazine published in the Western zone of Germany. Despite East German efforts to suppress the satirical periodical, Westerners managed to smuggle 600,000 copies into the Soviet sector. One week later, a Life editorial examined the testing of America‘s hydrogen bomb and labeled it a deterrent while it supported the administration‘s announced policy of ―massive retaliation.‖ In the article ―U.S. tries hard to catch up,‖ Life magazine covered United States efforts to compete with the Soviets. It noted an increase in

American missile launches, having cited the , Jupiter, and Vanguard programs. The author asserted that the United States must match Russian space efforts and linked the exploration to military supremacy.9

Numerous articles printed in other magazines informed the cultural imagery during the Cold War. The covers of the Saturday Evening Post bore striking titles, which warned readers of the Communist menace. The issue displayed ―New York School for

American Communists‖ and ―I Fly with the Long Range Bombers,‖ while a subsequent issue answered the questions ―How You Can Survive an A-bomb Blast‖ and ―Why We

8 ―The Cold War and the Small War,‖ Time (August 26, 1957): 14; Time (October 21, 1957): 21-3; Time, (November 18, 1957): 28-9.

9 Life (April 5, 1954): 18-9; Life (April 12, 1954): 38; ―U.S. Tries Hard to Catch Up,‖ Life (November 4, 1957): 27-9. 20

Lost China.‖ Another copy carried Robert Vogeler‘s memoir of imprisonment by Stalin.

One author asked, ―How Close is War with Russia?‖ while a second writer warned of mass murder in Red China. Reader’s Digest featured a piece, which asserted that millions of Russians hated their cruel overlords, and out of a population of 180 million, only six million belonged to the Communist Party. The publication contended in two consecutive essays that America was losing an industrial race with a nation that ―can‘t even make a decent flush toilet‖ because the Soviets focused their educational system on engineering, science, and technology rather than the liberal arts and consumer goods.

The July copy predicted a continued Sino-Soviet alliance that threatened the free world.

Immensely popular author penned numerous detective stories that starred his hard-boiled investigator, Mike Hammer, who first appeared in serial publications. In , the rugged detective thwarted a subversive plot engineered by a band of Communist thugs. Perhaps ’s list of quotes of the century best summarized America‘s perception of the Cold War threat when the magazine reprinted a line from Nikita Khrushchev‘s speech to Western diplomats on

November 18, 1956. The Soviet leader avowed, ―Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. .‖10

Unlike print or film, television was in its infancy at the start of the Cold War.

Nevertheless, this new technology would have a major impact on American society as the nascent medium both reflected and shaped cultural perceptions during the bipolar

10 Roger Butterfield and the Editors of the Saturday Evening Post, The Saturday Evening Post Treasury: Selected from the Complete Files (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954), 13, 19, 26, 28, 32; Reader’s Digest (October 1948): 105-8; Reader’s Digest (August 1956): 127-132; Reader’s Digest (July 1957); Mickey Spillane, The Mike Hammer , Vol. 2/Mickey Spillane, introduction by Lawrence Block (New York, New York: New American Library, 2001); Newsweek (December 20, 1999): 55-77.

21

hostilities. According to communications scholar Dorothy B. Jones, television sets grew from one quarter million to thirty six-million in just eight years, 1947-1955, and offered

Americans a novel source of news, information, and entertainment. In a review essay,

John W.C. Johnstone explored the issue of news management in print and electronic media and identified three theories, which described points of control for content. When determining news content and theme, the first theory contended that media executives wielded the most power, whereas the second explanation asserted that front-line journalists channeled content more. In addition to this top down versus bottom up debate, a third position empowered outside forces in the form of political and economic interests, which used both direct and indirect pressure to manage available information.

Moreover, scholar Herbert I. Schiller noted communication research, which emphasized the ―active audience.‖ This communications theory argued against viewer passivity and posited that individuals modify messages and images to fit their own personal schema.

Rather than blindly absorbing material, an audience retained significant agency to assess information regardless of efforts to channel their conclusions.11

In her monograph U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960,

Nancy E. Bernhard traced the simultaneous development of video news and the Cold

War. She cited an ongoing collaboration between networks and government to promote a policy of international security through military defense and anticommunism in a bipolar world. Commercial programming relied a great deal on information channeled through public affairs conduits and resources made available through the Departments of State

11 Dorothy B. Jones, ―The Language of Our Time,‖ The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, Vol. 10, no.2 (Winter, 1955): 167-179; John W.C. Johnstone, reviews of The Powers That Be, by , Deciding What’s News, by Herbert Gans, Making News, by Gaye Tuchman, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 87, no. 5 (March 1982): 1174-81; Herbert I. Schiller, review of Television and the Red Menace, by J. Fred MacDonald, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 15, no. 1 (January 1986): 77-78. 22

and Defense. Much of American society appraised the seminal events of the early

East/West struggle through this fledgling electronic medium. Operating as part of a communication and entertainment industry in a free market and capitalist economy, network news reported the Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift, Soviet atomic bomb, loss of Red

China, and the Korean conflict. In the domestic sphere, citizens independently assessed the charges of Senator McCarthy, the hearings before the HUAC, the trial and conviction of , as well as those of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.12

Thomas Patrick Doherty‘s Cold War, Cool Medium also addressed the early role of television during the Cold War. Announcers, who would later gain prominence in television news, witnessed atomic tests firsthand with government sanction. On February

6, 1951, local coverage of an atomic blast first appeared on stations KTLA and KTTV when cameras atop Mount Wilson, 250 miles away, caught the flash of a at Proving Ground. Citizens in the city witnessed the cloud on the horizon as a reporter conducted interviews with them. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and

Civil Defense Administration (CDA) coordinated a detonation at Yucca Flats, Nevada, for all major networks. While for the Columbia Broadcasting System

(CBS) reported seven miles away from the tower, the America Broadcasting Company‘s

(ABC) Chet Huntley covered the event in a trench with personnel a mere two miles distant. Later the Department of Defense (DOD) and the AEC produced a 28-minute film, Operation Ivy, which chronicled the first hydrogen bomb test. After multiple

12Nancy E. Bernhard, U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960 (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999), i, 1-15.

23

broadcasts on all stations, secondary schools obtained the print for use in civics and science classes.13

No discussion of television in the early Cold War would be complete without considering the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his verbal duel with newscaster Edward R. Murrow, host of on CBS. Following his incendiary accusations in Wheeling, West Virginia, the junior senator from Wisconsin chaired the

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations from 1953 to 1954. The House Un-

American Activities (HUAC) subpoenaed motion picture notables, and the McCarran committee sought to uncover subversive material in both television programs and film.

This atmosphere of repression, termed McCarthyism, also included the long-standing

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiries and Truman‘s loyalty oaths for federal employees. During an appearance on Edward R. Murrow‘s live broadcast of See It Now on November 3, 1953, former President Truman responded to a McCarthy smear leveled years before against General George C. Marshall, recent winner of the for his reconstruction plan for postwar Europe. The retired chief executive retorted, ―The man who made that attack isn‘t fit to shine General Marshall‘s shoes.‖ The transcript of the broadcast from Murrow on , 1954, skewered McCarthy and turned public sentiment against him.14

That year at the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, the Army retained as its counsel Joseph N. Welch. Addressing the Wisconsin , the exasperated lawyer‘s question: ―Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no

13 Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 8-13.

14Doherty, 161, 171-7.

24

sense of decency?‖ marked a seminal moment in a constitutional crisis transmitted into

American households coast to coast. After he faced in the Senate that fall, most observers agreed that while television enabled the rise of McCarthy to national prominence, the new medium also occasioned his downfall. The junior senator died at

Bethesda Naval Hospital , 1957, of complications, which resulted from .15

J. Fred MacDonald examined the nascent medium‘s Cold War impact and legacy in Television and the Red Menace. He discussed Radio Corporation of America (RCA) chairman of the board Brigadier General David Sarnoff, who promoted television‘s use in anti-Communist propaganda. Also leading the Armed Forces Communications

Association, Sarnoff called for a ―Marshall Plan of Ideas‖ to oppose the Eastern bloc‘s message since ―The Communists smother the truth with their falsehoods.‖ In 1955, the

RCA executive authored a 42-page memorandum, ―Program for a Political Offensive

Against World Communism,‖ for President Dwight D. Eisenhower that advocated

Western propaganda dispersed through television and other media. When East Berlin hosted the World Festival of Youth with an international attendance of two million, the

State Department together with CBS and National Broadcasting Company (NBC) placed huge television screens in West Berlin to display Western technical achievement.16

With the flood of sports in today‘s broadcasts, it is somewhat shocking that in the fall of 1951 and 1952 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) forbid live transmission of college football fearing the loss of gate receipts. Working with CBS, the

15Doherty, 204, 210-13.

16J. Fred MacDonald, Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Vietnam (New York, New York: Praeger, 1985), 16-9. 25

Department of Defense aired gridiron matches in the Armed Forces league, which featured teams from military installations such as Fort Lee, Camp Lejeune, and Great

Lakes Naval Training Center. Eastern and Western service champions met in the televised Poinsettia Bowl. Starting with the nationally aired Army-Navy game in 1949, and the 1959 Army-Air Force contest, the visual medium promoted a military ethic within a Cold War context. East/West tensions even found expression during children‘s programming. In a 1953 weekday-serial, three American agents challenged Red subversives in ―The Atom Squad.‖ Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, natives Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle T. Moose faced terrorists Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale (a.k.a. Natasha

Nogoodnik), and uniformed Fearless Leader, replete with bombs and Eastern European accents in an immensely popular cartoon series. Furthermore, each episode‘s introduction of the George Reeves program featured a flowing American flag behind a resolute with hands on hips who stood for ―truth, justice, and the American way.‖ (Contrast this portrayal to the 2006 motion picture where the editor of the Daily

Planet asked, ―Does he [Superman] still stand for all that other stuff?‖)17

The film industry dominated the American entertainment market at the start of the

Cold War. Dorothy B. Jones estimated the average motion picture attendance at over eighty million per week. Citing the role of film in training military personal, public education, business, and industry, she also noted Stalin and Hitler‘s employment of movie propaganda. English professor Geraldine Murphy linked the Cold War binary theme of freedom versus tyranny to epic pictures outside the Cold War era. At the end of

World War II in 1945, a poll revealed that 32 percent of Americans feared another

17MacDonald, 120-6; , directed by Bryan Singer (Warner Brothers Pictures, 2006): 154 min.

26

new world conflict within two decades, and by March 1948, that figure rose to 73 percent according to Michael Parenti in Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media.

Reviewers Michael T. Isenberg and Martin Novelli in the Journal of American History and Journal of Military History, respectively, assessed film historian Lawrence H. Suid‘s scholarship, which examined the relationship between the motion picture industry and

American military to justify violence to achieve national goals and enhance the military‘s image against its opponents during the Cold War.18

Soon Stalinist totalitarianism filled the role of outside threat and opposing

―Other‖ in the bipolar conflict. Harvard historian Robert MacDougal appraised the ―Red

Fascism‖ thesis used to transfer United States enmity from the World War II Axis onto

America‘s former ally, Russia. Noting the Nazi-Soviet Pact from 1939, the author offered Truman‘s remarks: ―There isn‘t any difference in totalitarian states. I don‘t care what you call them, Nazi, Communist, or Fascist.‖19 Nancy E. Bernhard discussed a secret United States program, ―Militant Liberty,‖ that promoted anti-Communist themes in film and television. Through the Subsidiary Activities Division, the Joint Chiefs of

Staff sought the cooperation of Hollywood notables such as director John Ford and actor

John Wayne, one of the founders of the Motion Picture Alliance to Preserve American

Ideals, which opposed subversive influence in movies. During the HUAC hearings,

18Jones, 167-79; Geraldine Murphy, ―Ugly Americans in Togas: Imperial Anxiety in the Cold War Hollywood Epic,‖ Journal of Film and Video Vol. 56, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 3-19; Michael Parenti, Inventing the Politics of New Media Reality, 2nd edition (New York, New York: St. Martin‘s Press, 1993), 11; Michael T. Isenberg, review of Guts and Glory: Great American War Movies, by Lawrence H. Suid, The Journal of American History Vol. 66, no. 1 (June 1979): 210-11; Martin Novelli, review of Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film, by Lawrence H. Suid, The Journal of Military History Vol. 66, no. 4 (October 2002): 1261-3.

19 Robert MacDougall, ―Red, Brown and Yellow Perils: Images of the American Enemy in the 1940s and 1950s,‖ Journal of Popular Culture Vol. 32, no. 4 (Spring 1999): 59-75.

27

which investigated Communist infiltration into film, Chairman J. Parnell Thomas (R-NJ) claimed, ―What the citizen sees and hears in his neighborhood movie house carries a powerful impact on his thoughts and his behavior.‖ (Following his conviction for payroll padding, Representative Thomas received a prison sentence.) Professor of communications Russell Earl Shain analyzed the resultant Hollywood blacklisting in a volume included in the Dissertations on Film Series, Arno Press Cinema Program.

According to The Columbia Companion to American History on Film editor, Peter C.

Rollins, the aggregate viewing of motion pictures and television defined much of the

―popular memory‖ or informal past held by a society, and this was especially dominant during the Cold War.20

Many movies expressed the theme of American national security threatened by

Communist espionage in a twilight struggle. Inspired by Russian defector and code clerk

Igor Gouzenko, Iron Curtain (a.k.a. Behind the Iron Curtain) recounted Soviet espionage operations, which sought atomic secrets and involved members of the Canadian

Parliament and disloyal scientists. Another film experiencing a name change, I Married a Communist, later known as The Woman on Pier 13, addressed Communist infiltration of organized labor in San Francisco and warned citizens to be suspicious of their intimates and associates. Undercover agent Matt Cvetic attempted to expose disloyal

Americans in I was a Communist for the F.B.I., in which the bureau investigator suffered recriminations from friends and family for his alleged membership in the Party. In My

Son John, Robert Walker played a State Department official with subversive sympathies

20 Bernhard, 149; Russell Earl Shain, An Analysis of Motion Pictures about War Released by the American Film Industry1930-1970 (New York, New York: Arno Press, 1976), 76-88; Peter C. Rollins, The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past (New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), xi.

28

who planned to defect with government secrets. At his mother‘s urging, he reaffirmed his faith in America and God, yet paid with his life at the hands of Communist agents.

On the island of Hawaii, John Wayne and his sidekick James Arness (later star of the twenty-year television series ) uncovered Communists and Soviet agents in Big

Jim McLain. Acting as investigators for the HUAC, they eventually brought the ringleaders before the committee but experienced frustration when the subversives invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and hid behind the constitution to conceal their nefarious Communist affiliation.21

The motion picture industry presented the simplistic binary theme in war films when the United States military directly confronted the Communists. Using documentary techniques, The Big Lift recounted the efforts of American aviators to supply German citizens in the Western zone during the Berlin Airlift. Filmed on location in Berlin, the work celebrated United States technology as a means to defeat the Russians and achieve national goals. Humphrey Bogart played an army surgeon in the Korean conflict who served with a Mobile Army Surgical Headquarters (MASH), a military innovation celebrated in the film Battle Circus, which saved service members‘ lives near the front lines. Later in 1970, ‘s MASH parodied the that used the same type of medical unit in a Korean setting. The movie Strategic Air Command celebrated American technology, which displayed huge jet bombers on the screen in color Cinemascope. Produced at the behest of Jimmy Stewart who starred in the project, the actor was himself an ex-bomber pilot who continued to serve in the Air Force

21 Iron Curtain (a.k.a. Behind the Iron Curtain) , directed by William A. Wellman (Twentieth Century Fox, 1948): 87 min.; I Married a Communist (a.k.a. Woman on Pier 13), directed by Robert Stevenson (RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., 1950): 73 min.; I was a Communist for the F.B.I., directed by Gordon Douglas (Warner Brothers, 1951): 83 min.; My Son John, directed by Leo McCarey (Paramount, 1952): 122 min.; Big Jim McLain, directed by Edward Ludwig (Warner Brothers, 1952): 90 min. 29

Reserves before he retired as a Brigadier General. A combat film that portrayed the

Chinese Communists as senselessly brutal with no regard for human life, Pork Chop Hill featured Gregory Peck who lost virtually his entire company in a needless assault prompted by the intransigence of Asian negotiators at Panmunjom. Capitalizing on charges of prisoner abuse and brainwashing during the Korean conflict, The Manchurian

Candidate featured espionage following the war. Tortured into a mindless automaton, a decorated veteran served as an instrument of assassination for a Communist agent, in this case, his own mother.22

Later in the Cold War, the nuclear age fostered a sense of insecurity, which found expression in features whose themes concerned the threat of . That destruction resulted from an inadvertent atomic war between the East and West or thermonuclear testing. An entire genre of cheap and horror films relied on radiation as the culprit, which spawned various monsters that threatened humanity.

These included works such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Beast from 20,000

Fathoms, The Beginning of the End, and Them! Released in 1959, the plot of On the

Beach involved the crew of an American submarine in a post-nuclear world that faced eventual death by radiation. Questioning the infallibility of technology, a mechanical malfunction inadvertently launched an American nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in Fail-Safe. After desperate attempts to recall United States bombers, all B-58s returned except one, which obliterated Moscow. To avoid an all out Russian retaliation, the president, played by , allowed the Soviets to destroy New York City in a

22 The Big Lift, directed by George Seaton (20th Century Fox, 1950): 120 min.; Battle Circus, directed by Richard Brooks (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1953): 120 min.; MASH, directed by Robert Altman (20th Century Fox, 1970): 116 min.; Strategic Air Command, directed by (Paramount, 1955): 112 min.; Pork Chop Hill, directed by (United Artists, 1959): 97 min.; , directed by John Frankenheimer (United Artists, 1962): 126 min. 30

horrific example of tit-for-tat to restore the international order. Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr.

Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was a black satire, which savaged politicians, the military, and the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction

(MAD). Peter Sellers offered a devastating caricature of political theorist Henry

Kissinger as a bloodthirsty invalid replete with a thick German accent. All of these works represented the cultural stress fractures of American confidence as the nation engaged in a seemingly indeterminate Cold War.23

Traditional foreign relations historians have centered their research on the Cold

War on primary sources generated by elite policymakers. Cultural and social scholars have focused on the public to construct a bottom-up analysis of events. Media-generated popular memory projected imagery of the Cold War era, and although popular media may not have perfectly mirrored the superpower contest, a study of those sources generated for mass consumption in a commercial environment informed and enriched the historical record. From the sources of photography and motion pictures, major cultural icons emerged to which large segments of American society ascribed attributes that defined their nation. This dissertation examines four Cold War representations: the Rosenthal photograph, the John Wayne screen persona, Apollo images, and the Berlin Wall construct.

23Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel (Allied Artists, 1956): 80 min.; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, directed by Eugene Lourie (Warner Brothers, 1953): 80 min.; The Beginning of the End , directed by Bert I. Gordan (RKO Pictures, 1957): 76 min.; Them!, directed by Gordan Douglas (Warner Brothers, 1954): 94 min.; On the Beach, directed by Stanley Kramer (United Artists, 1959): 134 min.; Fail- Safe, directed by Sidney Lemet (Columbia Pictures, 1964): 112 min.; Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick (Columbia Pictures, 1964): 95 min. 31

Chapter 3

The Impact of Still Photography and Joseph Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima Photograph as An Icon in the Cold War

During the twentieth century, photography evolved into a fundamental component of communication. In fact, it is nearly impossible to describe modern events without photographs; the world today without these images would be like being blind. Nearly every newspaper and magazine utilizes a picture on its front page and displays important events daily, while shots of matters of life and death are common. Photographs may define a particular era in general or a specific moment in time. There are shots that many individuals cannot imagine living without, since these images are fundamental to how they view themselves. When either fire or natural disasters destroy homes, many persons set salvaging pictures or the family as priority.

Introduced in 1900, the Brownie camera, which remained in production for 80 years, enjoyed sales of a quarter million in its first year on the market. Its one-dollar cost made the novelty affordable to the working class, and its casual photographs captured the flux of life for the common person. In 1908, Eastman Kodak offered to print pictures as a postcard for no additional charge. This complemented the function of newspapers by popularizing events such as disasters, the Mexican Revolution, suffragists, and labor union struggles. Lewis Hines‘s photograph of gaunt and despairing youth in factories 32

and mines illustrated the need for child labor laws (Breaker Boys), and in 1908, National

Geographic revolutionized magazines with color photographs, which helped to shape how generations of Americans formed images of the world. During the 1920s, advertising evolved from print to visual images. Dorothea Lange later documented the despair of depression families (Migrant Mother). Advertiser Jerry Fermina observed that in photography truth lost out to fantasy. However, photographic images changed not only what the world looked like, but also what the news was. The photograph has evolved into the ―most trustworthy‖ source of information for a large part of society.1

The combat photographer greatly affected the perception of war. When Marine

Corporal Richard Brooks requested side arms for his cameramen, General Holland Smith made his position clear. He wanted cameras, both still and movie, with the forward combat forces at all times, with or even without film. The stated, ―Cameras are eyes of the world, and there are no cowards in front of a camera.‖2 Former

Associated Press (AP) editor Hal Buell noted that five individual or groups of images defined World War II. The first, Demonizing the Enemy, was one of an American girl with a Japanese skull on her desk, the grisly trophy a gift from her soldier boyfriend. The next example was the pin-up poster of Grable. The D-Day images at Normandy constituted the third, followed by evidence pictures of the concentration camps as number four. Buell stated that the fifth and most significant photograph was Joseph Rosenthal‘s image of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. The editor further postulated

1American Photography: A Century of Images (Twin Cities Public Television, 1999): 180 min.; Nancy Jackson, Photographers: History and Culture through the Camera (New York, New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1997), vi-ix.; Graham Clarke, The Photograph (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 146-53.

2Shooting War: WWII Combat Cameramen (A Lorac Production, Dreamworks, Inc., 2000): 60 min. 33

that still photographs held a greater impact than television during the Vietnam War. He listed five significant images that defined this conflict: the Buddhist monk‘s suicide by self-immolation, General Nguyen Nyoc Loan‘s execution of a Viet Cong during the Tet offensive, the running Vietnamese girl with clothes burned off, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph of the girl as she knelt over the slain Kent (OH) State University student on May 4, 1970. The fifth image was Life magazine‘s collection of portraits of

American service members killed in action for one week.

Photography also has created images that have defined major social moments, technological achievements, and political stances. The shot of Earthrise taken by Apollo

8 from the moon demarked the start of the green earth movement. Environmentalists have cited it as an emblem that represented earth‘s fragile state. The images of with the American flag on the lunar landscape denoted scientific advance and exploration. They also represented America‘s greatest propaganda victory over the

Soviets during the Cold War. President Ronald Reagan‘s news chief Mike Deaver cited the effective use of pictures during ―photo ops,‖ and observed that people often absorbed impressions rather than substance. Photography encodes life into images, which both communicates and links people together from the past to the present and into the future.3

When Joseph Rosenthal snapped a photograph of six marines as they raised a flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, he had no idea that this image would achieve iconic status. Due to wire transfer technology, the AP was able to distribute the image within days of the event to an extensive network of newspapers and magazines.

3To the Moon, Production by Lone Wolf Pictures, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999: 120 min.; American Photography: A Century of Images, 1999; Vicki Goldberg, The Power of Photography (New York, New York: Abbeville Press, 1991), 47-57.

34

The photograph became an immediate sensation with the American public. Hal Buell of the AP described the image as an instant icon, which symbolized victory and called

Joseph Rosenthal‘s photo of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi one of the greatest images of all time, perhaps the greatest picture ever.4 Its influence extended beyond the

United States. Heading the Allied board of historians, which produced the first official history of World War II, Francis Trevelyan Miller used the image as a cover page for the volume, and entitled the photograph, ―World War II‘s Most Famous Picture, Iwo Jima,

1945.‖ Intended as a standard work for homes, schools, and libraries, the volume gained an international distribution.5 (Figure 1)

In October 1944, the United States‘ military planners chose Iwo Jima as one of its next objectives in the Pacific campaign. Based in the Marianas, the new B-29 bombers, called Superfortresses, had a 2,800-mile round trip flight to strike at the Japanese home islands. Midway between Saipan and Tokyo, Iwo Jima had two finished airfields and a third one partially completed. The occupation of this position offered America several advantages: removal of Japanese fighters that threatened the long-range bombers, a base for medium bombers to strike Tokyo, a center for air-sea rescue for ditched aircraft, and most importantly, lengthened runways could handle damaged B-29s.6 In March 1945, the United States implemented a major tactical change in the air war over Japan. Instead of high-level attacks with explosive bombs, the Superfortresses would fly low and use

4American Photography A Century of Images, 1999; Parker Bishop Albee, Jr. and Keller Cushing Freeman, Shadow of Suribachi: Raising the Flags on Iwo Jima (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 1995), viii-xii, 162-3.

5Francis Trevelyan Miller, History of WWII (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The John C. Winston Company, 1945), i.

6D. Clayton James and Anne Sharpe Wells, From to V-J Day: The American Armed Forces in World War II (Chicago, Illinois: Ivan R. Dee, 1995), 168; Bill D. Ross, Iwo Jima Legacy of Valor (New York, New York: The Vangard Press, 1985), 12-17. 35

Figure 3.1: Rosenthal Photograph

Karal Ann Marling and John Wetenhall, Iwo Jima Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero (Cambridge, : Harvard University Press, 1991), 68.

Massed incendiaries. This modification alleviated the inaccuracy of high-level operations, but necessitated close fighter support that needed an intermediate base.

36

Knowing the Japanese would vigorously defend the island and fearing exceptionally heavy casualties, military advisors even suggested the use of poison gas on

Iwo Jima, but President Roosevelt rejected the option. (Figure 2)

Marines landed on the island on February 19 after three days of naval bombardment. With some units pinned down on the beach and all forces hampered by the loose volcanic ash, casualties mounted at an alarming rate. Mount Suribachi was the highest point and provided the defenders with complete command of the terrain. When

American forces secured the hill on February 24, the Associated Press photograph of marines raising the flag impressed a nation. However, the Japanese continued a bitter defense for over a month and resistance was so vicious that hand-to-hand combat was common. By the end of the conflict, virtually the entire Japanese garrison of over 20,000 died, with only a few prisoners taken. With nearly 6,000 killed in action and more than

17,000 wounded, the United States Marines suffered their highest losses in history.

Furthermore, this was the only battle in the Pacific offensive where American casualties surpassed enemy deaths. Their sacrifice secured Iwo Jima as an air base, which saw approximately 2,400 B-29s make forced landings before the end of the war. In addition to saving these aircraft and their crews, sophisticated air-sea operations rescued many more flyers from ditched and crashed planes.7

7Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 866-9; Richard Wheeler, Iwo (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1980), 1-17; Karal Ann Marling and John Wetenhall, Iwo Jima Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1991), 24-6.

37

Figure 3.2: Pacific Richard Wheeler, Iwo (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1980), 2-3.

During the battle for Iwo Jima, Mount Suribachi was the dominant topographic feature. Although only 550 feet high, the hillsides were so steep that, a broad assault was impossible. On the northeast slope in front of Colonel Chandler Johnson‘s 2nd

Battalion, one narrow area offered a practical approach. On February 23, the battalion commander sent up an assault patrol of about forty men led by Easy Company executive Lieutenant Harold ―George‖ Schrier. The unit‘s mission was to secure the summit and plant a United States flag that would rally the spirits of the marine assault forces. A photographer from Leatherneck magazine, Staff Sergeant Louis Lowery joined the patrol.

38

At the rim of the volcano‘s crater, the unit received grenade attacks from several cave openings, which the Americans repelled and silenced. After raising the first small flag on the crest, Lowery caught the moment on film. The banner drew more grenade assaults and the photographer dove down the outside of the crater to avoid one of the explosive charges. Although the fifty-foot fall shattered the camera, the film remained intact.

Developing the negative afterward, the sergeant knew that he had recorded a significant historical event. Even though the United States had captured other Japanese held islands, this was the first territory under direct Tokyo administration lost to American forces in the Pacific campaign. Both marines on the island and sailors on the support vessels offshore cheered the banner to the accompaniment of foghorns, whistles, and ships‘ bells.

Witnesses likened the uproar to the crowd response to a touchdown at a football game.8

(Figure 3)

Secretary of the Navy was onboard the command ship at Iwo

Jima with Marine Corps General Holland Smith. Against the commander‘s advice, the

8Wheeler, Iwo, 154-164; Marling, Wetenhall, 40-61.

39

Figure 3.3: Lowery Photograph

Tedd Thomey, Immortal Images: A Personal History of Two Photographers and the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996), insert 90-91.

secretary insisted on a personal inspection of the beach. As the men approached the

Shore in a landing craft, they saw a second and much larger flag unfurled over Mount

Suribachi. Several hours after the first flag-raising, this second Stars and Stripes would

40

furnish the photograph that would capture the world‘s imagination and eclipse the first picture taken by Lowery. Forrestal commented, ―Holland, the raising of that flag means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.‖9 Lieutenant Colonel Johnson realized that the first flag at fifty-four by twenty-eight inches was difficult to see, and at his order, a ship‘s flag that measured eight by four and a half feet would replace the first. Meanwhile three other photographers had ascended Mount Suribachi; Joseph Rosenthal was a civilian with the AP, accompanied by Private Bob Campbell and Sergeant Bill Genaust who carried a movie camera. The near-sighted Rosenthal was unarmed and needed the marines as an escort. At the summit, the marines attached a new flag to a heavy metal pipe. Lieutenant

Schrier planned to lower the original flag while he simultaneously raised the second one.

The AP photographer described his shot as a lucky one that resulted from accidental factors. As the overcast noon light gave the six figures that raised the standard a sculptural depth, the wind unfurled the banner while the straining men imparted a sense of action. Standing just to the right of Joseph Rosenthal, Sergeant Bill Genaust captured the exact scene on 16-millimeter color movie film.

Since the AP transferred the picture by wire, the photograph‘s development back in the United States occurred in less than two days. The marine photos and movie film took much longer to be developed. Given this set of circumstances, Rosenthal‘s shot gained widespread acclaim and overshadowed the work of the others. Because his picture covered the second flag-raising, Rosenthal later drew criticism for having staged or posed the scene. Private Campbell‘s work dispelled this notion, for his virtually unknown photograph showed both flags exchanged at the same time. The scene was a

9Stephen E. Ambrose, American Heritage: New History (New York, New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1997), 569.

41

spontaneous event and combat conditions did exist.10 (Figure 4) Recalling the multiple cave entrances that the marines collapsed with flamethrowers and demolitions, two members of the patrol returned a few days later. Private Chick Robeson and Sergeant

Howard M. Snyder excavated one of these openings in search of souvenirs. They discovered over one-hundred and fifty Japanese bodies and many had committed suicide with their own grenades. If two Americans could dig into the cave, that many enemy soldiers surely could have clawed their way out. Before the landings, Japanese commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi gave orders that prohibited bansai attacks, since he believed the tactic to be ineffective as opposed to holding defensive positions. Had these soldiers chosen to ignore this directive, they surely would have overrun the under strength platoon. Although taken after Lowery‘s photo, the Rosenthal photograph,

Genaust movie film, and Campbell shot represented images composed under combat conditions.11

Although Joseph Rosenthal was not a combat hero since he never commanded assault troops nor fired at Japanese, the AP still rushed him back to the United States within weeks of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima. President Franklin D. Roosevelt quickly commanded that the men who appeared in the photograph return to the mainland as well.

Since the shot of the second and larger flag attained distribution immediately because of wire transfer, the first and smaller banner recorded by Lowery failed to gain recognition

10 Wheeler, Iwo, 158-64.

11Richard Wheeler, Bloody Battle for Suribachi (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1965), 134-5. 42

Figure 3.4: Campbell Photograph Thomey, Immortal Images, insert 90-91.

In the initial excitement over the Rosenthal picture. Genaust‘s 16-millimeter

Kodachrome footage took even longer to develop and merely reinforced the Rosenthal scene. It was ironic that both photographs featured six men and three marines from each image perished on Iwo Jima. Neither the AP photographer nor the three survivors in his

43

shot ever adjusted to the national publicity and overwhelming personal praise. Following an appearance on ―We the People,‖ one of the most noted network radio shows, the AP sent Rosenthal on a constant tour of interviews, banquets and audiences with government officials. His schedule was so hectic and tightly planned that in New York City he even missed the Statue of Liberty since he had to rush to Washington D.C. to meet the new commander-in-chief, President Harry S. Truman.

For years afterward, Rosenthal‘s photograph won an impressive number of awards that he accepted with genuine modesty. Along with a plaque from the New York

Photographer‘s Association, he earned the Pulitzer-Prize in May 1945, as well as an award from the Catholic Institution of the Press, which he donated to the AP. His employer provided a significant raise and the largest financial bonus in the company‘s history. The prestigious magazine U.S. Camera presented him with a medallion and a

$1,000 war bond, which the photographer gave to charity. Over the years, his close associates estimated that Rosenthal produced and donated at his own expense about ten thousand prints of the Iwo Jima flag-raising. Although rejected by the United States

Army, Navy, and Marines as 4-F, this AP photographer participated in six World War II invasions and landed under fire twice in Europe and four times in the Pacific. At his award ceremony, the U.S. Camera officials announced the following:

The Editors of U.S. Camera were guided in making their selection by the conviction that the Iwo picture fully accomplished the ultimate purpose of photography, which is to make the viewer relive the events recorded. The Iwo picture caught the event so effectively that one who looks at it can virtually feel and hear the breeze, which whips the flag. In a sense, in that moment, Rosenthal’s camera recorded the soul of nation.[italics added]12

12Tedd Thomey, Immortal Images: A Personal History of Two Photographers and the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996), 80-2; Goldberg, 142.

44

After the artist C.C. Beall used the photograph as a model for a color oil painting, the image became the promotional centerpiece for the Seventh War Loan Drive. In this bond selling campaign, Rosenthal‘s shot appeared on 3,500,000 posters, 15,000 billboards, 175,000 streetcar and bus placards, as well as published in millions of newspapers and magazines. When a commemorative stamp honoring the Marine Corps was printed, it portrayed the Iwo photo. Following FDR‘s death in April, the postal service canceled a record 391,650 covers and envelopes on the first day‘s issue for his memorial three-cent first class stamps. That amazing record was broken just two weeks later when patient crowds waited in city block long lines to purchase 400,279 stamps that bore the flag-raising on Iwo Jima.13

Even as the battle for Iwo Jima continued into the month of March, lawmakers began to propose commemorations that utilized the Mount Suribachi photo. While some suggested coins, stamps, or medals, the concept of an august monument already had inspired potential legislation. Remarkably, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) charged ahead with its own model. Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon first saw the

Rosenthal image before the Sunday paper delivery that carried the picture. Assigned to the Navy artists‘ corps, Weldon was an Austrian immigrant who had studied art in

Vienna. After the photo came off the wire, Captain T.B. Clark put the enlisted man to work on a model for a statue. Working through the night, de Weldon began to in wax an image later immortalized at Arlington National Cemetery. As word spread among the higher echelons, a pair of along with Marine Commandant A.A.

13Thomey, 80-2; Goldberg, 142-5.

45

Vandergrift visited the studio. Suddenly new orders transferred the slightly built immigrant with the strong accent to Marine Headquarters and a new studio. On June 4 in the Oval Office, attired in Navy whites, de Weldon presented a clay statue of the Iwo

Jima flag-raising to both President Harry S. Truman and Joseph Rosenthal.14 Over nine years later on November 10, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and attending dignitaries dedicated the largest bronze sculpture in the world, which memorialized the

Iwo Jima flag-raising after the Cold War Korean conflict.15 (Figure 5) For many

Americans the Rosenthal flag-raising photograph on Iwo Jima represented a major cultural icon, which expressed at least four celebratory attributes that included heroic courage, military prowess, patriotic nationalism, and teamwork.

Heroic courage references appeared repeatedly in the Congressional Record.

Senator Sheridon Downey (D-CA) entered into the Record a poem written by Victor

Heyden, a boatswain‘s mate in the Coast Guard who served at Iwo Jima. The author‘s verse focused on the marines‘ courage under heavy fire.16 Senator Joseph C. O‘Mahoney

(D-WY) felt that the image was a remarkable photograph and cited the heroic performance of the Marine Corps in a letter to Postmaster General Frank C. Walker, in

14 Marling and Wetenhall, 84-91.

15Thomey, 85-6, 131-33.

16Sheridon Downy, Congressional Record, Appendix, Senate, Vol. 91, pt. 12, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (11 June to 21 December 1945): A4040.

46

Figure 3.5: Bronze Statue Dedication Marling and Wetenhall, 18.

47

which O‘Mahoney suggested a commemorative stamp based on the photograph.17

Representative Homer D. Angell (R-OR) noted Congressman Joe Hendricks‘ (D-FL) proposed bill for a war monument to commemorate the heroic work at Iwo Jima. Angell submitted an editorial from his district‘s newspaper, The Oregonian, which called for a

bronze sculpture of heroic proportions.18 In the House, Mike Mansfield (D-MT) declared the Iwo image one of the war‘s best pictures, cited the courage of Private First

Class Louis Charlo, and entered a letter from the Daily (MT) Missoulia, which concerned the local marine.19 Mansfield later referred to the gallantry of those killed in the battle.20

Representative James W. Wadsworth (R-NY) offered an article by Major George

Fielding Eliot who contended that American success at Iwo Jima stemmed from the superiority of our troops, and labeled them the bravest and best.21 When Congressman

Hendricks submitted a bill to erect a monument to the heroic action of the Marine Corps, he displayed a copy of Rosenthal‘s photograph.22

After the Marine Corps commissioned an oil painting of the flag-raising on Mount

Suribachi, General A.A. Vandergrift presented the work to the House Committee on

Naval Affairs. In his remarks, Chairman Carl Vinson (D-GA) noted the Chinese proverb that a picture is worth a thousand words [italics added] and praised the Associated Press

17Joseph C. O‘Mahoney, Congressional Record, Appendix, Senate, Vol. 91, pt. 10, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (3 January to 8 June 1945): A1133-4.

18Homer D. Angell and Joe Hendricks, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1106-7.

19Mike Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1061-2. Charlo was mistaken for one of the six marines in the Rosenthal photograph.

20Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, Vol. 91, pt. 11, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (11 June to 21 December 1945): A1885.

21James W. Wadsworth, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A779-80.

22Hendricks, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A929.

48

photograph as heroic.23 Congressman A. Willis Robertson (D-VA) entered a radio address from Guam by James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, who called the troops at

Iwo Jima glorious fighting men.24 Representative Brooks Hays (D-AK) introduced a resolution that would rename Iwo Jima as the Marines‘ Island in tribute to their bravery and courage.25 When Senator Raymond E. Willis (R-IN) proposed the bill (S. 728) to erect a monument to the Marine Corps and issue medals to the veterans of that campaign, he cited the Rosenthal image as illustrative of bravery, courage, and heroism. After submitting an article from the Washington Post, which recounted the AP photographer‘s actions that led up to the picture, Willis concluded his remarks in support of Senator

O‘Mahoney‘s proposal for a commemorative stamp designed from the Iwo image.26

Congressman Hal Holmes (R-WA) entered a sermon given by a Jewish chaplain, Roland

B. Gittelsohn, at the dedication of the Fifth Marine Division Cemetery. In his address, the chaplain challenged the living to match the courage of those killed in the battle.27

Thirty-five years after the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary submitted a report on S.J. Resolution 140, which authorized the president to proclaim February 19, 1980, as Iwo Jima Commemoration Day. The report noted that

23Carl Vinson, House Committee on Naval Affairs, Presentation to the Committee of Painting Depicting the Raising of the American Flag on Mount Suribachi, 79th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rep. 111 (September 28, 1945): 1499-1502. (Later referred to as Presentation to the Committee, H. Rep. 111).

24A. Willis Robertson, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1039.

25Brooks Hays, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 91, pt.2. 79th Cong., 1st sess. (26 February to 4 May 1945): 2278, 2310.

26Raymond E. Willis, Congressional Record, Senate, 2079-80.

27Hal Holmes, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, Vol. 91, pt. 13. 79th Cong., 1st sess. (11 June to 21 December 1945): A4782.

49

both the photograph and monument exemplified the heroism of the combatants.28

Designating February 19, 1980, as Iwo Jima Commemorative Day, Public Law 96-196

(H.J. Resolution 469) stated that the battle: ―produced the most famous and lasting symbol of courage and resolute determination that brought victory to the Armed Forces of the United States during World War II.‖29 It is significant that the attribute of heroic courage appeared repeatedly in reference to the Iwo Jima flag-raising icon.

Military prowess in the Iwo Jima icon also found expression in the

Congressional Record. On February 16, even before the famous flag-raising, members of the House of Representatives linked the island battle with the 1300-plus aircraft attacks on Japan‘s capital, Tokyo. John E. Rankin (D-MS) noted that this was the heaviest assault on the enemy city yet, while John W. McCormack (D-MA) urged

Congress to send a congratulatory telegram to Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the in the Pacific.30 Wadsworth cited Major Eliot‘s article, which stated that ground force superiority was the key to victory. Although Eliot contended that Iwo Jima constituted the best defended island in the world, American infantry, as well as naval and air forces, were better than those of the Japanese.31 As

Florida‘s Hendricks waved a copy of the Iwo image from the Washington Post, he called the picture the most striking of all time and declared that it reflected the ―crowning

28Senate Report, Iwo Jima Commemoration Day, 96th Cong., 2nd sess., S. Rep. 96-573, S.J. Res. 140, H.J. Res. 469 (February 28, 1980): 1-2. (Later referred to as Iwo Jima Commemoration Day, S. Rep. 96-573).

29Iwo Jima Commemoration Day—Designation, Public Law 96-196.

30John E. Rankin and John W. McCormack, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 91, pt. 1, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (3 January to 23 February 1945): 1173-4.

31Wadsworth, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A779-80.

50

success‖ of American military might.32 Robertson from Virginia submitted a radio address by Navy Secretary Forrestal who had actually witnessed the flag-raising from aboard ship. The secretary noted that the flag-raising was the high point of the week and that the fall of Iwo Jima was a major step in the defeat of Japan.33 Mansfield dubbed the

Rosenthal photograph one of the war‘s finest. He stated that the thrilling image was an example of Marine Corps‘ success and praised them as a ―real fighting organization.‖

While entering an editorial from the Oregonian, Representative Angell cited the military‘s superb accomplishments and valor on Iwo Jima. He affirmed that the flag- raising photograph reflected their ―glorious achievements.‖34

Senator O‘Mahoney, a former First Assistant Postmaster General, noted a

Washington Star article that supported the issue of a commemorative stamp of the image to memorialize the valor and sacrifice of the Marine Corps. According to the Star, the dramatic photograph embodied military achievement and victory.35 When ‘s

Senator Willis lauded their valor and hardiness in taking the most heavily defended island in history, he acknowledged that the battle was the costliest in 170 years of Marine Corps service. The senator entered a bill (S. 728) to provide for a monument patterned after the

Rosenthal photograph to memorialize this victory. O‘Mahoney again cited the Iwo image as illustrative of the country‘s military achievement.36 Representative Hays declared the victory a remarkable achievement in Marine Corps history when he

32Hendricks, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A929.

33Robertson, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1039.

34Mansfield and Angell, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1106-7.

35O‘Mahoney, Congressional Record, Appendix, Senate, A1133-4.

36Willis and O‘Mahoney, Congressional Record, Senate, 2079-80.

51

submitted a bill (H.J. Res. 127) to change the name of Iwo Jima to the Marines‘ Island.37

Congressman Robert Sikes (D-FL) placed in the Record a letter from Technical Sergeant

Keyes Beech, which detailed the military prowess of platoon leader Ernest I. Thomas.

Although Thomas was present at the first flag-raising, Representative Sikes linked him to the Rosenthal photograph.38

In the Extension of Remarks, Mansfield entered a letter from Naval Lieutenant

(Junior Grade) Ralph Y. McGinnis, a former faculty member of Montana State

University. The professor, who saw the first flag go up on Mount Suribachi, called Iwo

Jima the Japanese Gibraltar of the Pacific and stated, ―The precision of the whole operation was phenomenal.‖39 House member Gordon L. McDonough (R-CA) submitted to the Appendix a poem by Louanne Wilder entitled ―Iwo Jima.‖ The work called the struggle America‘s fiercest but noted the Corps‘ victory a foregone conclusion.40 While accepting a painting depicting the Rosenthal photograph from General Vandergrift,

Chairman Carl Vinson of the House Committee on Naval Affairs referred to the Marine

Corps as ―the fightingest men in the world.‖ Holmes‘ submission into the Record of

Chaplain Gittelsohn‘s sermon at Iwo Jima referred to American military achievement.

The sermon noted that no words could add to the accomplishments of those slain during the battle.41

37Hays, Congressional Record, House, 2278, 2310.

38Robert Sikes, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1739.

39Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1885-6.

40Gordon L. McDonough, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A2627.

41Vinson and Holmes, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A4782.

52

A 1980 report to the Senate from the Committee on the Judiciary cited the Iwo image as an example of military prowess in overcoming the Japanese. It proclaimed the victory a benchmark in World War II.42 Finally, Public Law 96-196 affirmed the

Rosenthal photograph as a symbol of American military victory.43 The Iwo Jima flag- raising picture represented a profound cultural icon, which reflected the attribute of military prowess, a trait embraced by many members of American society.

Patriotic nationalism constituted the third trait revealed in the Iwo Jima icon. As

Representative Hendricks brandished a copy of the Iwo image, he observed how the

Marines defended their homeland. He attributed a patriotic message to the American flag and pontificated that the banner stated, ―I have not completely unfurled, but soon I will reach my destination and in the God-given air shall wave in full length over a free world.‖44 In the Record, Mansfield noted the Rosenthal photograph and called it representative of America‘s epic action.45 Angell entered an editorial from the

Oregonian, which referred to Old Glory and the Stars and Stripes. ―The greatest war picture so far…‖ emphasized patriotism and revealed American spirit.46 In a submission from the Washington Star, Senator O‘Mahoney proclaimed the photograph dramatic and appealing while the picture affirmed basic American ideals. He indicated that the image touched the patriotic instincts of all Americans.47 While introducing S. 728 to the Senate,

42Iwo Jima Commemoration Day, S. Rep. 96-573.

43Iwo Jima Commemoration Day—Designation, Public Law 96-196.

44Hendricks, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A929.

45Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1061-2.

46Angell, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1106-7.

47O‘Mahoney, Congressional Record, Appendix, Senate, A1133-4. 53

Willis compared the photograph‘s patriotic characteristics to artwork that depicted

Washington crossing the Delaware, the battle of Lexington, and the signing of the

Declaration of Independence. He entered a Washington Post article into the Record, which noted that Advance Pacific Headquarters personnel were already calling the Iwo image ―the greatest flag picture since Washington crossing the Delaware.‖48 In the

Extension of Remarks, Hays addressed the issue of patriotism when he labeled the Iwo

Jima battle ―this bright chapter in the Marine Corps‘ history‖49 Representative F. Edward

Hebert (D-LA) introduced H. Con. Res. 40 which advocated the United States keep all

Japanese islands seized during the war for future national security. He linked the present sacrifices in the Pacific to Lexington, Valley Forge, Bull Run and Gettysburg, and stated that those who had perished had guaranteed the American way of life.50 In Mansfield‘s submission of an article by Lt. (j.g.) McGinnis, the naval officer related how his shipmates smiled and wept at the Iwo Jima flag-raising. He declared the Stars and

Stripes on top of Mount Suribachi a glorious sight.51

Representative W. Sterling Cole (R-NY) entered correspondence into the

Appendix from Kent Cooper of the Associated Press to Secretary of the Navy Forrestal.

In this letter, Cooper noted the patriotic value of the Rosenthal photograph to historical, civic, educational, and business organizations.52 Congressman Richard J. Welch (R-CA)

48Willis, Congressional Record, Senate, 2079-80.

49Hays, Congressional Record, House, 2278, 2310.

50F. Edward Hebert, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 91, pt 3, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (26 February to 4 May 1945): 3226, 3228.

51Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1885-6.

52W. Sterling Cole, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1951-2. 54

also advocated that the United States retain control of Pacific islands like Iwo Jima for the country‘s future security. He placed into the Record an editorial from the San

Francisco Examiner that cited the flag-raising image and compared it to the artwork of the Minute Man at Concord.53 McDonough offered for the Record a poem by Louanne

Wilder, which extolled the Marines‘ glory by ―raising the Red, White, and Blue.‖54

Robertson‘s insertion of the Forrestal speech further addressed patriotic nationalism. The secretary stated:

America is on the march in the Pacific—a march back to civilization, order, and decency. You can see it in islands like Guam and Saipan; you can see it in the glad and serene faces of the natives who again are clean and well fed.55

During General Vandergrift‘s presentation of the painting of the Iwo image to the

House Committee on Naval Affairs, Chairman Carl Vinson equated the work to

Washington crossing the Delaware. Vinson argued that the picture reflected America‘s fighting spirit and that it moved the soul of Americans, both present and future. He declared it an inspiring work reflecting pride in our heritage. Vandergrift proclaimed the picture greater than any other in the Nation‘s history, and predicted its historic value to every future American. Congressman Robert A. Grant (R-IN) compared the work to the

Spirit of ’76 and Representative L. Mendel Rivers (D-SC) noted that the Revolutionary

War painting was imaginary as opposed to the actual Rosenthal photograph. Hebert and

Cole advocated government acquisition and preservation of the film for future

53Richard J. Welch, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A2149-50.

54McDonough, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A2627.

55Robertson, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1039.

55

generations of Americans.56 Senate Report 96-573 recommended an Iwo Jima

Commemoration Day, which cited the photograph as a reflection of American pride, valor, and duty.57 In 1980, Public Law 96-196 designated February 19 for that purpose with appropriate ceremonies and activities.58 As a cultural icon, the Iwo Jima image symbolized patriotic nationalism, a significant trait in American society.

Teamwork represented the fourth characteristic of the Iwo Jima image revealed in the Congressional Record. New York Congressman Wadsworth entered an article by

Major Eliot, which referenced combined arms teams working together. Eliot affirmed that infantry could not achieve their objective without supporting fires.59 In the Extension of Remarks, Joe Hendricks of the House cited the Rosenthal photograph as typical of teamwork. He observed the forward motion implicit in the image as the men strove as one.60 Representative Robertson submitted Secretary of the Navy Forrestal‘s speech that addressed the need for cooperation of munitions plant workers to support the troops in the

Pacific.61 Representative Mansfield felt that the Iwo picture portrayal of esprit de corps surpassed the written word. While supporting use of the photograph for the Seventh War

Loan drive, he predicted that ―we as a people‖ would contribute to the war effort.62 ―The greatest war picture so far,‖ argued Oregon‘s Congressman Angell as he referred to the

56Vinson, Vandergrift, Robert A. Grant, L. Mendel Rivers, Hebert and Cole, Presentation to the Committee, H. Rep. 111; 1499-1500.

57Iwo Jima Commemoration Day, S. Rep. 96-573.

58Iwo Jima Commemoration Day—Designation, Public Law 96-196.

59Wadsworth, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A779-80.

60Hendricks, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A929.

61Robertson, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1039.

62Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1061-2.

56

flag raisers striving together.63 Senator O‘Mahoney submitted an article from the

Washington Star by James Waldo Fawcett, which supported the use of the flag-raising in a commemorative stamp. Asserting that stamps offered the best media for democratization of ideas, the newspaperman cited the striving Marines and the photograph‘s dramatic appeal.64 Senator Willis noted that the image revealed forward movement and each man doing his part.65

In the Extension of Remarks, Representative Mansfield again pointed to the Iwo

Jima battle as an exemplary symbol. He urged Americans to honor those killed in battle by working together to effect a sustained world peace.66 Congressman Cole lauded the

Associated Press, which held rights to the Iwo image, when that organization offered to donate the profits from the sale of copies of the photograph to the Naval Relief Society in the name of the Marine Corps. Cole categorized the correspondence between the AP and

Secretary of the Navy Forrestal as a superb example of public spirit.67 Acting Secretary of the Navy H. Struve Hensel also praised the AP‘s dedication to the public interest when that news organization donated the Rosenthal photograph proceeds to the Naval Relief

Society.68 Moreover, Commandant of the Marine Corps, General A.A. Vandergrift acknowledged the AP‘s charitable position in the matter and called for its continued

63Angell, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1106-7.

64O‘Mahoney, Congressional Record, Appendix, Senate A1133.

65Willis, Congressional Record, Senate, 2079-80.

66Mansfield, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1885.

67Cole, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A1951-2.

68H. Struve Hensel, House Committee on Naval Affairs, Providing for the Acquisition of Exclusive Ownership of the Photograph Depicting Raising the American Flag of Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 79th Cong., 1st sess. H. Rep. 52, H.J. Res. 162 (May 26, 1945): 735. (Later referred to as Providing for the Acquisition, H. Rep. 52).

57

maintenance in perpetuity.69 Representative Holmes then referred to Chaplain

Gittelsohn‘s sermon at Iwo Jima. While dedicating the Fifth Marine Division Cemetery, the chaplain alluded to teamwork and living together in equality. He avowed that those interred now knew ―the highest and purest democracy.‖ For them, there no longer existed differences among class, creed, or color.70 The trait of teamwork expressed in references to the public interest, charity, and democracy, comprised an important component of the Iwo Jima symbol.

Over the years, the U.S. Marine Corps adopted the symbol as a recruiting tool.

The photograph often appeared in backdrops for Memorial Day and Fourth of July celebrations and speeches. Thirty-five years after the battle for Iwo Jima, Congress passed Public Law 96-196 that designated February 28, 1980, as ―Iwo Jima

Commemoration Day.‖71 That decade saw the Ronald Reagan Administration‘s escalation of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In 1995, the postal service issued the final installment of a five-year fifty stamp World War II Commemorative

Series. The last pane of ten stamps entitled, ―Victory at Last Issue,‖ and designated Scott number 2981 (CM 1745) reproduced the Rosenthal photograph on the first stamp 2981a

(CM 1745a).72 Coincidentally, Americans debated spending the peace dividend following Russia‘s Cold War collapse. The flag-raising image from Iwo Jima continued as a potent American emblem. Whether juxtaposed alongside the photograph of firemen

69Vandergrift, Presentation to the Committee, H. Rep. 111: 1500-1.

70Holmes, Congressional Record, Appendix, House, A4782.

71Iwo Jima Commemoration Day—Designation, Public Law 96-196.

72 United States Postal Service, The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps (New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000), 130-31; Maurice D. Wozniak, ed., Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps 2002 Edition (Iola, Wisconsin: 2001), 218, 354-5.

58

raising a flag in Ground Zero at the World Trade Center, repeatedly displayed in movies and television, or appropriated by political pundits, the Rosenthal photograph remained a significant force in the popular consciousness.73 (Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9)

The Rosenthal Iwo Jima photograph achieved iconic status in 1945 and maintained its stature during and after the Cold War. For many Americans, this cultural image became instantly recognizable and manifested a profound emotional attachment.

At first, it symbolized the conclusion of World War II, a conflict characterized as ―the last good war‖ and the crowning achievement of America‘s ―Greatest Generation.‖

During the Cold War, this Iwo Jima image found repeated expression in mass media, commercial representations, and official government offerings, especially as a recruitment device for the United States Marine Corps. Continuing into the twenty-first century, this societal symbol now found itself linked to the following the attacks September 11, 2001, against the Twin Towers in New York City and the

Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Embracing the representation as a cultural image, significant elements of United States society viewed the Rosenthal photograph as an icon that embodied American attributes of heroic courage, military prowess, patriotic nationalism, and teamwork. With the exception of teamwork, Americans attached the same characteristics to the next icon considered, the John Wayne screen persona.

73Thomas Franklin (photographer), ―The Best & Worst of Everything,‖ Parade Magazine (December 30, 2001): 4.

59

Figure 3.6: Ground Zero Thomas Franklin (photographer), ―The Best & Worst of Everything,‖ Parade Magazine (December 30, 2001): 4.

60

Figure 3.7: Poster, Sands of Iwo Jima

Richard Allen and Bruce Hershenson, War Movie Posters (West Plains, Missouri: Bruce Hershenson Publisher, 2000).

61

Figure 3.8: Political Cartoons Marling and Wetenhall, 216.

62

Figure 3.9: Political Cartoon Marling and Wetenhall, 217.

63

Chapter 4

Motion Picture Cinematography and the John Wayne Screen Persona as an Icon in Cold War Culture

Thomas Edison‘s first commercial celluloid work, which addressed William

(Buffalo Bill) Cody‘s ―Wild West Show‖ in the mid-1890s, and the first narrative film,

The Great of 1903, were Westerns. Between 1903 and 1920 Bronco Billy

Anderson, the first silent film cowboy star, made nearly four hundred Westerns. The sound era has produced in excess of four thousand movies in this genre. This style of film was unique to the United States, and our frontier heritage obviously has contributed to its popularity. In 1958 there were twenty-eight Western series running on television.

By being able to put so much of American myth in a visual and moving medium, the

Western became the most cinematographic genre in cinema, according to film expert

Jean-Luc Godard.1 Its popularity stressed individual heroics where the dramatic lives of the protagonists played against the backdrop of the most spectacular scenery in the nation. The American public came to associate the virtues of these hardy people with their performances of John Wayne. Film expert Roy Paul Madsen defined the values that the audience linked to the Wayne icon:

1Garry Wills, John Wayne’s America: Politics of Celebrity (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), 311-12.

64

The Westerner is the last man of honor and his cinematic genre one of the few film forms in which the concept of personal integrity retains its credibility. His archaic code of conduct would make him appear ridiculous by contemporary standards if it were not for the fact that he is potentially willing to kill or be killed rather than to compromise his integrity. He is self-defined, self-contained, and demands that all others accept him on his own terms. He judges himself by a rigid standard of deportment–courage regardless of the odds.2

Wayne also starred in war films, which constituted a unique genre in cinematography. Although these works purported to relate actual historical events and true accounts of individuals, these movies were still, to some degree, fictionalized. Even though newsreels and combat photographs, especially in the television era, influenced war pictures, the combat film was a designed image organized as a marketable commodity. War pictures had a powerful effect on the American psyche and constituted a significant role in film history. The first work to earn an Oscar for Best Picture of the

Year was Wings (1927), a silent feature about American aviators in World War I with impressive footage of aerial combat.3 All Quiet on the Western Front was adapted from

Erich Maria Remarque‘s antiwar novel of the same title.4 This film won Oscars for both

Best Picture and Best Director.5

Bruce Hershenson‘s War Movie Posters, the thirteenth volume of an illustrated history of movies that utilized posters, noted over two thousand combat features in the genre. He attributed the subject‘s popularity to the drama, action, and violence embodied

2Alan G. Barbour, John Wayne (New York, New York: Pyramid Publications, 1974), 13.

3Wings, directed by William A. Wellman (Paramount Pictures, 1927): 141 min.

4All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone (Universal Studios, 1930): 131 min.

5Jeanine Basinger, American Cinema: One Hundred Years of Filmmaking (New York, New York: Rizzoli, 1994), 167-170.

65

in combat. With World War II the subject of more war films than any other, the author devoted about half of his work to that conflict.6 Although the theme of World War I films commonly carried an antiwar sentiment, pictures made in the second global conflict took on a decidedly different character. In cooperation with the Office of War

Intelligence, Hollywood offered celebratory works, which supported government aims.

Demonization of the enemy played against the noble traits of America and its allies.

During the postwar years, war pictures with more balanced themes evolved with an increasingly sympathetic portrayal of some Axis personnel. After the Vietnam conflict,

Hollywood generated films more critical of government policy and military actions in features such as Platoon and Apocalypse Now.7

Wayne‘s war films furthered his stature when he garnered an Academy Award nomination as Sergeant John M. Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima, (1949).8 When questioned about enlistment motives, over half of Marine recruits mentioned this movie. Although the Alamo focused on nineteenth-century Texas,9 Wayne produced, directed, starred, and even financed this film as a Cold War metaphor against communism in 1960. He became associated with anti-communism in the movie Big Jim McLain where he played a special agent for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).10 Finally, he directed

6Richard Allen and Bruce Hershenson, War Movie Posters (West Plains, Missouri: Bruce Hershenson Publisher, 2000), i-iii.

7Bryan W. Kvet, ―‘Nazis, I Hate These Guys‘: Portraits of Germans in American World War II Films, 1939-1994‖ (Master‘s thesis: Kent (OH) State University, 1998), 1-9; Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone (Orion Pictures, 1986): 120 min.; Apocalypse Now, directed by Coppola (United Artists, 1979): 153 min.

8Sands of Iwo Jima, directed by Allan Dwan (Republic Pictures, 1949): 109 min.

9The Alamo, directed by John Wayne (United Artists, 1960): 199 min.

10Big Jim McLain, directed by Edward Ludwig (Warner Brothers, 1952): 90 min.

66

and starred in The Green Berets, which was patently hawkish.11 During the Vietnam

War, soldiers termed a courageous act ―pulling a John Wayne‖ and often the boldest member of a combat unit would be nicknamed ―Duke‖ after Wayne. The combination of

Western portrayals and war roles developed the mythic image of ―John Wayne‖ from the actor Marion Michael Morrison.

The formation of the John Wayne screen persona as an American hero lay in the conception of heroic characters he portrayed on film. Wayne was a major contributor to two distinctly American film genres: the Western and the war film. He did not make as many war films as Westerns, but the war film played an important part in his career.

Sergeant John M. Stryker, his character in Sands of Iwo Jima, represented his most memorable combat role examined later in the ideal military leader attribute. Film historian Emanuel Levy argued:

Wayne succeeded in establishing a coherent war hero, characterized by specific themes that recurred consistently in his pictures. The most important elements of his screen persona in the war genre were: tough commander and patriotic role model, the man of action who wanted to fight and hated desk work, and the charismatic leader.12

Through his hard work, following his performance in Sands of Iwo Jima, Wayne earned a position for the first time on the poll of Hollywood‘s ten most popular stars in the United

States.

It was in Westerns, however, that John Wayne first enjoyed success. Four films illustrated the roles that built his image into what Americans perceived as heroic. Note

11The Green Berets, directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg (Warner Brothers-Seven Arts, 1968): 141 min.

12Emanuel Levy, John Wayne: Prophet of the American Way of Life (Methuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1988), 23-25; Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949.

67

that these works came from the British Film Institute‘s 1988 list of top ten Westerns of all time. No other performer starred in more than one role on this chart; however, Wayne‘s vehicles ranked two, three, five, and seven.13 The first portrayal was the Ringo Kid in

Stagecoach (1939), a character who was young and naively virtuous. With only three bullets in his rifle, he defeated the trio of gunmen who murdered his father. 14 Wayne next performed as Tom Dunson, who blazed the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas in

Red River (1948).15 That film marked his entry into the top ten grossing actors for the next year. He appeared on that list twenty-five times in the next quarter of a century.16

Wayne then dominated in The Searchers (1956) as Ethan Edwards, a character who spent years coldly and brutally tracking the Indians who murdered his family and kidnapped his niece.17 Finally, Wayne starred in Rio Bravo (1959) as John T. Chance, a lone sheriff who, with marginalized outcasts, defeated a large gang of murderers.18 This certainly constituted an impressive list of heroic performances.

According to film historian Alan G. Barbour, Marion Michael Morrison, stage name John Wayne, started his career as an actor; but in his cumulative film roles, he later developed into a unique mythic image, which embodied ideals and political stances prized by many Americans. Wayne‘s icon focused on honesty, loyalty, and dedication; it was firm, yet compassionate. Courage represented the most significant ideal, buttressed

13Wills, 313.

14Stagecoach, directed by John Ford (United Artists, 1939): 125 min.

15Red River, directed by (United Artists, 1948): 125 min.

16Wills, 12.

17The Searchers, directed by John Ford (Warner Brothers, 1956): 119 min.

18 Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks (Warner Brothers, 1959): 141 min. 68

with duty and honor as well as self-sacrifice and leadership. For the most part, Wayne idolaters are male and fascinated by Duke‘s screen heroics. Through his movie deeds, men have fulfilled their escapist , and this has been an important component of the actor‘s following.19 Wayne‘s screen persona eventually blurred the distinction between the man and the characters he portrayed in his movie performances to the point that audiences saw the actor himself as heroic.

John Wayne, who was to have such an impact on American society, was born

Marion Michael Morrison in the small town of Winterset, , on May 26, 1907. Six years later, his parents, Clyde and Mary Margaret Morrison, moved the family to

Lancaster, , where they struggled to operate a small farm. This venture soon failed, and the family relocated to Glendale, a small suburb of Los Angeles. Clyde

Morrison worked first as a clerk, and then operated a drugstore; neither employment provided any real financial success. Marion Morrison began a series of part-time jobs to supplement the family income. He developed a strong work ethic that shaped both his studies and his extracurricular activities. By the time he graduated from high school in1925 with a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, he was an overachiever and workaholic, traits that would define him for a lifetime.20

19Barbour, 13-15; Levy, 1.

20Donald Shepherd, Robert Slatzer, with Dave Grayson, Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1985), 29-49. In Wilson Intermediate School during the seventh and eighth grades, Wayne‘s teacher, Mrs. Vera Brian had expressed concern about his health. At the age of twelve, he held two part-time jobs, one delivering morning papers and another delivering prescriptions after school, as well as being active in Boy Scouts and DeMolays. By the time he graduated, first from Glendale Junior High School as salutatorian, and then later from the same high school, the Duke had compiled an impressive list of scholastic, athletic, and extracurricular accomplishments.

69

Since his scholarship was for just two years and covered only tuition, Morrison continued to scramble for part-time work to cover his expenses. This led him to William

Fox studios and work as a prop man. He worked his way up to stuntman and actor after finances forced him to drop out of college in the middle of his third year. At Fox studios, he began his lifelong relationship with director John Ford.21 Ford chose Morrison, who used the stage name John Wayne, to star in Stagecoach. This marked the break that the young actor, who had labored in ―B‖ movies and cheap serials during the 1930s, needed to catapult him toward stardom. Wayne‘s acting career spanned fifty years, and

Stagecoach was his first ―A‖ picture success; it marked the point in his career that this study has taken as the starting point for this analysis.22

Levy‘s research asserted that Wayne portrayed different varieties of heroes in his starring roles, but specific characteristics emerged. These are often characterized most by three kinds of heroes: an inner-directed hero (such as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach), a charismatic authority (Tom Dunson in Red River), and a societal role model (John T.

Chance in Rio Bravo). Wayne strove to create an inner-directed hero by playing characters that had a strong code of personal ethics, which reflected one‘s conscience.

They were willing to sacrifice their lives to attain goals and ―work well in societies characterized by social mobility, technological change, and constant expansion, all features of the American West in the late nineteenth century.‖

21Shepherd, 62-81.

22Wills, 65-7.

70

The actor also succeeded in creating characters with charismatic authority on screen. Wayne projected his charisma by gaining and maintaining control of situations.

He achieved this by not only being strong but having a charming personality as well.

Levy further noted that a charismatic leader possessed extraordinary virtues, from which he demanded and got personal attention from his people. A Wayne hero maintained his authority by exhibiting moral, physical, and emotional strength in life rather than depending on an official position in an organization‘s hierarchy. Wayne‘s creation of societal role models, the third type of hero, was equally important to his screen persona.

Many times Wayne played roles in which he could influence children or subordinates.

These portrayals took on a ―true sociological function, having to initiate a group of youngsters into manhood through a series of ceremonies and rites of passage.‖23 The combined roles of Western and war heroes prompted the to award him a Gold Medal.

The Western and war film genres had much in common since the protagonist in both categories displayed the four attributes of the John Wayne screen persona. Frontier and military heroes exhibited courage when they risked their lives. Although Western heroes demonstrated rugged individualism, military leaders often enhanced their authority by acting outside regulations and official channels. Building and defending the

American nation remained central to both styles of film and illustrated patriotic nationalism. The Western hero engaged outlaws and Native Americans, while the

23Levy, 48-73. In this section, Levy studied a number of Wayne films and the actor‘s relationship with the younger generation. The best example was , directed by Mark Rydell (Warner Brothers, 1972): 128 min., where youngsters went through a series of challenges or rites of passage to achieve manhood. These included riding a wild horse for eight seconds, nightrider duty on the cattle drive, first experience with alcohol and subsequent hangover, use of firearms, and finally killing outlaws to avenge Wayne‘s death and complete the drive.; Stagecoach, 1939; Red River, 1948; Rio Bravo, 1959.

71

modern war hero challenged foreign forces. Finally, the protagonist in both Western and combat films needed to be an ideal military leader to society‘s forces against its enemies.

The cult of John Wayne manifested as a significant phenomenon in postwar

America. The actor himself never served in the armed forces, yet his military image was pervasive. General Douglas MacArthur labeled the actor a model for an American soldier. Not only did the Veterans of Foreign Wars give him their gold medal, also the

Marine Corps awarded him the ―Iron Mike‖ award. As a young boy, former Speaker of the House emulated the actor‘s distinctive walk. Both supporters and detractors attached the label ―John Wayne Syndrome‖ to United States foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s. Immigrants who looked for an authentic American model chose the

―Duke,‖ and one of them even studied Wayne films to perfect his English. Polish-born

John Shalikashvili became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the 1990s, a four star general.

To understand the mythic icon that John Wayne represented to the United States it is necessary briefly to review America‘s background. This country long followed a policy of political isolationism after it broke ties with England. During his terms as the first president, cautioned against European entanglements. Although

France allied with the colonies during the Revolutionary War, it waged a brief naval conflict against America during the Adams administration. The War of 1812 constituted the second conflict with Great Britain within a generation. Soon after this, America proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, an ostentatious and somewhat presumptuous decree that forbade European intervention not only in North America, but also in the entire

72

Western Hemisphere. French and English sympathy with the Confederacy during our

Civil War did not exactly enhance American trust in European relationships. America‘s short involvement in World War I did not convince the common citizen that we needed to participate in world affairs; consequently, President Woodrow Wilson was unable to bring the United States into the League of Nations. General William Mitchell‘s warnings that America would one day be vulnerable to foreign air assaults led to his court-martial; and the man who first crossed the Atlantic by air, Charles Lindbergh, advised the United

States to hunker down between the two great oceans that bordered it.

It was only after Pearl Harbor that America reluctantly assumed a world leadership position. With the end of World War II, the United States found itself as the new leader of the free world. The Axis nations were devastated with the victorious Allies of Europe, France and Great Britain, drained to the point of exhaustion and their colonial soon to crumble. As the new head of the Western allied powers, the United

States found itself in conflict with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Stalin‘s army refused to withdraw from Eastern Europe and Winston Churchill defined the phrase ―Iron Curtain‖ to describe the line drawn between the Communist East and the democratic West. With the fall of China to Mao Tse-Tung‘s forces, the Western powers shuddered at the prospect of a new totalitarian threat by an apparent monolithic communism.

The atomic age changed the entire paradigm of armed struggle. Although World

War II had been a total conflict with both civilian and military targets deemed acceptable,

Russia‘s entry into the nuclear community made all-out war unthinkable. A new type of confrontation was born: the East and West would struggle while engaged in non-shooting

73

―Cold War.‖ The bipolar division of the globe left unaligned nations, the Third World, in a bind between two superpowers; each challenged the other to exert the most influence.

The United States and Soviet Union competed with propaganda, economics, and diplomacy. Shooting wars would become limited in scope, as the superpowers used nationalistic conflicts as wars of proxy, such as Korea, Vietnam, or Afghanistan.

The changing role of American foreign policy in the Cold War era did not come easily to the average citizen and many wanted a modern heroic icon. By a strange confluence of popular demand for a postwar heroic symbol and the movie industry‘s profit objectives, the career of John Wayne grew beyond that of a mere entertainer. On screen, he evolved into a complex image of American male virtue. The development of

Marion Morrison into a national symbol was a significant event in cultural history. Even those who vehemently disagreed with the late actor‘s personal politics or the larger political issues he came to symbolize on the screen cannot deny the fact that it happened.

According to Wills, this new mythic hero, the celluloid image of John Wayne, developed from another national mythic idea, that of . This concept held that the United States was separate from, and therefore superior to the sins and follies of its European past. His icon illustrated many facets of the American exceptionalism myth. The typical American hero had close contact with nature and an abhorrence of urban life; he distrusted government, was skeptical of experts, and stood alone on his own merits and performance.24

24Wills, 310-11. For general American history texts see James Kirby Martin, et. al., American and its Peoples: A Mosaic in the Making, third ed., Vols. 1 & 2 (New York, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1997); Stephen B. Oates, Portrait of America, fifth ed., Vols. 1 & 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991); James L. Roark, et. al., The American Promise, second ed., Vols. 1 & 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin‘s, 2002).

74

The urban areas of Europe have been central to the development of its great . Athens, Rome, Paris, Vienna, and London have served as the hubs of their respective national identities. This was never the case in the United States. America has always looked to the frontier as our national focus. When a French diplomat asked about the development of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proudly replied, ―We have no townships, only villages or hamlets.‖25 In his correspondence with Madison, Jefferson observed that

America would lose its virtue if its citizens ―get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe and we are as corrupt as Europeans.‖26

Jefferson was among the most learned of the founding fathers. His gift of the largest private library at its time, the foundation for today‘s Library of Congress, proved his love of education. Yet this same man felt that Europe had nothing of learned value to offer his country. It would be a terrible choice to send our citizens there and ―admit the hollow, unmeaning manners of Europe to be preferable to the simplicity and sincerity of our country.‖ Thus did Jefferson clearly voice a version of American exceptionalism:

Cast your eyes over America: who are the men of most learning, of most eloquence: most loved by their countrymen, and most trusted and promoted by them? They are those who have been educated among them, and whose manners, morals, and habits, are perfectly homogeneous with those of the country . . . [so] the consequences of foreign education are alarming to me as an American.27

Europe failed to awe even those Americans who had studied its cultures. The noted nineteenth-century American historian, George Bancroft, remained convinced of our unique separateness. Although he had earned a doctorate in philosophy in Germany,

25Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XII (The Library of America, 1984), 233.

26Jefferson to Madison, December 20, 1787 (Papers, edited by Julian Boyd et al., Vol. 12, 1955), 422.

27Wills, 310. These Jefferson quotes selected by Wills.

75

Bancroft claimed that President Andrew Jackson‘s greatness emanated precisely from his lack of a European heritage:

Behold, then, the unlettered man of the West, the nursling of the wilds, the farmer of the Hermitage, little versed in books, unconnected by science with a tradition of the past, raised by the will of the people to the highest honor.28

Another great writer, Henry David Thoreau, also focused on American individualism and viewed nature as a unique redeemer. This theme ran through his work in Walden, or Life in the Woods, which stated that one could only grasp reality when in solitude.29 He felt that citizens would attain spiritual growth away from society‘s constrictions; his tax protests revealed a typical American distrust of government.

Thoreau‘s contemporary, Ralph Waldo Emerson, addressed exceptionalism and the basic frontier myth in his 1844 lecture on ―The Young American,‖ which linked Western expansion to the development of a national character:

The nervous [strong-nerved] rocky West is intruding a new and continental element into the national mind, and we shall yet have an American genius [ethos] . . . Whatever events in progress shall go to disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art [of] the native but hidden graces of the landscape . . . We must regard the land as commanding and increasing power on the citizen, the sanative and Americanizing influence, which promises to disclose new virtues for ages to come.30

Given this heritage of frontier myth and national sense of separateness, America‘s march to Manifest Destiny ended at the Pacific. Frederick Jackson Turner‘s late nineteenth-

28John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), 73.

29Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (The Library of America, 1985).

30Ralph Waldo Emerson, ―The Young American,‖ (1844), in Essays and Lectures (The Library of America, 1983), 216-7, as cited by Wills.

76

century essay on the closing of the frontier and the absence of free land initiated a national identity crisis. Turner asserted that urban growth would be inevitable, and in

Wealth against Commonwealth in 1894, Henry Demarest Lloyd stated that real human life was impossible in cities.31

The sense of national separateness asserted itself immediately after World War I as Americans yearned for a ―return to normalcy.‖ Although President Wilson had so vigorously campaigned for the United States‘ entry into the League of Nations that his health failed, the people and Senate rejected it. Isolationism became even stronger in the

1920s, and the people had a growing feeling that industrialists and internationalists had duped them into Europe‘s Great War. The government enacted strict immigration laws and quotas, while the revival of the Ku Klux Klan that expanded north of the Mason

Dixon line brought its numbers to levels not seen since the Civil War.

Furthermore, Wills theorized that American exceptionalism, intertwined with a frontier myth, pervaded our national art with its emphasis on the outdoors. It extended from the Hudson River painters through Ansel Adams‘s photos of Yosemite. Urban works showed people escaping the city, for instance, Eakin‘s scullers at rest on their oars in Philadelphia‘s Schuylkill. Another example was George Bellow‘s snowballers in

Central Park. Even Santa delivered Natalie Wood out of the city and into the suburbs in

Miracle on 34th Street. Moreover, in the electronic media of the twentieth-century,

Academy Award winning director John Ford would use Monument Valley as his backdrop in collaboration with John Wayne.32

31 Richard P. Horowitz, ed., American Studies Anthology (Wilmington, Delaware: A Scholarly Resources Inc., Number 4, 2001), 83-98.; Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth against Commonwealth (Harper and Brothers, 1894), 499. 32Wills, 305-08; Miracle on 34th Street, directed by George Seaton (Twentieth Century Fox, 1947): 96 min.

77

The United States Congress would honor John Ford‘s protégé. During Wayne‘s hospitalization with terminal cancer in May 1979, the 96th Congress awarded him a special Gold Medal for service to his country. Congress members entered a number of telegrams and letters into the Congressional Record that endorsed this award. These submissions came not only from members of the Hollywood community, but also from politicians like Presidents Carter and Ford, and General Officers Albert Wedemeyer and

Omar Bradley. In a representative poll, nearly twenty years after John Wayne‘s death,

America named him its favorite movie star.33

On March 13, 1979, Senator (R-AZ) introduced Senate Bill 631

(S. 631), which would authorize the President of the United States to present a special

Congressional Gold Medal to John Wayne. Goldwater and ten senatorial co-sponsors submitted the bill to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.34

Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. (R-CA) introduced a similar proposal in the House to its Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs on April 26.35 On May 1,

Senator (D-WI) submitted a committee report with two amendments to

33Frank Annunzio, Congress, House, Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, John Wayne Gold Medal: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, 96th Cong. 1st sess. H. Res. 3767 (May 21, 1979): I-IV, 1-28. Later referred to as Gold Medal Hearings; Wills, 11-13.

34Barry Goldwater, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 125, pt. 4 96th Cong., 1st sess. (7 March to 15 March 1979): 4864. Ten original cosponsors of Senate Bill 631: Birch Bayh, Democrat from Indiana, Thomas E. Eagleton, Democrat from Missouri, Jake Garn, Republican from Utah, S. I. (Sam) Hayakawa, Republican from California, , Republican from North Carolina, Roger W. Jepsen, Republican from Iowa, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat from New York, William V. Roth, Jr., Republican from Delaware, and Alan K. Simpson, Republican from Wyoming; Congressional Record, Senate, 575; Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 331. Goldwater added additional co-sponsors on March 21: John Tower, Republican from Texas, Frank Church, Democrat from Idaho, Harrison ―Jack‖ Schmitt, Republican from New Mexico.

35Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., Congressional Record, House, Vol. 125, pt. 7, 96th Cong., 1st sess. (10 April to 30 April 1979): 8765.

78

the legislative proposal. The first amendment increased treasury appropriation for the medal from $5,000 to $15,000 and the second was a minor procedural change, which authorized bronze duplicates of the Gold Medal for sale to the public.36 On May 3, the amendments were accepted; the Senate read the bill for the third time, and passed it.37

On May 17, nearly a quarter of the House added their names as cosponsors to House

Resolution 3767.38 There was a House Hearing before the Subcommittee on Consumer

Affairs of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs on May 21, chaired by

Congressman Frank Annunzio (D-IL).39 On May 23, the House heard the report of the

36William Proxmire, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 125, pt. 8, 96th Cong., 1st sess. (1 May to 9 May 1979): 9188-9.

37Proxmire, Congressional Record, Senate, 9764-5.

38Proxmire, Congressional Record, Extension of Remarks, Vol. 125, pt. 9, 96th Cong., 1st sess. (10 May to 17 May 1979): 11753. Following is the list of names: Mr. Yatron, Mr. Lagomarsino, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr. Rousselot, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Jeffors, Mr. Coelho, Mr. Holland, Mr. Long of Maryland, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Murtha, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Charles H. Wilson of California, Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Winn, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Dornan, Mr. Won Pat, Mr. Powen, Mr. Leath of Texas, Mr. Corman, Mr. Snyder, Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sawyer, Mr. Paul, Mr. Duncan of , Mr. Johnson of California, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Udall, Mr. Devine, Mr. Mottl, Mr. Lott, Mr. Zeferetti, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Gisham, Mr. Anderson of California, Mr. Erdahl, Mr. McCormack, Mr. Hinson, Mr. Spence, Mr. Badham, Mr. Russo, Mr. Dannemeyer, Mr. Loeffler, Mr. Corrada, Mr. Shuster, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Edwards of Oklahoma, Mr. Sebelus, Mr. Williams of , Mr. Murphy of Illinois, Mr. McDade, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Pepper, Mr. Annunzio, Mr. Minish, Mr. Hanley, Mr. Evans of Delaware, Mr. Green, Mr. Vento, Mr. Watkins, Mr. Garcia, Mrs. Spellman, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Conte, Mr. Cater, Mr. Forsythe, Mr. Kemp, Mr. Addabbo, Mr. Patten, Mr. Gradison, Mr. Stratton, Mr. Fary, Mr. Latta, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Satterfield, Mr. Gramm, Mr. Vander Jagt, Mr. Chappell, Mr. Hance, Mr. Collins of Texas, Mr. Daniel B. Crane, Mr. Evans of Georgia, Mr. Duncan of Oregon, Mr. Simon, Mr. Flood, Mr. Ashbrook, Mr. Ginn, Mr. Peyser, Mr. Leach of , Mr. Symms, Mr. Burgener, Mr. O‘Brien, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Albosta, Ms. Oakar, Mr. McKinney, Mr. Bafalis, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Madigan, Mrs. Holt, Mr. Mitchell of New York, Mr. Lee, Mr. Johnson of Colorado, Mr. Harsha, Mr. Fountain, Mr. Hutto, Mr. Charles Wilson of Texas, Mr. Clausen, Mr. Whittaker, Mr. Bowen, and Mr. Roe.

39Frank Annunzio, Gold Medal Hearings, 1-28. The full text of H.R. 3767 was read and letters of endorsement from President and Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America were entered. Celebrities Maureen O‘Hara Blair, Kathleen Nolan, Elizabeth Taylor Warner, along with Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., and General Albert Codey Wedemeyer (Retired) made statements strongly supporting the bill. The Appendix contained a long list of favorable telegrams and a submitted editorial from U.S. News and World Report; Congressional Record, House, Vol. 125, pt. 10, 96th 79

Subcommittee, which had passed the bill by a six to zero vote, as well as the full

Committee. While entering the testimony of the hearings into the Record, Congressman

Goldwater noted that it would be appropriate if the President could sign the bill into law by May 26, the birthday of John Wayne. In addition to the two previous amendments entered under S. 631, the House also added an amendment to the bill and a similar H.R.

3767, which passed, and then laid them on the table.40 On the same day, May 23,

Congress added the House amendment to the inscription to the Senate proposal S. 631; a day later the Speaker signed the enrolled bill from the Senate.41 Finally, on John

Wayne‘s birthday, May 26, 1979, President Jimmy Carter approved S. 631 and signed it as Public Law 96-15:

Public Law 96-15 96th Congress An Act

May 26, 1979 (S. 631) To authorize the President of the United States to present on behalf of the Congress a specially struck gold medal to John Wayne.

John Wayne Commemorative medal Appropriation authorization

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of Congress, to John Wayne, a gold medal of appropriate design in recognition of his distinguished career as an actor and his service to the Nation. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is

Cong., 1st sess. (21 May to 31 May 1979): 12115. Several more cosponsors were added to H.R. 3767 on May 22: Fauntroy, Tauke, Wylie, Thomas Moorehead of California and Quayle.

40Goldwater, Jr., Congressional Record, House, 12462-9; Robert C. Byrd, Congressional Record, Senate, 12370-1.

41Congressional Record, House, 12624.

80

authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices and inscriptions, including “John Wayne, American,” [bold faced added, House amendment] determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There are authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $15,000 to carry out the provisions of this subsection. Duplicates: (b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal, and the appropriation used for carrying out the provisions of this subsection shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sale. I The medals provided for in this Act are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368).

Approved May 26, 1979.42

Many notables interpreted John Wayne‘s body of work as an excellent example of admirable American attributes. It is worth emphasizing that thirteen United States senators and nearly one quarter of the House of Representatives co-sponsored Public Law

96-15, which read ―in recognition of his distinguished career as an actor and his service to the nation.‖ This significant cohort of leaders answerable to their constituents framed

Wayne‘s screen persona as an image or cultural icon with characteristics that best represented an ideal citizen. Both the Gold Medal Hearings and the Congressional

Record repeatedly mentioned these attributes, with references to specific John Wayne movies produced and characters that he portrayed. The government documents revealed the characteristics embodied in Wayne‘s screen persona, which included the qualities of heroic courage, rugged individualism, patriotic nationalism, and military leadership.

42U.S. President, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Vol. 15, no. 22 (1979): 959.

81

Heroic courage was a constant throughout his film career and repeatedly noted in the Hearings and Congressional Record. Senator Robert Dole (R-KS) stated that, even though Wayne was an actor, he was a true symbol of all that was good in America. The senator contended that Wayne had courage, durability, and resiliency while battling cancer.43 Upon signing S. 631 into law, President Jimmy Carter affirmed that ―the Duke‖ symbolized the American ideal of courage and provided an excellent role model for

America‘s youth.44 Following the actor‘s death, Carter bemoaned the fact that our age had few heroes and remarked that John Wayne was bigger than life.45 In his letter of endorsement for the hearings, Carter said:

John Wayne personifies the true American character. He serves as a symbol of courage and self-reliance in the finest of our Nation‘s . His true grit helped to win the West, World War II, and the hearts of thousands of us across the country and the world.46

Carter‘s use of the words ―true grit‖ was an obvious reference to the John Wayne movie

True Grit.

In this movie, when gunmen murder Matti Ross‘ father, she sought a man with

―true grit‖ to help capture the culprit, Tom Chaney. She found and hired Rooster

Cogburn (Wayne), characterized as a hard-bitten, whiskey drinking, one-eyed U.S. marshal. True to Wayne‘s Western image as an inner-directed hero, Cogburn was more than willing to risk his own life for what was right and just. Gripping his horse‘s reins

43Robert Dole, Congressional Record, Senate, 12371.

44U.S. President, Weekly Compilation, 959.

45John Wayne: Statement on the Death of the Film Actor, 96th Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, June 12, 1979 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1980), 1031-2, Jimmy Carter. Hereafter referred to as U.S. President, Public Papers, Carter.

46President Jimmy Carter, Gold Medal Hearings, 5.

82

between his teeth, holding a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other, he charged directly into an entire band of outlaws, the personification of heroic courage. Eventually, Rooster killed Chaney and saved Mattie‘s life.47 During the 1999 broadcast of the Academy

Awards, the program offered this scene as one on the top one hundred film sequences of all time.

During the hearings, a number of legislators lauded John Wayne‘s screen persona.

Congressman Thomas B. Evans, Jr. (R-DE) related how he spent his hard-earned money in his teens on numerous Wayne movies. He felt that both he and America learned much from John Wayne as a template for American manhood. This example included toughness, fairness, self-reliance and courage. He concluded that by honoring John

Wayne the Congress would honor the United States itself. Furthermore, the Delegate for the District of Columbia, Walter E. Fauntroy suggested, ―History is nourished by instructive example.‖ He elaborated that John Wayne was one of the first public figures to admit openly that he had lung cancer; by publicizing his recovery, the actor gave strength and courage to others who suffered from the same disease. Congressman Bruce

F. Vento (D-MN) commented that John Wayne was a public figure for as long as he could remember. The legislator said that Wayne acted out recent American history, and offered hope and optimism, which reflected the idealism of the American people. By singling out Wayne‘s screen courage, Vento stated that it would reflect positively on all those who possessed that trait (Figure 1). Chairman Frank Annunzio echoed the thoughts of those who testified and equated the growth of the actor with the development of the

United States in the last half century. He affirmed that no other actors had maintained

47True Grit, directed by Henry Hathaway (Paramount Pictures, 1969): 128 min.

83

their popularity as long as John Wayne had. He cited both Rio Bravo and Stagecoach as great examples of Wayne films.48

An Academy Award for portraying “A mean, tough, old son-of-a bitch, just like me,” was the star’s description of his peers’ response to TRUE GRIT in 1969. Figure 4.1: John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. George Bishop, John Wayne: The Actor, The Man (Ottawa, Illinois: Carolina House Publishers, Inc., 1979), 182.

48Thomas B. Evans, Walter E. Fauntroy, Bruce Vento, Annunzio, Gold Medal Hearings, 4-18; Rio Bravo, 1959; Stagecoach, 1939.

84

In the film Rio Bravo, director Howard Hawks concentrated on setting a few determined and heroic characters against numerous villains. This film devoted much of its storyline to exploration of the behavior patterns of its protagonists as they met new challenges. Played by John Wayne, Sheriff John T. Chance arrested Joe Burdette for the brutal murder of an unarmed man. When Joe‘s older brother closed down the town so

Chance cannot take his prisoner to the United States marshal, numerous gunmen slipped into town and awaited the order to strike. The sheriff had little help–an elderly, crippled deputy, an alcoholic ex-deputy, and a young gunfighter. The film culminated in a final

Explosion, when Wayne and his band destroyed the criminal‘s hideout with dynamite to kill or capture all of the villains.49 In this film, Wayne‘s portrayal of a man who combined courage, realism, and determination enhanced his status as a film icon with charismatic authority as well as a society role model (Figure 2).

49 Rio Bravo, 1959.

85

Ricky Nelson (left), as Colorado Ryan and Wayne as John T. Chance blaze away in Rio Bravo.

Figure 4.2: John Wayne as John T. Chance in Rio Bravo. Richard D. McGhee, John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1990), 233.

Stagecoach, the film that catapulted Wayne to stardom, also had heroic courage as a central theme. In this movie, six unlikely travelers, including a United States marshal, boarded a stage for Lordsburg. While en route, they picked up the Ringo Kid (Wayne), who planned to engage the Plummer brothers who murdered his father. At an overnight rest stop, Wayne‘s character developed a love interest with a fallen woman, and an alcoholic doctor delivered the baby of the wife of a cavalry officer. During the next

86

day‘s travel, Apaches attacked the stage in a classic chase scene that stretched across the salt flats of Monument Valley in northeastern Arizona and southeastern Utah (Figure 3).

The cavalry rescued the stagecoach, which then proceeded to Lordsburg. There the U.S. marshal released Wayne‘s character so that he could seek vengeance on the three who murdered his father. Ringo killed the brothers with only three rounds in his rifle, and the marshal allowed him to escape to Mexico with the heroine.50 These three movies exemplified the heroic attributes of the John Wayne screen persona. This heroic courage reflected a willingness to tackle odds that would deter reasonable people and to venture unhesitatingly into dangerous situations. It was significant that the legislators cited these motion pictures in the Gold Medal Hearings and Congressional Record.51

50Stagecoach, 1939.

51 Congressional Record, House, 12463, Additional citations include the following: , Congressional Record, House, 12463. ―It is important for you to know that I am a Registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke. However, whether he is ill 87

Figure 4.3: John Wayne as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach.

Randy Roberts and James D. Olson, John Wayne: American (New York, New York: The Free Press, 1995), 373.

88

Rugged individualism constituted the next attribute considered in Wayne‘s screen persona. In his letter of endorsement to the Gold Medal Hearings, President

Carter characterized Wayne as a symbol of self-reliance. When Carter signed S. 631 into law, he praised the actor who symbolized the strength of the American people.

Following Wayne‘s death, the issued a statement of condolence to Wayne‘s family. In his expression of sympathy, Carter again lauded the actor as a fine example of

America‘s most basic qualities, such as ruggedness, independence, and a sense of personal conviction.52

Mentioned by Congressman Annunzio in the Gold Medal Hearings, Wayne‘s film

Red River stands as a prime example of an American film that both embodied and glorified the notion of rugged individualism.53 In this film, which Wayne considered one of his best, his character Tom Dunson left a wagon train bound for the West. Dunson planned to detour south to Texas and start a cattle ranch, even though it meant abandonment of his love interest on the wagon train. Following an Indian massacre,

Dunson took the sole surviving youth Matthew Garth, played by Montgomery Clift, into disposed or healthy, John Wayne is far beyond the normal political sharp shooting in this community. Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds.‖ Statement by General of the Army and Mrs. Omar Bradley, Congressional Record, House, 12466. ―In his heroic struggle John Wayne represents the fighting spirit that has forged America. Even now he is offering his very life to pave new roads to vanquish an old enemy. His medal should be made of the same stuff his heart is-solid gold. (Wayne was volunteering for experimental chemotherapy at this time.) Lady Bird Johnson, Lynda Johnson Robb, and Lucy Johnson Nugent, Congressional Record, House, 12467. ―John Wayne rode into the hearts of the American people with all the savvy and frontier spirit that is part of all of us. With his hallmark, true grit and caring about his neighbors, he embodies that love of adventure and strength of character that built this country. For his gallant courage and sturdy pioneer independence in the greatest American tradition, we salute him.‖

52Gold Medal Hearings, 5; U.S. President, Weekly Compilation, 959; U.S. President, Public Papers, Carter, 1032.

53Red River, 1948; Gold Medal Hearings, 5.

89

his care and built an extensive cattle .54 After the Civil War, the South was so impoverished that there was no market for beef; Dunson turned northward, and blazed a trail to drive his cattle to Missouri. He encountered hardship and trials but mercilessly drove the operation forward. After a quarrel, his foster son Garth led a mutiny of trail hands, changed the drive‘s destination to Kansas, and left Dunson behind. Dunson recovered from wounds and then confronted Garth who had successfully delivered the herd to Abilene. Following a brutal confrontation, the two men reconciled and Dunson made Garth a full partner in his empire.55 (Figure 4)

Loosely based on the founding of the famous King Ranch in Texas and the blazing of the Chisholm Trail, film historian Gerald Mast considered Red River an

American epic, and compared it to the Odyssey, Exodus, and Mutiny on the Bounty.56

The director Howard Hawks stated that he hoped his film would enshrine this important part of American history and called it ―America‘s guiding historical myth, our cultural equivalent of the Trojan War and the Exodus from Egypt.‖57 The British Film Institute

Companion in 1988 listed critics‘ choice for the best ten Westerns of all time and placed

54Richard D. McGhee, John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1990), 156-61.

55Mark Ricci, Boris Zmijewsky, and Steve Zmijewsky, The Films of John Wayne (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1970), 160-61.

56Barbour, 35; Red River, 1948.

57Randy Roberts and James D. Olson, John Wayne: American (New York, New York: The Free Press, 1995), 302.

90

Figure 4.4: John Wayne as Tom Dunson in Red River. Bishop, John Wayne: The Actor, The Man, 19.

Red River fifth.58 These critical reviews further illustrated the impact of Wayne‘s screen persona on American culture. House Speaker Thomas ―Tip‖ O‘Neill (D-MA) also praised Wayne‘s persona of rugged individualism. The Speaker suggested that the actor‘s career had made Wayne a household word and a part of all American families, and O‘Neill even went so far as to include all the families of the world. Christening

Wayne the greatest box office success in film history, O‘Neill stated that the actor personified the American dream both on and off screen:

58Wills, 351.

91

His style of acting and his movies have survived because they manifest the essence of American frontier spirit: toughness and strength of character, rugged individualism and dogged determination of one‘s own destiny, a sense of personal and moral integrity and acute intellectual honesty. Throughout his career John Wayne has always portrayed the American hero who demonstrates that nothing is insurmountable if it is the right course of action.59

As President of the , Kathleen Nolan pointed out that

Congress had recognized numerous artists with special Gold Medals, as she listed George

M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Robert Frost, , Walt Disney, and Marian Anderson.

Stating that John Wayne deserved the same award, she praised the role of those in the creative community and their contribution to the American way of life. She equated

Wayne‘s spirit (screen persona) with the spirit of America and cited his strength and dignity. Nolan noted that as an artist, Wayne comprised part of our national heritage, had shaped American mythology, and defined our concept of a hero. She used The Searchers as an example of a Wayne portrayal of a heroic loner who must perform his deeds individually.60

The British Film Institute Companion ranked The Searchers second on its list of greatest Western films.61 In this work, Wayne portrayed Ethan Edwards, an unreconstructed rebel who refused to accept the Confederacy‘s defeat. He had served as a mercenary in Mexico and stolen gold from the Union army. Three years after the war he returned home to his brother‘s family and the film subtly suggested that he had deep feelings for his sister-in-law. When Comanches murdered the family and kidnapped

59Thomas ―Tip‖ O‘Neill, Congressional Record, House, 12468.

60Kathleen Nolan, Gold Medal Hearings, 15-6; The Searchers, 1956.

61Wills, 351.

92

Edwards‘ youngest niece Debbie, Edwards pursued the Indian band for years, at first in an attempt to rescue her. However, over time his mission evolved into the goal of killing the Comanche leader Scar and Debbie who has since matured and married as a squaw. In the film‘s conclusion, the army and settlers wiped out Scar‘s group, and Edwards rescued his niece. Because he was unable to terminate the last of his family, Edwards returned her to civilization. The final shot revealed Debbie and her new foster family as they entered a house while Ethan stood alone framed in its doorway out in the blazing sun.62

In the early postwar years, the Western remained ingrained in American culture.

Two years after the release of The Searchers, Westerns comprised twenty-eight weekly television series. By the 1970s, Louis L ‗Amour‘s novels had sold almost 150 million copies. Along with the screen persona of John Wayne, the movies of John Ford and

Howard Hawks provided an image that shaped America‘s views of manhood (Figure 5).

62Ricci, 206-09.

93

Figure 4.5: John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. McGhee, John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero, 137.

The film critic Andrew Sarris stated that Wayne‘s performance:

acts out the mystery of what passes through the soul of Ethan Edwards in that fearsome moment when he discovers the bodies of his brother, his beloved sister- in-law, and his nephew. Surely, cryptic, almost menacing even before the slaughter, he is invested afterward with the implacability of a figure too much larger than life for any genre but the Western.63

The American West in our popular culture constituted an arena without limits, wide-open spaces where an individual stood on his own.

63Roberts and Olson, 420-42.

94

When commenting on the Ethan Edwards character, John Ford described him as

―the tragedy of the loner.‖ This role represented an extreme version of individualism.

Edwards could not accept the South‘s defeat; consequently, when the Captain of the

Texas Rangers wanted to deputize him, Ethan who stood by his Confederate pledge stated that a man could only obey one oath and declined the ceremony. Wayne‘s character teetered between good and evil, but gained salvation when he spared Debbie‘s life and returned her. Unfortunately, Ethan failed to integrate into society, symbolized in the famous iris shot of his solitary figure outside the cabin at the end of the film.64

Patriotic nationalism comprised another component of Wayne‘s screen persona and his ―America first‖ belief system.65 President Carter referred to Wayne‘s patriotism in the White House statement when he signed S. 631 into law.66 Following the actor‘s death Carter declared, ―It was because of what John Wayne said about what we are and what we can be that his great and deep love of America was returned in full measure.‖67

Senator Barry Goldwater recorded he had known John Wayne since 1928 and that the actor had dedicated his entire life to America. The senator postulated that few people in our country‘s history had equaled John Wayne in the hearts of its citizens. Goldwater noted, ―He has encouraged Americanism. He makes us understand America. He makes

64Levy, 54.

65Concerning unabashed patriotism and “America first” nationalism, research asserted that Wayne acknowledged America‘s faults, but considered them correctable. The actor fervently believed that the United States was the most admirable society in the world. Playboy Magazine, ―John Wayne Interview,‖ May 1971.

66U.S. President, Weekly Compilation, 959.

67U.S. President, Public Papers, Carter, 1032.

95

us understand patriotism. He makes us understand courage.‖68 Bob Dole affirmed that he felt the American people loved John Wayne mostly for his strong faith in the United

States and the ideals it represented. Dole continued, ―His is a proud patriotism, unashamed of its love for this land.‖69 Senator Proxmire said that the actor ―has left an indelible mark on the American landscape.‖70 In his letter of endorsement, President of the Motion Picture Association Jack Valenti referred to Wayne as ―the quintessential

American‖ who loved the United States.71 Moreover, then Governor of California and later the fortieth President of the United States, Ronald Reagan noted that John Wayne exemplified devotion to America.72

Congressman Henry J. Hyde (R-IL) labeled John Wayne‘s illness a personal

Alamo.73 This movie reference best illustrated the patriotic nationalism of Wayne‘s screen persona. The Alamo reflected a glorified representation of Texan, and by extension, American independence. Situated in 1836 Texas, the northernmost province of Mexico rebelled against the rule of a tyrant, General Santa Anna. When the province revolted, the region attempted to secede from Mexico and establish itself as an independent republic. Richard Boone portrayed General who established a provisional government at Washington-On-The-Brazos. Led by Colonels Davy Crockett

68Goldwater, Congressional Record, Senate, 4864.

69Dole, Congressional Record, Senate, 12371.

70Proxmire, Congressional Record, Senate, 9189.

71Jack Valenti, Gold Medal Hearings, 6.

72Ronald Reagan, Congressional Record, House, 12466.

73Henry J. Hyde, Gold Medal Hearings, 18; The Alamo, directed by John Wayne (, 1960): 199 min.

96

(Wayne), Jim Bowie (Richard Widmark) and William Travis (), three small forces converged on the Alamo. In spite of their intense personal rivalries, the realized that this post of 180 men stood between Santa Anna‘s army and

Houston‘s newly created and untrained force. They agreed to fortify the old Spanish mission and defend it against the dictator‘s 7,000-man army in order to buy time for the rebels to organize. Rather than retreat when their position became hopeless, the three colonels and the entire garrison volunteered to remain and defended the Alamo to the last man. Employing the massacred garrison as a political rally point, Houston‘s army later defeated and captured Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto to form the Republic of

Texas.74

Wayne personally was obsessed with this heroic tale, and believed that it needed portrayal on film as a history lesson in the guise of spectacular entertainment. During the

1950s, the actor thought that America‘s youth took their liberty for granted, and Wayne wanted to make a patriotic statement. For nearly ten years, he planned to make this picture and finally received backing from United Artists. Wayne produced, directed, starred in the project, and even underwrote cost overruns with his own money. Although the Academy of Motion Pictures nominated The Alamo for eleven awards, the film‘s massive cost prevented it from being a financial success. Nevertheless, renowned director John Ford called it ―the greatest picture I‘ve ever seen.‖75

74Ricci, 227-9; The Alamo, 1960.

75Barbour, 52-5. Although United Artists eventually showed a profit through subsequent releases of the film, Wayne lost money on the project after the studio bought out his interest.

97

As an episode in American history, scholars have compared The Alamo to such epic tales as the Spartan defense at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Some critics also have equated Wayne‘s picture with the famous Japanese film, The Seven Samurai, where a small detachment of men defended an outpost against superior forces. Patriots who guarded against overwhelming odds for a sacred cause revealed the stuff of romance and tragedy. Where first there was defeat, victory paradoxically followed. The message of

Wayne‘s film, The Alamo, stood both then and now as a metaphor for America‘s struggle against communism in the Cold War.76 This film showed how Americans linked

Wayne‘s screen persona to intense patriotic nationalism.77 (Figure 6)

Ideal military leader marked the final characteristic of Wayne‘s screen persona.

Congressman Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. offered the actor as an example of the American dream, while he pointed out that Wayne was the most popular movie star in history.

Goldwater cited a poll, which claimed that the face of John Wayne was the second most readily recognized visage in the country after Abraham Lincoln. The Congressman noted that in 1971 the Marine Corps League named Wayne ―the man who best exemplifies the word American.‖78 General Albert Codey Wedemeyer (Retired) testified that in films

Wayne had battled against the forces of evil and the nation‘s enemies. Wayne received

76Wills, 227-8. President Lyndon B. Johnson equated Vietnam with The Alamo and falsely claimed that one of his ancestors died with the garrison at the actual battle; The 300, directed by Zack Snyder (Warner Brothers Pictures, 2006): 117 min.; The 300 Spartans, directed by Rudolph Mate (Twentieth Century Fox, 1962): 114 min.; The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Columbia Pictures, 1956): 141 min.

77McGhee, 195-6.

78Goldwater, Jr., Congressional Record, House, 12465.

98

other honors from the military including a Veterans of Foreign Wars gold medal and the

Marine Corps ―Iron Mike‖ award.79 At an American Legion Convention, General

Douglas MacArthur told the actor ―you represent the American serviceman better than the American serviceman himself.‖80 Representative Annunzio listed Sands of Iwo Jima as one of Wayne‘s most famous movies.81

Released in 1949, Sands of Iwo Jima was not only Wayne‘s best war movie to date; it also marked a turning point in his career. It earned the performer an Academy

Award nomination for Best Actor as well and placed him on the poll of the ten most popular film stars in America.82 In this war film, Wayne portrayed Sergeant John M.

Stryker. This fictional performance played against the actual scene of Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi that signaled the American capture of that hill on Iwo Jima.

Stryker‘s ruthless training and rallying cry, ―Saddle up,‖ hardened his squad, whose members initially resented his tactics. However, following their engagement at

Tarawa,the soldiers learned to respect their sergeant and to appreciate his methods. The movie appeared especially authentic since film editors skillfully spliced newsreel footage into the staged sequences.83

79Wills,12-3. Later in the 1990s, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili who was a Polish immigrant, claimed that he learned English by repeatedly viewing John Wayne films.

80Levy, 40; Regarding MacArthur‘s quote, this author has found no comment from Audie Murphy, the most decorated enlisted man from World War II, and himself, an actor.

81General Douglas MacArthur, Gold Medal Hearings, 4; Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949.

82Levy, 39.

83Barbour, 43.

99

Figure 4.6: John Wayne as Davey Crockett in The Alamo. Bishop, John Wayne, The Actor, The Man, 141

The three surviving marines of the six who raised the flag in the Rosenthal photograph,

Rene A. Gagnon, Ira H. Hayes and John H. Bradley, played themselves at the film‘s climax. An enemy sniper killed Stryker just when it seemed the island was secure. As a mist drifted over the scene, the sergeant‘s body evolved into the American flag as the

Marine Corps hymn played in the background. As one of the squad members called,

100

―Saddle up! Let‘s get back in the war,‖ he transformed into the next generation‘s

Stryker.84

Wayne‘s portrayal of Stryker coincided just after the peak of United States power in the postwar era. After the Western powers backed down Stalin at the Berlin Airlift and formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Soviet Union countered with the test of an atomic weapon in August 1949. Identified with both the American West and the Marines in World War II, this screen persona began to take on an iconographic dimension. The influential columnist wrote: ―The original story was written in blood by the glorious United States Marines! John Wayne must be everyone‘s idea of a good actor! He‘s immense in Iwo Jima, the best of the war pictures.‖ At the film‘s premiere in Grauman‘s Chinese Theater, Wayne not only set his footprints in cement outside, but his fists as well. When evaluating the significance of Wayne as an image, film historian Lawrence H. Suid asserted:

Not until John Wayne created the role of Sergeant Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima and then merged his own personality with the character of Stryker did Americans find a man who personified the ideal soldier, sailor, or Marine. More than twenty-five years after he appeared in Sands of Iwo Jima Wayne and his military image continued to pervade American society and culture.

Although other performers have portrayed soldiers and marines, no other actor symbolized the concept of service and duty to a nation like this performer.85 (Figures 7-

8)

84McGhee, 188-9. See also with Ron Powers, (New York, New York: Bantam Books, 2000).

85Roberts and Olson, 319-21.

101

An ideal military leader reflected the ability to motivate and train others under the most dangerous situations. In one scene, a marine failed to grasp the concept of parry and counter thrust with a bayoneted rifle. To prove his teaching point, Stryker ordered the private to attack the sergeant without a scabbard on the . Sergeant Stryker then parried the attack and struck the soldier unconscious. In another scene after two soldiers failed to assault a bunker successfully, Wayne, the squad leader, doffed his extra gear, charged the emplacement and destroyed it with a satchel charge. This last scene illustrated the components needed for great leadership and remained part of the curriculum at the Marine Officer Candidate School, Quantico, Virginia.86

Frank Annunzio noted congressional representatives stood for some constituents but argued that John Wayne represented all of America. Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. reflected that Congress had awarded only thirty-one Gold Medals in the twentieth century. He went on to say, ―Few people are given the title ‗the.‘ There‘s the president, the pope, the queen, and the duke. And Duke Wayne has earned his place in history.‖

Representative Edward Boland (D-MA) called Wayne one of America‘s greatest natural resources and stated that the actor was ―an American that is bigger than even his bigger- than-life motion picture persona. For millions here and around the world, John Wayne is

America.‖ Maureen O‘Hara Blair also testified that to the world‘s people, Wayne was the United States.

Kathleen Nolan believed that Wayne helped American citizens to know their history and culture (albeit a celebratory version). The director Peter Bogdanovich bluntly declared that Wayne was not merely a movie star but an American Icon. In his telegram,

Arthur B. Krim, Chairman of Orian Pictures, endorsed the actor this way:

86 Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949. 102

Motion pictures have played a great role in educating the rest of the world to the freedom and diversity and strength of our country. And no one man has contributed more to showing our country in its best light than has John Wayne.87

Actor Gregory Peck said that films showed foreigners the American way of life and that

Wayne had contributed to American culture. In summary, the President of Continental

Airlines, Robert F. Six, labeled Wayne ―a symbol of what is best in this country,‖ and contended that the actor‘s ―name has become synonymous with the spirit of America.‖88

At the time of John Wayne‘s death in 1979, Hollywood considered him the most popular actor of all time. He had appeared on the American distributors‘ top ten list twenty-five out of twenty-six years, 1949 to 1974. Four of his motion pictures later made the British Film Institute Companion Western‘s top ten list in 1988.89 His role in Sands of Iwo Jima still linked him to the United States Marine Corps. An overwhelming majority rushed his Gold Medal award through Congress.90 Politicians, presidents, celebrities, and even generals went on record and argued that the actor‘s screen persona and body of work represented fine examples of American attributes. That screen persona consisted of heroic courage, rugged individualism, patriotic nationalism and military leadership.

The poet Vachel Lindsay postulated in the early twentieth century that the United

States would become a nation of signs, symbols, and visual images. He termed the concept a ―hieroglyphic civilization‖ made up of images connected to themes such as

87Annunzio, Edward Boland, Nolan, Congressional Record, House, 12462-8.

88Gregory Peck, Robert F. Six, Congressional Record, House, 12465-7.

89Wills, 12, 313.

90Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, Vol. 37, no. 23 (June 1979): 1120.

103

―Our Father‖ (George Washington), ―Our Flag,‖ ―Our Town,‖ etc.91 John Wayne became ―Our Hero.‖ In 1995, sixteen years after his death a representative poll of a thousand Americans picked John Wayne as their favorite movie star.92 He still occupied a large portion of the nation‘s consciousness, from recording artist Paula Cole‘s hit song

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, which asked the question, ―Where is my John

Wayne?‖,93 to Paramount Pictures‘ . In the twenty-fourth century, Commander

Data, an android fascinated with becoming more like humans, brings his phaser rifle to port arms and calls out ―Saddle up!‖ as he leads troops up a hill.94 The film would have audiences believe that in the distant future, leaders still will be emulating Sergeant John

M. Stryker, United States Marine Corps, an American hero who bears a startling resemblance to John Wayne, cultural icon of the Cold War. Hollywood created the fantasy character named Commander Data in the genre of science fiction within a narrative based partially on science. Moreover, motion pictures generated a mythical screen persona labeled John Wayne in the war and Western genres within plotlines founded partly in history. However, the Cold War produced film icons called Apollo images in the realm of within a race completely contested in deadly reality.

For these participants, there existed no second chances, no do-overs, and no retakes in this bipolar drama.

91Warren I. Susman, Culture as History: the Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New York, New York.: Pantheon Books, 1973, 1984), xvii.

92Wills, 11.

93Paula Cole, Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?, Audio CD (Warner Brothers Records, 1997); Listen also to Jimmy Buffet, Incommunicado, Audio CD (MCA Records Inc., 1980); Confederate Railroad, She Never Cried, Audio CD (Atlantic Records, 1992).

94Star Trek: Insurrection, directed by Jonathan Frakes (Paramount Pictures, 1998): 103 min.

104

Figure 4.7: John Wayne as John M. Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima.

McGhee, John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero, 192.

105

A key scene in Sands of Iwo Jima (Republic, 1949), Wayne‘s best war movie, which catapulted him to box-office stardom.

Figure 4.8: John Wayne with American Flag in Sands of Iwo Jima. Levy, John Wayne: Prophet of the American Way of Life, 27.

106

Chapter 5

Apollo Iconic Images and Their Traits in the Cold War

At the start of 1961, recently elected President John F. Kennedy faced both Cold

War challenges abroad and domestic concerns. As the youngest president, the first

Roman Catholic in a predominately-Protestant nation, and victor by the slimmest of margins, Kennedy needed initially to demonstrate leadership skills. The assertive manager articulated the National Aeronautics and Space Administration‘s (NASA) future

Apollo mission statement in his Special Message to a joint session of Congress on May

25, 1961. An effective and succinct mission statement answered six basic questions. The

United States (who) would explore outer space (what) and land on the moon (where) by decade‘s end (when). With the safe return of a manned flight (how), ―No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or important for the long-range exploration of space…,‖ he argued (why).1 The successful Apollo missions produced at least four icons during the space race between America and the Soviet Union in the Cold

War. The first two images represented the single photographs Whole Earth (also called

Blue Marble) and Earthrise. Two other pictures of Neil Armstrong saluting the United

1Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs no. 205, 87th Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, May 25, 1961 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1962), 404, John F. Kennedy. Hereafter referred to as U.S. President, Public Papers, Kennedy.

107

States flag and his footprint on the moon‘s soil became associated with similar images and collectively earned the iconic titles lunar footprint and astronaut with flag.

Reflecting celebratory traits in a Cold War victory, these four symbols presented the attributes of heroic courage, patriotic nationalism, rugged individualism, and technological prowess to anxious citizens involved in a bipolar dispute for world dominance.

Prophetically, Kennedy‘s speech alluded to four national characteristics associated with the iconic photographs generated from the Apollo missions. First, when

Kennedy emphasized the astronaut‘s survival during the daring flight, he addressed the trait of heroic courage. ―But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon…it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.‖ This quote illustrated the second attribute of rugged individualism as well as its counterpart, teamwork. Third, by calling for a national commitment to pursue research and development for lunar travel, Kennedy voiced confidence in America‘s technological prowess. Finally, by describing the Cold War period as the most serious time in the life of the United States and the freedom of the world, Kennedy appealed to America‘s patriotic nationalism.2 (Figures 1- 2)

Scholarly literature has examined further the space race in the context of the Cold

War. At the University of California, Berkeley, 1965, political scientist Donald A.

Strickland published a survey of American physicists and their views of space politics.

Most scientists described the prime motives of the American and Russian programs as having sought prestige and military advantage rather than to engage in pure scientific

2 U.S. President, Public Papers, Kennedy, 396-406.

108

research. Many labeled the lunar contest as politically exaggerated and an inefficient use of scientific talent and funds. In addition to his statistical assessment, Strickland included survey comments illustrative of the scientists‘ predominant view, such as:

It is very clear that the present so-called ‗space race‘ is entirely artificial. There may not be anything to race for except for military purposes. The scientists involved may be primarily interested in the basic research but the biggest reason for continuing our somewhat frantic efforts is an economic one.3

Historian Walter A. McDougall posited that critics from both the Left and Right questioned the diversion of scientific assets merely for political goals. He described the space program as a cultural expression not unlike that of the railroads in the nineteenth- century. Noting America‘s political reversals in , the Congo, and the Bay of Pigs,

McDougall cited Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who stated, ―Failure to master space means being second best in every aspect, in the crucial area of our Cold War world. In the eyes of the world first in space means first, period; second in space is second in everything.‖4

After examining the cultural impact of photographs taken on Apollo missions during the Cold War, geographer Denis Cosgrove asserted that Earthrise (NASA AS8-

14-2383) and Whole Earth (NASA AS17-148-22727), color images of our planet taken from Apollo spacecraft in lunar orbit, exerted a profound effect on humankind‘s vision of the world. ―Earthrise was the subject of immediate commentary and speculation about a reformed view of the world,‖ and supplanted the cartographer‘s globe as an icon denoting the earth. The geographer further argued, ―More than any other images, Earthrise and

3 Donald A. Strickland, ―Physicists‘ Views of Space Politics,‖ The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 29, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 223-235.

4Walter A. McDougal, ―Technocracy and Statecraft in the Space Age—Toward the History of a Saltation,‖ The American Historical Review, Vol. 87, no. 4 (October 1982): 1025-9.

109

Photo 22727 now serve as visual signifiers for the terms Whole-earth and One-world, especially in American culture.‖5 (Figures 3-4) The Apollo program, which produced these Cold War icons, bore an apt title; he contended. The Greek god represented strength, reason, and male beauty; just as this sun god circled the globe, so would

NASA‘s male heroes orbit the earth. He noted a romantic association with each space flight and the attendant heroic construction as defined by the military descriptor, mission.6 Historian William Shelton also categorized the Apollo astronauts as instant heroes.7

Heroic courage found expression in the Congressional Record in which numerous legislators asserted that the heroism of the Apollo missions reflected that same attribute in the American character. Even before the launch, Representative Louis Frey

(R-FL) linked the courage of the entire space program with the American temperament, and stated:

The entire space team, ranging from the technicians to the astronauts, are putting their intelligence, dedication, and courage on the line in order to prove man‘s ability to travel in space. Never before has the American spirit been so prominently on display for the whole world to observe and admire.

The Honorable John R. Rarick (D-LA) contended that the daring of Neil Armstrong,

Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin typified the United States and served as a heroic representation of ―free men the world over.‖ Edward Boland (D-MA) characterized the lunar landing as the greatest adventure in man‘s history; he observed that the courage of

5Denis Cosgrove, ―Contested Global Visions: One-World, Whole-Earth, and the Apollo Space Photographs,‖ Annals of of American Geographers, Vol. 84, no. 2 (June 1994): 270-94.

6Cosgrove, 273-80.

7William Shelton, ―The United States and the Soviet Union: Fourteen Years in Space,‖ Russian Review, Vol. 30, no. 4 (October 1971): 334.

110

the astronauts reflected an American generation. Boland also entered into the Record an editorial from the Springfield Union entitled, ―Footprints on the Moon,‖ which affirmed the courage of the Apollo crew. Representatives Roy Taylor (D-ND) and G. Elliott

Hagan (D-GA) praised the trait of heroism as well. James G. Fulton (R-FL) lauded the astronauts as brave Americans and Paul G. Rogers (D-FL) declared that the NASA team‘s daring qualified as uniquely American. Rogers echoed the opinion of

Congressman Ben Reifel (R-SD), who declared, ―The courage and abilities of these men are part of that spirit which continues to make America the leader of the free world.‖

Robert Casey (D-TX) argued that the footprints left in the lunar dust by the valiant astronauts would remain for a million years and represented the efforts of all Americans.8

(Figures 5-6)

Senator Michael Mansfield (D-MT) submitted Senate Resolution 224, which commended the courage of all Americans involved with the space program. John G.

Tower (D-TX) introduced a bill, S. 2709, which called for the erection of a statue of the astronauts raising the flag on the moon comparable to the Marine Memorial at Arlington

Cemetery that commemorated the flag-raising on Iwo Jima. For the Record, Senator

Charles E. Goodell (R-NC) asserted, ―Americans and the people of the world have welcomed them [Apollo 11 crew] and have commended them on their remarkable feat and outstanding bravery.‖9 At a Los Angeles dinner honoring the Apollo 11 astronauts,

President Richard M. Nixon noted the bravery of the Apollo crew and all Americans who

8Louis Frey, John R. Rarick, Edward Boland, Roy Taylor, G. Elliott Hagan, James G. Fulton, Paul G. Rogers, Ben Reifel, and Robert Casey, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 115, pt. 15, pt. 17, 91st Cong., 1st sess. (15 July to 25 July, 5 August to 12 August 1969): 19585; 20014; 20185-6; 20207; 20372; 20412; 20647-9.

9Michael Mansfield, John G. Tower, and Charles E. Goodell, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 115, pt. 15, pt. 16, 91st Cong., 1st sess. (15 July to 25 July, 28 July to 4 August 1969): 20800-1; 20963-4; 21379.

111

supported them. Nixon then awarded each member of the Apollo 11 crew the

Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.10 All of these legislators, whose careers depended on voter approval, focused on the heroic courage of the Apollo astronauts, while they implied with various degrees of subtlety that the trait resided in all Americans.

Patriotic nationalism soared with the success of the Apollo missions and their iconic images, which reflected that attribute. Denis Cosgrove asserted that the founding of NASA in the 1950s derived from a profound patriotic nationalism. He cited then

Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, who stated, ―The Roman Empire controlled the world because it could build roads…the British Empire was dominant because it had ships. In the air age, we were powerful because we had airplanes. Now the Communists have established a foothold in outer space.‖ The powerful Texan‘s statement illustrated his early and vigorous support for America‘s space program to respond to the Soviet lead in outer space exploration. In conclusion, Cosgrove contended that the Apollo images of

Earth represented a ―secular mastery of the world through spatial control.‖11 William

Shelton proclaimed that the United States displayed its patriotic nationalism in the space race. He described the Apollo success, founded on a crash program, as a classic

American response when the nation suffered surprise and humiliation.12

American politicians quickly embraced the success of the Apollo missions and linked the photographic icons, especially the American flag, to patriotic nationalism.

10Telephone Conversation With the Apollo 11 Astronauts on the Moon no. 272, 91st Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, July 20, 1969 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1971), 530; Remarks at a Dinner in Los Angeles Honoring the Apollo 11 Astronauts no. 334, 91st Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, August 13, 1969 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1971), 669- 74. Hereafter referred to as U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon.

11 Cosgrove, 281-7.

12 Shelton, 326-34.

112

Louisiana‘s Rarick cited the Apollo 11 unfurling of ―Old Glory, the symbol of the

Nation,‖ as the proudest moment in American history. Representative Rogers characterized the winning of the space race as ―uniquely American,‖ and contrasted the openness of the United States system to the secretiveness of the USSR. Into the Record,

Representative Boland submitted New York Times correspondent James Reston‘s column entitled, ―The Moon and 1976.‖ Noting that the American political system operated best when confronted with clear goals and great challenge, the Reston article connected

America‘s upcoming bicentennial celebration and the lunar success.13 Senator Goodell announced America‘s pride in the accomplishment and commended the national effort.14

Representative Howard W. Robison (R-NY) expressed the view that the space race afforded an outlet for international competition in lieu of war. In his remarks, he applauded the United States victory, but somberly reflected on the implications of an

American loss, articulated earlier in Life magazine‘s editorial: ―It is jarring to consider what might be our national mood today if Russia were on the moon and our international contribution were the war in Vietnam.‖ For the Record, Olin E. Teague (D-TX) entered an editorial from Aviation Week and Space Technology, by Robert Hotz, who praised the national commitment that overcame Soviet superiority in space and termed it a staggering

American achievement. The same national focus applied to winning the space race, he argued, also could solve significant societal problems on earth.15

13Rarick, Rogers, Boland, Congressional Record, House, 20014; 20412; 20648.

14Goodell, Congressional Record, Senate, 21379.

15Howard W. Robison, Olin E. Teague, Congressional Record, House, 20188; 22716.

113

President Nixon categorized his transmission from the Oval Room of the White

House to astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin as the most historic telephone call of all time.

After he visited the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet to congratulate the Apollo 11 crew,

Nixon contended that the lunar success facilitated United States foreign policy.

Following the crew‘s quarantine on the Hornet, President Nixon observed at the Los

Angeles State dinner that this was the nation‘s largest celebratory gathering of government officials and diplomats. The gathering far exceeded the one hundred-person capacity at the White House for the guests in attendance included fifty members of

Congress, forty-four governors, fourteen Cabinet members, and diplomats representing eighty-three countries.16 The Apollo missions produced dramatic iconic images of the

United States flag on the moon, which illuminated the trait of American patriotic nationalism.

Rugged individualism and its dualistic counterpart, teamwork, represented another component of Apollo‘s photographic icons. Cosgrove noted that astronaut

William Anders of Apollo 8, who shot the Earthrise photograph, and his crewmembers felt especially moved by the fact that they flew completely isolated in lunar orbit. In his scholarly article, Cosgrove cited Apollo 11 crewmember Michael Collins‘ feelings in solitary orbit on the dark side of the moon. The astronaut observed, ―I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life…I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two on of the Moon, and one plus God

16U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon, 530; Remarks to Apollo 11 Astronauts Aboard the U.S.S. Hornet Following Completion of Their Lunar Mission no. 277, 91st Cong., 1st sess., in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States , July 24, 1969 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1971), 541-3; U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon, 669.

114

only knows what on this side…I didn‘t feel like a giant, I felt very, very small.‖17 After

Representative Rarick commended the team effort of the many contractors and their workers for the NASA program, Michigan‘s Philip E. Ruppe (R-MI) concurred with

President Nixon‘s declaration of July 21, 1969, as National Participation Day that acknowledged all citizens‘ support for the space program. While Congressman Rogers praised the efforts of all generations who contributed to the success of Apollo, Emilio Q.

Daddario (D-CT) indicated that over 400,000 people, who represented more than 20,000 contractors, worked for NASA‘s achievement. In his Congressional Record submission,

Mansfield‘s Senate Resolution 224 also cited both the men and women who supported the space program as well as Senator Edward J. Gurney‘s (R-GA) bill. Goodell mentioned that the Apollo 11 plaque stated, ―Here men from planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind,‖ and that

Armstrong‘s quote, ―That‘s one small step for man; one great leap for mankind,‖ reflected a truly national effort.18 When President Nixon called the lunar landing a priceless moment in world history, he asserted that all of the Earth‘s citizens were ―truly one,‖ for over two billion people had observed the event on television. In addition to honoring the astronauts, the Nixon presented a Group Achievement Award to Apollo 11 mission‘s operation team.19 The two photographic icons of the lunar footprint and

Armstrong as he saluted the flag represented the two individuals who had traveled farther than any other member of the human race. While the images embodied rugged

17Cosgrove, 284-6.

18Rarick, Philip E. Ruppe, Rogers, Emilio Q. Daddario, Congressional Record, House, 20014; 20207; 20412; 20648-9; Mansfield, Edward J. Gurney and Goodell, Congressional Record, Senate, 20800-1; 20963-4; 21379.

19 U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon, 530; 541; 672.

115

individualism, the photographs implied a sense of teamwork as thousands of NASA personnel provided technological support.

Technological prowess and America‘s scientific achievement clearly reflected from all four of the Apollo icons. Denis Cosgrove noted that both Earthrise and Whole

Earth indicated a sense of Modernism defined by engineering metaphors.20 Historian

William Shelton addressed the tangible effects of the space race, and singled out increased homework assignments in science and math for the public schools. He also pointed to communication advances, which reduced the cost of a transoceanic call from

$9.00 to $5.00 between 1965 and 1971.21 In a letter to the White House, NASA Acting

Administrator George M. Low described the lunar landing as a convincing demonstration of technological competence. Asserting that the Apollo missions completed all engineering goals, NASA‘s follow-up report referenced photographs of both the

American flag and Armstrong‘s footprint, which succinctly proved the agency‘s case.22

For his Record submission, Representative Rarick celebrated the scientific achievement of Dr. Werner von Braun and the many contractors who supported NASA, and continued:

―Special commendation must go to the many, many, unnamed members of the teams of scientists, technicians, craftsmen, engineers, and workers, both military and civilian who have backed up America‘s commitment for aeroscience progress.‖ While Boland praised the nation‘s decade of work and dedication to technological resources, New York‘s

20Cosgrove, 284-7. The geographer employed a broad definition of Modernism, which asserted that Western society experienced profound changes in their economic, social, and political structure due to rapid industrialization during the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries.

21Shelton, 326-34.

22National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 22nd Semiannual Report to Congress, July 1-December 31, 1969 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1970): iii; 4-5.

116

Robison characterized the Apollo 11 mission as the most fantastic accomplishment in the history of technology. After Senator Mansfield commended American leadership in aeronautical science, Senator Tower noted that the nation‘s technological achievements evolved in the name of peace. Senator Goodell defined the lunar landing as America‘s

―superb mastery of technology.‖ In the House, Teague also cited the Hotz article entitled, ―How We Beat the Russians‖ in Aviation Week and Space Technology, which credited the United States with a solid technical foundation. Hotz affirmed:

The historical record shows that the Soviet Union pioneered space exploration and manned space flight. It had built a substantial lead over the United States by May, 1961, when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy committed his country to land men on the moon before 1970. In only slightly more than eight years from that national commitment, this nation wiped out the Soviet superiority in manned spaceflight and won the moon race going away. It is a staggering achievement for both man as a species and this nation as an organization of reasonably free men.23

The text of the citation for the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to all three members of the Apollo 11 crew asserted that technological ability and scientific knowledge enabled America‘s lunar landing.24

The successful lunar landings with the Apollo missions represented a direct result from the Cold War that defined space exploration as a race between the West and the

East, freedom and tyranny, and simplistically, good and evil. In President Kennedy‘s

Special Message to Congress on May 25, 1961, he argued:

Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the

23Rarick, Boland, Robison, Teague, Congressional Record, House, 20014; 20185-6; 20188; 22716; Mansfield, Tower, Goodell, Congressional Record, Senate, 20800-1; 20963-4; 21379.

24U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon, 672.

117

impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take.25

Following the Apollo 11 mission, Congressman and future president Gerald R. Ford extolled the boldness of Nixon who scheduled a trip to Romania. He noted that the

President‘s arrival behind the Iron Curtain would enhance friendship with the East and exploit cracks in the so-called Communist monolith.26 Nixon, himself, referred to

American enhanced world stature, and declared that nearly a million Bucharest citizens greeted him with thousands of pictures of the Apollo 11 crew. The President proclaimed the eight day lunar mission ―…the greatest week in the history of the world since the

Creation.‖27

This historic week and subsequent Apollo missions produced photographs that achieved iconic status in American culture. The images of Whole Earth, Earthrise, and the collective photographs of the lunar footprint, and astronaut with flag embodied exceptional attributes, which included but were not limited to, heroic courage, patriotic nationalism, and rugged individualism with its counterpart, teamwork, and technological prowess. Evolved within the framework of Cold War conflict, these icons exerted a powerful influence on American society into the twenty-first century. Whole Earth, also called Blue Marble, remained NASA‘s most requested image and a symbol for environmental awareness. When the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed tragically during reentry, a political cartoon commemorated the disaster as it portrayed the lunar flag at

25U.S. President, Public Papers, Kennedy, 403.

26Gerald R. Ford, Congressional Record, House, 20372.

27U.S. President, Public Papers, Nixon, 542; 670.

118

half-mast.28 On the History Channel‘s series, American Classics, an internet poll listed the icons of Apollo 11 as America‘s overwhelming favorite classic images (59%).29

Music Television (MTV), which pioneered music videos in 1982, appropriated the image of an astronaut on the moon with an MTV flag instead of the national one.30 In addition to a series of introductory images for the television series Star Trek Enterprise, which featured the lunar footprint during that program‘s three-year run, Argus Communications issued a motivational poster, which superimposed the lunar footprint over Earthrise.31

For their collections, thousands of postal stamp enthusiasts added government commemorative issues, which celebrated American space achievements.32 In an issue of

T.V. Guide that noted the most significant memories for celebrities, Mary Tyler Moore,

Tommy Smothers, and James Garner all cited the Apollo 11 mission. Walter Cronkite, broadcast journalist and the most trusted man in America placed the first lunar landing on a par with the John F. Kennedy assassination for stories that he covered.33 The acclaimed science fiction author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke, co-anchored television coverage of the Apollo landing alongside Cronkite. Clarke‘s obituary featured his quote penned in 1989:

2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil

28Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-1, December 6, 2002; Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-2, February 4, 2003.

29American Movie Classics, part 3, 2001, an episode on the History Channel.

30I Love the 80s, 2002, an episode on VH1.

31Star Trek Enterprise, 2001-2004; Argus Communications, 1990, John Paul Endress.

32The United States Postal Service, Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps, 27th Edition (New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 2000), 16-9; 132-3; 407.

33T.V. Guide, (April 6 to April 12, 2002): 14-28.

119

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.34

This quartet of historic Apollo icons evolved from images produced in lunar orbit and on the Sea of Tranquility. Their expressed traits found much in common with the attributes reflected from the Rosenthal photograph and John Wayne screen persona. Iwo

Jima featured a flag-raising and the actual Genaust movie footage concluded Wayne‘s benchmark performance in Sands of Iwo Jima, while astronaut Armstrong saluted the national banner in space.35 All flag images denoted victory, one in the heated combat of

World War II and the other in a Cold War contest. Whereas Wayne‘s screen persona manifested in fantasy, the other two symbols developed from reality. These flag constructs represented both heroic courage and patriotic nationalism on planet Earth, from outer space, and in motion pictures. marines and navy corpsman confronted death in battle, three of them unsuccessfully. At a time when a cancer diagnosis carried a horrific stigma with the prospect of a death sentence, many citizens hid their affliction for personal and professional reasons. Oncology patients feared job loss; while in the motion picture-industry, severe health conditions prevented the issuance of insurance policies needed to guarantee film completion. Nevertheless, John Wayne reported the removal of one malignant lung and part of another, proclaimed that he

―whipped the big ‗C,‘‖ and made numerous public service announcements to raise awareness for cancer prevention, treatment, and research before the dreaded disease returned to take his life a decade and half later. For Americans, Neil Armstrong demonstrated the ―right stuff‖ when he landed his lunar entry module with a failed

34Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-5, March 19, 2008.

35Sands of Iwo Jima, directed by Allan Dwan (Republic Pictures, 1949): 109 min. 120

navigational computer and only fifteen seconds of fuel left. Furthermore, on the return leg of the dangerous moon voyage, Buzz Aldrin had to repair a broken circuit breaker switch with his ballpoint pen to initiate a successful lunar liftoff sequence.

The other attributes in these icons warranted comparison as well. Although the

Rosenthal image denoted teamwork, the Apollo pictures implied a group effort to land and to support the missions. Even John Wayne led a dysfunctional team in Rio Bravo and his mythical squad in Sands of Iwo Jima demonstrated a group effort.36 Regarding rugged individualism, Collins remained alone in lunar orbit while only Armstrong and

Aldrin actually landed on the moon‘s surface. Jeffery Hunter as Martin Pawley, a ward of the slain Edwards family in The Searchers, still accompanied Wayne‘s character,

Ethan Edwards, portrayed as ―the tragedy of the loner.‖37 Surely, each combat veteran from Iwo Jima and Mount Suribachi had to face his own personal fears individually and privately. The boot marks on Iwo Jima sand faded with the first wind and rain, but the lunar footprint remained in a vacuum preserved on alien soil. Unlike the welcoming natural world celebrated in the works of American authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and

Henry David Thoreau, both Rosenthal and Apollo icons actually existed in hostile environments, even the Wayne screen persona played against jungles, deserts, and of course, Iwo Jima. Mount Suribachi existed as a torrid sulfurous volcano and the highest point of Iwo Jima; the moon represented the highest literal achievement of humanity.

One required military prowess to overcome and the other demanded technological superiority. The Apollo astronaut with flag and lunar footprint projected in a harsh vacuum with an American explorer as part of the scene, yet separated from it in the self-

36Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949; Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks (Warner Brother, 1959): 141 min.

37The Searchers, directed by John Ford (Warner Brothers, 1956): 119 min. 121

contained environment of his spacesuit. In contrast to these inhospitable and starkly framed pictures, the Whole Earth and Earthrise exuded an inviting warmth and fragility.

As powerful American symbols, these icons shared complex, interconnected characteristics.

In conclusion, the Apollo missions, as well as the Rosenthal flag-raising shot and

John Wayne screen persona, produced photographic images, which achieved iconic stature in American society. Presidents and legislators, the United States Postal Service, as well as the mass media, ascribed exceptional attributes to these cultural icons produced within the paradigm of Cold War struggle. These celebratory traits would stand in stark contrast to the pejorative qualities that America assigned to the Soviet Union and its behind the Iron Curtain in general and the Berlin Wall in particular.

122

Figure 5.1 Walter A. McDougall, ―Technocracy and Statecraft in the Space Age—Toward the History of a Saltation,‖ The American Historical Review, Vol. 87, no. 4 (October, 1982):1027.

123

Figure 5.2 McDougall, 1026.

124

The Whole Earth

Figure 5.3: Whole Earth http://www.peterixplanet.com (Accessed January 31, 2004)

125

Figure 5.4: Earthrise http://www.princeton.edu/~nchow/earthrise.jpg (Accessed February 16, 2004)

126

Figure 5.5: Lunar Footprint http://www.digicamhistory.com/moon%20footprint.jpg (Accessed March 28, 2004)

127

Figure 5.6: Astronaut With Flag http://www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov (Accessed April 1, 2004)

128

Chapter 6

The Berlin Partition: A Study in Negative Iconic Traits During the Cold War

As a symbol to the free world in general and the United States in particular, the

Berlin Wall prominently embodies attributes including, but not limited to, tyranny, oppression, slavery, criminality and their attendant synonyms.1 The Berlin Wall represents a unique icon and a historical event due to its clear delineation, rising

August 13, 1961 and falling November 9, 1989. Although political theories or movements develop over time, historians may cite their initial conceptualization with a speech or assumption of rule, power, or office, yet most scholars would agree that the historical record is far more complex and nuanced than a single piece of oratory or governmental inauguration. These events grow over time and if the record reveals a conclusion, it is often in the form of the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and then synthesis. Organized governments may have precise dates for the transfer of power, but these moments are arbitrary and serve only as chronological signposts to initiate the analytical journey.

1 Since there are so many synonyms for the traits of the Berlin Wall icon, the subsequent chapters on the Berlin image will trace the chronological entries of Cold War notables. 129

Social movements reflecting a bottom up approach to assessing the record are even more complex and ambiguous than the sacking of a city such as Rome or

Constantinople. A social historian cannot reduce the record to the birthday of a male primogeniture king, the crowning of a Holy Roman or Napoleonic , the execution of a Louis XVI, or the slaughtering of a Czarist family. The cultural analysis reflects far more than the abdication of a Kaiser or a resignation of a corrupt Watergate figure. Even wars may defy a specific date for beginning and ending. Europe has her Thirty Year and

Hundred Year conflicts, which are actually a series of military contests. Americans debate whether their sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War should be the anniversary of John Brown‘s raid on Harper‘s Ferry or of the firing on Fort Sumter. The start of World War II resists a firm categorization due to the Japanese invasion of

Manchuria in 1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and Spain‘s Civil War with multinational forces testing weapons and tactics. Although Germany invaded Poland on

September 1, 1939, America records her ―day of infamy‖ as December 7, 1941.

Southeast Asia epitomizes complex regional conflict with the colonial struggle, then the United States Vietnam War, followed by the unified Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and the Red Chinese border clashes with Hanoi.

Numerous dates inform the Cold War, among them the often-cited Iron Curtain speech of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Fulton, Missouri in 1946.

Yet United States and Soviet atomic espionage predates Churchill‘s oratory, as well as refusal of America to extend diplomatic recognition to the Communist regime in Russia.

As Lenin and Leon Trotsky led Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War, Western

130

powers attempted to reinstate the non-Communist government and to ―strangle the Red baby in its crib.‖

The Berlin Wall icon marks its beginning with the laying of the initial brick and the extension of the first coil of concertina barbed wire. Its evolution reflects four distinct levels of engineering and construction sophistication. Its culmination as a symbol ends quite literally with mobs dancing on, expectorating against, and tearing down the concrete edifice. The impact of the Berlin Wall is as clear as an East/West border guard tug-of-war with an attempted escapee‘s body, with his legs and groin sawed across barbed wire. This icon is as profound as a coed‘s throat clotheslined against a spiked line during her flight, or as grim as student Peter Fechter‘s semi-conscious body draped over a fortification, his autopsy revealing death by exsanguination, complicated by high velocity, AK-47 projectile trauma. For the first time in history, television chronicled the end of an era in color coverage beamed around the world for hundreds of millions to witness. Shortly thereafter, on December 8, 1991, the President of Russian

Republic Boris Yeltsin and the presidents of Belarus and de-facto dissolved the

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Prior to the closing of the East/West border zones occupied by the United States,

Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, postwar Berlin itself evolved into a Cold

War symbol. This chapter will examine the traits that United States leaders and social commentators ascribed to the divided city. The research will pay particular attention to the period, 1957-1959, as revealed in the Congressional Record. The Record offers a means to assess the attributes the American government and society perceive in the image of Berlin. With the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, the closed

131

border and its attendant fortifications became a condensed physical icon within the Berlin image, which embodied the negative characteristics of the Cold War in the American imagination and culture.

On May 28, 1957, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer addressed both the

United States Senate and House of Representatives. After his entrance into the Senate chamber, escorted by Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson, majority leader from Texas,

Senator Carl T. Hayden (D-AZ), Senator William F. Knowland (R-CA), Senator

Theodore F. Green (D-RI), and Senator (R-WI), Vice-President Richard

Milhous Nixon introduced the chancellor. In his opening remarks, Nixon noted a Senate committee, which had recently honored the great Senators , John C.

Calhoun, Henry Clay, Robert M. La Follette, and Robert Taft for their ―unquestionable and unconquerable courage.‖ The Vice-President asserted that the West German Leader possessed the same trait and characterized him as a friend of both freedom and the

American people. During the speech, Adenauer affirmed that the German people rejected

Communist and totalitarianism, and described Soviet rule in the Eastern zone as one of subjugation and terror. Characterizing the world as split into two camps, he pledged that Germany stood with the West in the conflict between freedom versus slavery and justice versus lawlessness. Upon completion of his remarks, Chancellor

Adenauer received a prolonged standing ovation from the Senate. When the Vice-

President offered concluding remarks, he noted West German Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano and Ambassador to the United States Heinz L. Krekeler on the Senate floor, as well as the chancellor‘s daughter, Mrs. Libeth Werhahn, and son, Georg

Adenauer, in the Diplomatic Gallery. With each of these acknowledgements, senators

132

proffered a second and then a third round of standing applause. Clearly many members of the high chamber in America‘s elected legislature embraced the chancellor‘s categorization of the negative Cold War traits of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and criminality.2

Earlier that same afternoon, Adenauer had addressed the United States House of

Representatives. In his remarks, he noted that the success of the Marshall Plan would live on in Europe‘s memory and offered Germany‘s gratitude for America‘s postwar assistance. He further asserted that the German Federal Republic drew its democratic inspiration from the words of President Abraham Lincoln, ―Government of the people, by the people, for the people.‖ Categorizing the world into two divided camps, the chancellor cited his nation‘s first parliamentary elections in 1949 as a decision to join the side, which represented individual freedom and dignity as opposed to the bloc based on dictatorship of the collective mind and slavery. The West German leader added:

With the free world we share the dangers which threaten it, dangers to peace. As a country whose very arteries are now cut—by the Iron Curtain—we are vividly aware of these dangers. Therefore, we need safeguards. We find these safeguards within the powerful North Atlantic alliance whose main support is the moral, political, economic and military strength of the United States. NATO, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations, is an instrument for the preservation of freedom. The Western World created it after the Soviets almost completely paralyzed the security mechanism of the United Nations which had been devised with so much care and idealism.…That is why in our sincere love for peace we follow with such acute attention and sympathy the efforts of your Government by an overall controlled disarmament to diminish the danger of war. These efforts, coupled with elimination of the causes of tension in the world— characterized, most of all, in defiance of reason, justice, and morality, by the division of my country and its courageous capital, Berlin—must in the end give to mankind the security for which it longs and to which it is entitled in order to live according to its true destiny, the highest principles of humanity.

2 Konrad Adenauer, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 103, pt. 6, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (16 May to 6 June 1957): 7835-8. 133

The Congressional Record indicated numerous bursts of applause during the chancellor‘s speech in which he noted negative Cold War traits such as dictatorship and slavery and cited the division of Germany and especially that of Berlin as symbolic.

Before the United States larger legislative body answerable to its citizens in biennial elections, the West German Chancellor elicited a standing ovation as he linked America‘s

Cold War concerns to Berlin imagery.3

On May 31, 1957, Senator Edward J. Thye (R-MN) addressed that body and noted the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations‘ current assessment for increased

American aid to the Federal Republic of Germany, per the recommendation of President

Dwight D. Eisenhower. The senator requested unanimous consent for the entry of an article from the Duluth News-Tribune in the Record, subsequently printed without objection. It recounted a tour of ten German construction leaders who visited building sites, and Thye noted the group‘s spokesperson, Berlin consulting engineer Eckehard O.

Rastedter. In his remarks, the senator stated, ―Mr. Rastedter referred to the Berlin Airlift as the most spectacular demonstration of the will of the American people to help the cause of freedom in Western Europe.‖ The Duluth Builders Exchange and Duluth Home

Builders Association cosponsored the visit in cooperation with the International House

Service of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency. At a dinner for the German construction specialists, Mayor Eugene Lambert and president of the Duluth Building

Employers Council, Joseph Veranth, welcomed the West German delegation. Such an exchange represented significant input and coordination among a federal agency, local government, and multiple business groups.

3Konrad Adenauer, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 103, pt. 6, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (16 May to June 2 1957): 7889-90. 134

In the Duluth news article, Rastedter credited the United States aid for postwar

Germany‘s rapid recovery. The structural engineer detailed efforts to rebuild housing for his nation‘s citizens and singled out the Berlin International Building Exposition scheduled to open in that city the following month. Generally acknowledged by Cold

War historians as the first major direct contest between East and West, it was significant that Senator Thye and the News-Tribune used the Berlin Airlift and blockade to address the issue of expanded foreign aid to a divided nation integral to the defense of Western

Europe. In a period of increasing international tension, Berlin became an iconic focal point to symbolize the Cold War. During his Duluth address to noteworthy American political and business groups, Rastedter asserted, ―I myself lived through that blockade, and shall continue to live in Berlin, hoping that city will be once more the capital of a reunited Germany.‖4

On July 30, 1957, Senator Howard A. Smith (R-NJ) noted the signing of a ―Four-

Power Statement on German Unity‖ published the previous day in Berlin. He contended that this statement marked the first time that the three-principal Western powers—United

States, Great Britain, and France had issued a joint declaration with the German Federal

Republic on German unity. According to Smith, previous unity positions developed from diplomatic correspondence or international conferences, but here the diplomatic significance lay in those four nations who closed ranks and set forth the statement as one body. The New Jersey senator asserted that Germany‘s division imperiled peace in

Europe, and contributed to potential all-out conflict. Labeling the Federal Republic as

Germany‘s only legitimate government, he linked that political entity to democratic

4Edward J. Thye, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 103, pt. 6, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (16 May to 6 June 1957): 8139-40. 135

principles of liberty, justice, and , as he implicitly framed the Eastern bloc as unjust and lawless.

As Senator Smith continued, he connected to current disarmament discussions. Noting the New York Times publication of a copy of the Four-

Power statement and an accompanying editorial entitled, ―The Berlin Declaration,‖ he requested unanimous consent to include the Times articles with his remarks in the

Record. The Four-Power statement categorized German division as gravely unjust and a principle source of European and international tension. In a series of paragraphs, the document classified the splitting of Germany and its Berlin capital as unnatural, called for free elections in that nation, and linked disarmament and European security to German reunification. The New York Times editorial led with a reference to an American-donated freedom bell, which rang out as the Western Big Four signed the declaration in the free

Berlin zone entrenched behind the Iron Curtain. This editorial imagery patently connected the gift to Berlin with an American icon, the Liberty Bell, featured prominently in United States history texts, coins, and stamps. The article contended that

German partition constituted a principle source of world tension, which spurred the . Classifying the division of Germany and Berlin as the key issue of the

Cold War, the Times stressed the principles of the Atlantic Charter and United Nations charter. In addition to endorsing the Four-Power statement, the New York editors labeled the Soviet zone as East German puppets. Senator Smith‘s position in the Congressional

Record and his use of the Four-Powers statement and New York Times imagery revealed a developing perception of Berlin partition as an iconic symbol that reflected the traits of

136

slavery and criminality expressed in the synonyms of East German puppets, lawlessness, and injustice.5

On February 16 of the following year, Representative Kathryn E. Granahan (D-

PA) referred in the Congressional Record Extension of Remarks to her role in an official delegation, which inspected Berlin. Noting that the powerful Speaker of the House

Samuel Rayburn (D-TX) included her in this group, she detailed her visit as a guest of the

Federal Republic of Germany‘s Parliament. This Record entry repeated her remarks in a speech before the Germany Society of Pennsylvania on that organization‘s 193rd anniversary dinner. Representative Granahan affirmed that in her meetings with

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and top German officials, these German leaders remained committed to the success of democracy, freedom, and individual rights. Categorizing the

West German economy as booming with extensive building projects, increasing industrial production, and full employment, she further asserted that the Federal Republic continued to absorb thousands of Eastern refugees. Granahan evaluated conditions in

East Berlin and theorized Russian leadership wished that this most prominent point of contact between East and West reflected the success of . Describing the

Communist citizenry as impoverished, sullen, and hopeless in their despair, the American

Representative framed the Soviet zone as a symbol that embodied the traits of repression and slavery. She also characterized Berlin‘s Eastern sector as a puppet regime under the rule of Russian masters who utilized prod and spur. To score political points with her

5Howard J. Smith, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 103, pt. 10, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (26 July to 8 August 1957): 12973-4. 137

constituents, the congresswoman employed vivid imagery that reflected negative attributes abhorrent to much of American society.6

After Chancellor Konrad Adenauer‘s addresses first to the United States House and then to the Senate the year before, Federal Republic of Germany President Theodor

Heuss spoke on the subject of partition before a joint meeting of the two Congressional

Houses on June 5, 1958. First noting the moral pressure on German citizens under

National Socialist dictatorship, Heuss linked Soviet totalitarianism to Germany‘s partition. He stated that national reunification constituted a prerequisite for European recovery and categorized his nation‘s division as absurd. After the German president referenced French writer and his assessment of American culture,

Heuss cited historical American partnerships with German notables, and addressed the successful relationships between George Washington and Friedrich Wilhelm Von

Steuben, as well as Abraham Lincoln and Carl Shurz. While expressing his nation‘s gratitude for the Marshall Plan, President Heuss asserted that the Berlin Airlift saved not only that capital, but decided the destiny of Europe. Contending that ten million of his country‘s citizens suffered displacement at the war‘s end, he emphasized that several thousand weekly refugees swelled those numbers to additional hundreds of thousands of escapees from Russian occupied territory. President Heuss characterized the Communist partition of Germany and Berlin as a form of intellectual and spiritual slavery within

Soviet totalitarianism. He further stated, ―This much is evident: The Germans know where they belong. Their history, their intellectual and Christian-religious traditions have

6Kathryn E. Granahan, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 104, pt. 3, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (26 February to 12 March 1958): 22959-61. 138

made them an integral part of what is called the Western World. On this point there can be no neutrality for us.‖ In a Congressional joint meeting, many members of the

House and Senate endorsed with applause and a standing ovation the German leader‘s use of partition imagery, which embodied negative attributes.7

On that same day, Representative Kenneth B. Keating (R-NY) offered his thoughts on the Heuss address in the Congressional Record Extension of Remarks.

Keating praised the German leader for his contribution to the Bonn Constitution of the

Federal Republic. The congressman noted Germany‘s economic recovery and primacy as an industrial power in Western Europe, as well as its democratic government and membership in the NATO alliance. Emphasizing the Soviet Union as the greatest threat to Europe, the New York representative described the Cold War adversary in terms of the

Berlin Airlift and the Hungarian Revolution, and noted Russia‘s test of a nuclear bomb in

1949 and its involvement in the Korean conflict a year later. Referencing German partition, Keating framed, as did so many others, his image of Russia in the characteristics of tyranny, oppression, and aggression. Moreover, he classified East

Germany as a key military base used to suppress revolt in a satellite empire that produced millions of refugees.8

One day after the New York Congressman‘s notation, Senator Frank Carlson (R-

KS) stated that he had spoken before thousands of fine Americans with German heritage in 1957 at North Bergen, New Jersey, during German-American celebrations. Citing a resolution drafted in May 1958, by the Federation of American Citizens of German

7Theodor Heuss, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 9, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (14 June to 26 June 1958): 11888. 8Kenneth B. Keating, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 104, pt. 8, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (29 May to 13 June 1958): 10345-7. 139

Descent in the United States, Inc., Carlson requested entry of that document into the

Record and referral of the text to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. The declaration categorized German partition as a cruel separation, half of it behind the Iron

Curtain. The resolution further asserted that division constituted oppression in violation of the Atlantic Charter principles, and called for State Department action to address reunification at any summit meeting or conference. The documents‘ final paragraph concluded: ―They urge that the following words of eminent American educator and former Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, James B. Conant, be heeded:

‗The last thing that anyone in the Free World should say is that we are content to see

Germany divided.‘‖ When Senator Carlson placed this resolution before the Record and the Foreign Affairs Committee, his action served as both a response to a major voting block and an endorsement of Germany‘s partition as a symbol of oppression.9

Postwar division of Germany into Allied zones continued to fuel international tension, which reflected Cold War concerns in summer 1958. Signed on April 5, 1947, the Huebner-Malinin agreement provided for the protection of respective nationals from the Soviet and United States Missions, and placed this issue within military authority.

When a helicopter training in the Federal Republic became lost in a thunderstorm, the aircraft made a forced landing in the Soviet Zone. As had happened in previous similar incidents, American military command contacted their Soviet counterparts, and expected a prompt return of the helicopter with nine personnel, eight officers and one enlisted man. Although East Germans initially detained the soldiers,

Soviet armed forces took custody of the crew and passengers that evening, June 7.

9Frank Carlson, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 8, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (29 May to 13 June 1958): 10362. 140

Russian authorities then supposedly placed the Americans under East German civilian control. By abrogating the long established Huebner-Malinin agreement, the Kremlin hoped to force implicit United States recognition of the East German government. While

Soviet military officials refused to intervene, American armed forces commanders declined to negotiate with the German Democratic Republic (GDR). United States Army leaders continued to insist that the incident constituted a military matter between the two forces. Any weakening of the American position would indicate a shift in long established State Department policy, which carried serious implications for West Berlin

110 miles deep in the Soviet Zone. Even de facto acknowledgement from Washington of

East German sovereignty offered the Iron Curtain nations a new opportunity to interdict access to the city‘s free zone whose very existence served as a growing symbol of

Communist embarrassment and failed socialist policy. In short, this diplomatic dance left an Army aircraft and officers (United States citizens) as captives whose predicament would come to the attention of the Washington press.

Several American senators chose to champion the soldiers‘ release and framed their oratory in a slew of negative Cold War descriptors. On Monday, June 23, 1958,

Senator Norris Cotton (R-NH) submitted a Senate Concurrent Resolution 96, and then referred it to the Committee on Foreign Relations. If adopted by both houses, this type of formal statement from Congress in its titled conclusion would declare, ―Resolved by the

Senate (the House of Representatives concurring).‖ The text described the incident as an unintended landing of a training flight, noted the Soviet obligation to release said personnel held illegally against their will, and called for the president to continue efforts

141

to secure the servicemen‘s freedom. Moreover, Cotton submitted the resolution on behalf of the senior Senator (R-NH).10

Although unable to return to Washington, D.C. by Monday, Bridges had addressed the powerful veteran‘s group, the American Legion, at their annual state convention (ironically in Berlin, New Hampshire) the previous Saturday, and promised to offer the declaration to Congress. One week later, Bridges blasted the Soviets and East

Germany. In addition to his own statements in the Record, Bridges entered a Washington

Star Sunday editorial entitled, ―Held for Ransom,‖ plus a news release from the United

States Department of Defense. The sum of the remarks noted the Huebner-Malinin agreement while the statements categorized the conspiring principals as Red puppets and

Kremlin gangs. His entry further affirmed that this international gangsterism constituted kidnapping, blackmail, and a return to to achieve ―dark ends.‖ Following

Bridges‘ address, the polemic even cited Soviet refusal to accept a Red Cross parcel on behalf of the prisoners. In an apparent case of piling on, Senator Frank A. Barrett (R-

WY) asserted that he also had planned to offer the editorial for the Record. Restating and summarizing the situation, he concluded:

The Soviet Union is a party to an agreement with us, signed in 1947, which provides that incidents of this character are to be resolved by Russian and American military authorities in Germany. Until very recently the Kremlin has observed the agreement. Now the Soviets say we must deal with the East German Communist regime. That puppet government, by insisting that we discuss the issue through civilian rather than military officials, hopes to blackmail us into paying ransom for these men in the form of diplomatic recognition of their government. Without doubt the Kremlin is putting them up to it.11

10Norris Cotton, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 9, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (14 June to 26 June 1958): 11888. 11Styles Bridges and Frank A. Barrett, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 10, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (30 June to 14 July 1958): 12595-7. After Barrett‘s speech, Senator Bridges regained the floor to protest U.S. aid to Communist Poland. He labeled Polish leader Gomulka a dictator who publicly endorsed the execution of Hungarian resistance figure Imre Nagy in spite of written assurances of safety. Bridges noted a recent Senate vote of 91-0 to condemn the actions of the Red Hungarian and Soviet Union governments. 142

On July 9, Bridges called for Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to order the

German Democratic Republic to release America‘s captive servicemen. Again, he employed Cold War imagery to express negative characteristics, which concerned East

German occupation. His rhetoric included the terms oppressed, , master, kidnapping, hostages, and blackmail. Urging the Senate leadership to add his proposed

Senate Concurrent Resolution 96 to the legislative schedule, he concluded, ―History shows that that those who are strong do not lose. Only those who vacillate and are weak lose. That fact has been proven time after time, and it will be proven further as the years go by.‖ By sponsoring this resolution to support the president and military channels to affect the release of nine captured soldiers, Senator Bridges defined a major political position for himself, as he used inflammatory Cold War imagery to reflect negative traits.12

Within this heightened Cold War tension, many American political and military leaders addressed their nation‘s defense capabilities and asserted that the United States trailed the Soviet Union in vital areas of the arms race. When the junior senator from

Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, called attention to perceived national security concerns on August 14, he came under attack from rivals on the Senate floor. The next day,

Senator Richard L. Neuberger (D-OR) rose to defend his colleague, as he noted 1930s

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement to achieve

―peace in our time.‖ Neuberger then cited Winston Churchill‘s prescient opposition in the House of Commons to the prime minister. Labeling the British war time leader as one of history‘s greatest statesmen, he linked Churchill‘s call to arms in the 1930s to

12Bridges, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 10, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (27 June to 14 July 1958): 13205-6. 143

Kennedy‘s warning on national preparedness, and went so far as to enter in the Record

Churchill quotes in Parliament and to note JFK‘s book, Why England Slept.

Immediately following Neuberger‘s spirited defense, Senator Kennedy (D-MA) asserted that history indicated that weakness only led to disaster. For the Record, he placed the following comments:

---―At this moment, the consensus of opinion is that we are probably somewhat behind the Soviets in some areas of long range ballistic missile development,‖ President Eisenhower, Address.

---―We are behind the Russians in missile and satellite development,‖ Secretary of Defense McElroy, press conference.

---―The Soviet Union leads the United States in the development of ballistic missiles,‖ Senator Symington, Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations‘ report.

---―I would say this Nation is really in more danger today than it ever has been in its history,‖ Admiral Radford, testimony before Senate Committee on Armed Services.

---―Therefore, I still think that by mid-1959 there is a good chance that their combat capability will exceed ours,‖ General Le May, Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations.

---―We have traditionally relied upon a margin of technical superiority to offset the advantage of numerically larger hostile forces, but now that technical superiority is being challenged,‖ General Maxwell Taylor, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, hearings before Senate Subcommittee on Department of Defense.

---―The best informed military experts in the Pentagon on the requirements for and use of long-range ballistic missiles consider the United States program shockingly inadequate,‖ Brigadier General Thomas R. Phillips, United States Army, retired, lead statement in article in St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Although not employing the inflammatory Cold War terms of some of his colleagues, the junior senator with presidential aspirations definitely positioned himself as a proponent for strong national security. His choice of quotes from political and military leaders

(including all three armed services), as well as a press article from a major Midwestern

144

daily, revealed an American society deeply concerned, possibly paranoid, about the all- encompassing bipolar conflict and arms race. In a few short years, a young president would face a major foreign crisis in the Cold War at the divided German city, whose iconic wall represented to American society characteristics of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and criminality.13

On February 12, 1959, Senator Alexander Wiley (R-WI) addressed the issue of

German reunification and asserted that the divided nation presented a serious threat to peace. Pointing to a 1955 Geneva Conference agreement for free German elections,

Wiley cited Soviet failure to follow through on the concern, as well as breaking 50 out of

52 other agreements. According to West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, 400 Germans fled the Soviet zone daily. Noting this figure, the senator contended that the Russians obstructed East German elections because 95 percent would vote for reunification with the Federal Republic. Wiley categorized the Soviet occupation as a master and slave relationship, and further referred to the Eastern citizens as serfs. Framing his speech in

Cold War imagery, Senator Wiley labeled German division a threat to peace and a symbol, which embodied slavery, a pejorative trait to American society. He declared that

―standing firm‖ on Berlin constituted the bedrock of United States policy.14

Although Senator Mike Mansfield (D-MT) took a more flexible position on the nation‘s foreign policy, he nevertheless acknowledged German division and Soviet manipulation as a developing crisis. Contending that editorial opinion and the daily press informed his political position, Mansfield called for more debate on the subject. He

13Richard L. Neuberger and John F. Kennedy, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 104, pt. 14, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (14 August to 20 August 1958): 17713-5.

14 Alexander Wiley, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 2, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (2 February to 24 February 1959): 2249-50. 145

entered into the Congressional Record extracts from four major newspapers with a broad readership. The , Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and

New York Times carried articles entitled, ―The Berlin Maneuvers,‖ ―The Berlin Trap,‖

―On Seizing the Initiative,‖ and ―Berlin: A Western Program,‖ respectively. In sum, the press addressed Premier Khrushchev‘s increasing pressure on Germany with Soviet overtures to force NATO troops from free Berlin. Defining the divided city as a symbol, stated:

Berlin is not peripheral. It is the very heart and focus of the Western position in Europe….To abandon Berlin now would be to crumble the moral foundations of Western policy, with serious practical consequences for West Germany and West Europe. If the West were not to stand in Berlin, the very microcosm of the cold war, then it is indeed hard to see where it should stand or why we are spending $40 billion a year on the Pentagon.15

On February 17, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN) recounted his earlier visit to Berlin, which he called a bastion of freedom behind the Iron Curtain. Noting ceremonies commemorating the Berlin Airlift, both the senator and German Mayor

Brandt emphasized the city‘s freedom as a world symbol. Asserting America remained unified in support of West Berlin‘s latest crisis, Humphrey offered for the Record his article submitted to the Hearst headline service entitled, ―Berlin Must Remain Free.‖ The text characterized the heightened tension as a gathering over a beacon of truth, and called the Allied sector ―an oasis of freedom‖ and ―encircled by a desert of Soviet domination.‖ Labeling the Russians tyrants and dictators who enslaved the German

Democratic Republic as a stooge state with marionettes, the senator pointedly cited the monthly flow of twenty thousand refugees from subjugation into West Berlin. Humphrey concluded that this citadel of freedom embodied the hopes and goals of revolting East

15 Mike Mansfield, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 2, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (2 February to 24 February 1959): 2303-4. 146

German workers in June 1953 and Hungarian freedom fighters in 1956 against a hammer and sickle gang. In his impassioned text, the Minnesota Senator positioned the

Communist division of Berlin as an icon, which reflected a host of negative Cold War traits.16

American society‘s view of Cold War characteristics found expression in proclamations from the Senate on February 19. Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) offered Senate

Resolution 85 while his colleague, Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT), submitted Senate Revolution

82. Both proposals asserted the vital need for a continued military presence to guarantee

West Berlin‘s freedom. Connecting German reunification with world peace and security, the senators focused on Berlin as a symbol for safety and freedom. While Javits noted the Berlin Airlift, both called for the use of any means necessary for continued Western access to the city. Equating a free Berlin with a free world, the senators framed their argument with negative terms. Javits and Dodd labeled East Germany puppets and slaves, while they affirmed that united Americans embraced their commitments and responsibilities to defend against Communist aggression. To confront the crisis,

Resolution 85 called for seven senators in a special committee to visit Berlin in a show of support.17

On March 5, Wisconsin Representative Clement J. Zablocki (D-WI) addressed the

Communist pressure at Berlin and linked it to world peace and disarmament. Framing the Communist system as inherently unjust, immoral, and atheistic, he asserted that the enemy failed to honor international agreements and treaties. Arguing that the Russians

16 Hubert H. Humphrey, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 2, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (2 February to 24 February 1959): 2475-6.

17 Jacob J. Javits and Thomas J. Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 2, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (2 February to 24 February 1959): 2734-5. 147

sought to conquer the world, Zablocki connected the Kremlin‘s Berlin manipulations to other armed aggressions in Korea, Tibet, Burma, Formosa Straits, and Hungary. He posited that America must directly confront this conspiracy, which posed a mortal danger. The Wisconsin Representative defined Berlin as a symbolic test that employed imagery traits of persecution, enslavement, and murder. Calling the Kremlin leaders masters who sought the terror of worldwide dictatorship, he noted their military suppression of Polish and Hungarian uprisings. Zablocki commended America‘s church and voluntary groups who opposed communism throughout the world. Moreover,

Representatives Walter H. Judd (R-MN), E. Ross Adair (R-IN), and Frank T. Bow (R-

OH) vigorously supported and agreed with Zablocki‘s use of Berlin symbolism, which reflected negative traits in the view of a democratic society.18

Five days later in the House of Representatives, Edith N. Rogers (R-MA) assessed the Berlin crisis as a black cloud containing a torrent of destruction. Summarizing a

Soviet ultimatum to transfer control of the Berlin corridor to East German authority by

May 27, 1959, Rogers argued that German Democratic Republic command set the stage for a new city blockade. If the Western powers employed force to maintain their rightful access, guaranteed under international agreement, the Soviets threatened armed intervention. The congresswoman repeatedly classified East Germany as puppets and

Russia as a slave government. Furthermore, she recounted $100 million in food aid from the American Relief Administration in the 1920s to alleviate starvation and death in the

USSR. Noting this ingratitude and the Kremlin domination in the Soviet zone, she offered a House Concurrent Resolution, which called for activation of military reserves

18 Clement J. Zablocki, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 3, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (25 February to 16 March 1959): 3423-6. 148

and the placement of American and NATO forces on alert. By utilizing pejorative attributes in the Berlin icon, Representative Rogers framed her Cold War challenge and stated:

I hate war, and God forbid that it should ever occur again. On the other hand, I refuse to be a slave. As a member of the Government of the great United States of America, I refuse to allow the Communist slave government of Russia to gain domination over my country. I prefer death to any such reality.19

Alexander Wiley again noted mounting tension in the Berlin crisis in his entry for the Record on March 11. Reviewing the Soviet absence of authority concerning the corridor‘s jurisdiction and Western rights to free access, he once more labeled East

Germany a puppet regime. He further accused the Russians of breaking agreements and tearing up treaties to advance ―the Soviet lust for power.‖ To support his points, the senator placed two articles before his colleagues from the Washington Evening Star and the New York Times. The first entry cited Khrushchev‘s retreat from his original ultimatum that attributed the Kremlin shift to President Eisenhower‘s firm stance on

Berlin. Then the Star assessed Congressional Democrats‘ call for general mobilization and postponement of defense forces reductions. The Wednesday Times text proclaimed

Russian rule over East Germany and Soviet rejection of free elections for reunification, even though the premier had accepted this condition at a meeting.20

A week later, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-IL) entered President

Eisenhower‘s address from that Monday on Berlin and national security in the Extension of Remarks. The senator termed the report reassuring, which American networks all

19 Edith N. Rogers, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 3, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (25 February to 10 March 1959): 3788-90.

20Wiley, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 3, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (25 February to 16 March 1959): 3834-5. 149

carried for thirty minutes. As Eisenhower declared West Berlin an icon of freedom for a divided world, he further noted its new symbolism of ―imperialistic communism to divide the free world‖ and weaken the West‘s collective security. Displaying a German map to illustrate Berlin‘s location 110 miles inside East Germany, he explained Western rights to access the city under international law. Recounting the Communist blockade in 1948 and the successful airlift, the President classified the East German government a puppet regime of the Kremlin. Furthermore, he asserted the Soviet record for agreements and obligations revealed a Communist formula of ―Promises are like pie crusts, made to be broken.‖ Noting ‘ assessment that the Russian government aspired to world domination, Eisenhower promised to stand firm and thus dissuade the rule of terrorism from that of law and order. Presenting an impressive chart of current and proposed American missiles, the chief executive also affirmed that nearly fifty nations had joined the United States in a system of mutual security. In the context of a Cold War crisis, the leader of the free world defined policy as he used symbolism that reflected easily perceived traits.21

On Friday, March 20, Congressman Edward F. Feighan (D-OH) noted

Khrushchev‘s call for a summit conference to address Berlin‘s potential for war. Feighan suggested ―concrete guideposts‖ for the proposed meeting to the Record and to the

Eisenhower State Department. Claiming the 1955 Geneva Conference consigned 12 million North Vietnamese to slavery, he asserted that the United States should stand for natural rights and self-determination in the face of Russian colonialism and Communist . The representative demanded free elections under international supervision,

21 Everett McKinley Dirksen, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 4, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (17 March to 10 April 1959): 4544-6. 150

and cited worldwide oppression from the Eastern bloc. Affirming the need for open covenants, he also challenged the Kremlin to dismantle the Iron Curtain with ―the minefields, the barbed wire, the vicious dogs, the special squads of machine-gunners‖ that divided the world. In vivid imagery, Feighan framed the Cold War as a contest over

Berlin between American principles and evil Communist traits.22

The following Tuesday, Representative Howard Cannon (D-MO) addressed the

Khrushchev ultimatum and Berlin crisis. Agreeing with Eisenhower ―that we will not yield an inch,‖ he framed West Berlin as a world symbol of freedom. Describing the

East/West economies of Germany in general and Berlin in particular as an example of humiliation and failure for communism, Cannon noted the potential for weakened loyalty of Russia‘s satellites. He bemoaned negotiations with a dictator who possessed missiles, and suggested the strategic weapons gap might lead to a Chamberlain/Munich compromise. Linking Admiral Hyman G. Rickover‘s Nautilus program to General Billy

Mitchell‘s advocacy of air power, the congressman argued for increased defense spending on technical and scientific development. Employing the Berlin symbol with its attendant traits, this politician pressed for a heightened Cold War arms race.23

By Thursday, Congressman Henry S. Reuss (D-WI) entered into the

Congressional Record the text of statements before the third annual Institute on United

States Foreign Policy. He asserted that world attention focused on Germany and Berlin, while he noted his participation in the scholarly program that assessed this vital issue.

Held at the University of Wisconsin-, the institute‘s sponsors included the

22 Edward Feighan, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 4, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (17 March to 10 April 1959): 4824.

23 Howard Cannon, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 4, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (17 March to 10 April 1959): 5065-6. 151

University of Wisconsin political science department, World Affairs Council of

Milwaukee, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and the Bureau of Government of the University Extension Division. Numerous civic and professional organizations cooperated in the academic venture. Before this broad spectrum of American society,

State Department officials analyzed the German situation. Paul H. Nitze chronicled the failure of postwar Allied collaboration with Stalin and cited the ,

Marshall Plan, and the reunification challenge of Federal Republic membership in

NATO. Mrs. Eleanor Lansing Dulles characterized Berlin as a magnet for thousands of refugees and an escape hatch from dictatorship and tyranny. Furthermore, she warned against actions, which encouraged Soviet aggression and police state methods. In yet another instance, Cold War attention again centered on Berlin, which reflected powerful attributes that contrasted the West and East.24

On April 13, Hubert H. Humphrey presented for the Record his remarks, ―The

Berlin Crisis and the Path to Peace,‖ given before a Democratic Committee dinner at

Westchester County in New York. Humphrey linked the Berlin Airlift to the formation of NATO, and called it the core of Western defense. The Senator noted the Truman

Doctrine and the Soviet overthrow of a free Czech government. Reviewing his earlier appearance with West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, he reasserted that America needed to continue a policy of firmness and maintain garrisons in the city. He differentiated between serious negotiations and ―inexcusable appeasement,‖ thus Humphrey employed

―the lesson of Munich‖ as a readily understood symbol.25

24 Henry S. Reuss, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 4, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (17 March to 10 April 1959): 5367-9.

25 Hubert H. Humphrey, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (13 April to 29 152

Ray J. Madden (D-IN) also warned against appeasement at a proposed summit meeting with the Communists. The congressman asked that the agenda include a review of Soviet treaty violations. Referencing the enslavement and injustice behind the Iron

Curtain, he argued that Soviet criminal methods represented aggression and an attempt at global conquest. Citing testimony before Congressional committees in 1952 and 1954,

Madden offered quotes from captive nation citizens, which he intended to forward to the

State Department.

---―I myself don‘t know of any international agreement to which Soviet Russia is a party, which they have not violated,‖ Honorable Johannes Kaiv, Acting Consul General in Charge of the Legation at Estonia.

---―The Soviet aim is to conquer the world,‖ General T. Bor-Komorowski of Poland.

---―Ever since Lenin and Stalin, the Bolsheviks have said the same thing: Their aim is to dominate the world. If necessary, they will use blackmail,‖ General Wladyslaw Anders, of Poland.

---― meant the murder of the innocent, the criminal persecution of the church and the clergy, the destruction of free thought, the destruction of free economy, the destruction of family, and the national destruction through deportations,‖ Mihail Farcasanu, President, League of Free Rumanians, former editor and publisher of the Rumanian paper Viitorul.

---―I had my first personal encounter with communism in 1919. At Csorna, Hungary, the village next to ours, the best citizens were being hanged on the trees around the church,‖ Monsignor Bela Varga, President, Hungarian National Council.26

Choosing powerful statements, Representative Madden assigned pejorative traits to the

Berlin symbol.

In the Congressional Record Extension of Remarks on April 15, Senator

Humphrey again entered one of his speeches. Presented before the Dade County Bar

April 1959): 5739. 26 Ray J. Madden, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (13 April to 29 April 1959): 5788-90. 153

Association in Miami, Florida, ―Inching Along Toward Peace‖ postulated that the loss of

Berlin could lead to the fall of West Germany and the creation of a new tyranny over

Europe. Humphrey positioned Berlin as the focal point of a contest between a free world and Communist tyranny. Calling retreat a forfeiture of world leadership, he vowed support for a firmness policy that included Western garrisons in the city. Two days later,

Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) also supported Humphrey‘s stance on Berlin and alluded to the attributes of Soviet ruthlessness and totalitarian might. Proxmire included the Humphrey address, ―The Berlin Crisis and the Path to Peace,‖ at the conclusion of his own remarks. Both senators framed the Berlin crisis as a Cold War symbol, which embodied powerful traits.27

On at least three occasions in 1959, starting with his Extension of Remarks,

Representative Samuel S. Stratton (D-NY) addressed the Berlin crisis and called for a

―standing firm‖ policy. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he inspected NATO defenses, especially in West Berlin, in response to the Soviet May 27 ultimatum. His service as a combat intelligence staff officer for General Douglas

MacArthur in World War II and instructor position for the naval intelligence school during the Korean conflict informed the congressman‘s political and military assessment on April 23. He noted that American strategy intended for ground forces to impede a

Soviet penetration of West Germany before the Allies employed superior nuclear power in response to armed aggression. Stratton categorized West Berlin as an outpost of freedom whose fall would lead to the loss of Europe. Proclaiming the U. S. presence a deterrent to Russian expansion on April 27, he emphasized the need to ―mean business in

27Humphrey, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (13 April to 29 April 1959): 6080; William Proxmire, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (13 April to 20 April 1959): 6208. 154

facing up to the Soviet ultimatum‖ and proffered support for Eisenhower‘s stand firm policy, and even suggested that the President travel to Berlin to celebrate Armed Forces

Day. The representative again labeled the city an outpost of democracy whose garrison troops and dependents (including women and children) reflected a frontier spirit. He repeated that the Berlin symbol represented the key to Western Europe and a long-term testing ground between the free world and Soviet inspired threats with pressure and tension. On July 13, the Congressman entered a New York Times article that assessed the

German unity and Berlin questions before the ongoing Big Four Foreign Ministers

Conference in Geneva. Judging East Germany a Soviet satellite, the editorial referred to the access issue as a dangling ―sword of Damocles.‖ Using his military background and political standing, Stratton defined Berlin as a Cold War symbol comprised of traits easily recognized by the American public. 28

In the Record’s Extension of Remarks on May 7, Representative Albert H. Bosch

(R-NY) noted the merger of the United States-German Chamber of Commerce with the

German-American Trade Promotion Office to form the German American Chamber of

Commerce, Inc. He entered congratulatory remarks from several notables on the new organization‘s first anniversary. Telegrams from U.S. President Eisenhower, Federal

Republic President Theodor Heuss, and New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller endorsed this group, which promoted the two nations‘ business relationship. While

Heuss briefly referred to cooperation and mutual benefit, Eisenhower cited economic advancement under a free market system and responsibilities under a free world community for both countries. Offering praise for West Germany, Rockefeller stated:

28 Samuel S. Stratton, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (13 April to 29 April 1959): 6609; 6847-50; Stratton, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 10, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (1 July to 16 July 1959): 13227. 155

This sturdy new democracy stands as a notable symbol of progress and evidence of a free way of life that cannot be matched behind the Iron Curtain. Indeed, West Berlin has been called a golden thorn in the side of a ruthlessly regimented East German Communist economy.

In a reception and dinner speech before the trade group, Chase Bank

Chairman John J. McCloy emphasized the need for a continued American presence in

Berlin and linked the city‘s freedom to ―the integrity of the whole free world position.‖

Here again, political and business leaders presented the iconic contrast of West and East

Berlin as a form of American cultural shorthand.29

Several more House members placed Record entries, which recounted Cold War events and offered resolutions that employed opposing attributes. On May 18, Melvin

Price (D-IL) called the Berlin Airlift an important milestone and historic decision, which blunted the spread of communism, and made West Berlin a free world symbol before enslaved satellites. The outpost of freedom contrasted with East European suppression.

Noting 70 airmen died supporting the airlift, 31 American and 39 British, Price paid tribute to Lieutenant Eugene Erickson, a pilot for whom the Germans had named a West

Berlin street. Henry S. Reuss recalled the sixth anniversary of the June 17, 1953, revolt of East Berlin workers against the Pankow government and framed the uprising as a burning symbol of bravery for unification. Also on June 17, Bosch offered a resolution from the Steuben Society of America, a national German-American group that commemorated the uprising. The resolution called for the U.S. government to advance the cause of freedom behind the Iron Curtain, while it denounced the Communists as tyrants who subjugated nations with repression, slavery, and puppet regimes. By June

22, Representative Thomas L. Ashley (D-OH) reported a quote from the New York Times

29 Albert H. Bosch, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 6, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (30 April to 19 May 1959): 7764-5. 156

on the Four-Power Conference: ―It is clear that it is the Soviet intention that the Western

Powers, upon signing such an agreement, would acquiesce in the liquidation of their responsibility for maintaining the freedom of the people of West Berlin.‖ Ashley also submitted a resolution, which expressed American on the Berlin question. He assigned responsibility for the contrived tension to the Russians while he noted the Soviet use of armed force to suppress resistance in both East Germany and Hungary. All of these Congressional remarks employed contrasting traits, which placed Berlin at the center of Cold War concerns.30

Foreign policy concerns continued to demand the attention of legislators through the 1959 summer. When Senator Bridges entered commentary from General Julius Klein on the late John Foster Dulles, he noted an earlier report from the general who assessed world affairs. According to the senator, Klein‘s analysis received positive attention when published as a Senate document and carried in major newspapers and periodicals. In the general‘s tribute to the deceased Secretary of State and Cold Warrior, he recounted the close partnership of Dulles and West German Foreign Minister Heinrich Von Brentano to combat Communist aggression. The article cited German and Brentano immigrants to nineteenth century Chicago and their involvement with President Abraham Lincoln‘s election and their subsequent service in the War Between the States. By extension, with this historical anecdote, Klein subtly linked the Civil War issue of slavery to that Cold

War trait expressed in the Berlin symbol. His report quoted extensively Brentano in the

Frankfurter Zeitung, who noted that Dulles‘ funeral coincided with the Khrushchev

30 Melvin Price, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 6, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (30 April to 19 May 1959): 8273-4; Bosch and Henry S. Reuss, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 8, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (5 June to 17 June 1959): 11143; Thomas L. Ashley, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 9, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (18 June to 30 June 1959): 11508-9. 157

Berlin ultimatum date, May 27. The Foreign Minister applied the terms totalitarian, dictatorship, and Bolshevism to the Soviet Union while he called the artificial division of

Germany an expression and cause of world tension. Referring to West Germany as a bulwark of democracy against totalitarian aggression, the Klein entry in the Record presented the partition of that nation and its old capital as a dramatic symbol that displayed bipolar traits.31

On July 23, Representative Alvin M. Bentley (R-MI) submitted additional information in the Record Extension of Remarks, which contained the text of letters between American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

President George Meany and U.S. President Eisenhower. Meany expressed support for his government‘s position in the Berlin crisis, while he rejected the Soviet ultimatum and

German freedom as an international bargaining chip. Calling for a continued Allied presence in West Berlin, and reunification through free elections, the labor leader asserted that Premier Khrushchev had deliberately distorted the position and influence of

American labor. According to Meany, the Russian Premier intentionally cited the policy of the American Communist party, and knew the group to be inconsequential. The AFL-

CIO President noted the role of his organization, which prompted the United Nations to condemn forced labor behind the Iron Curtain and Soviet aggression in the Hungarian revolt. Contending that Russian workers themselves did not support Khrushchev, Meany denounced the Communist regime in its attempts to conquer the world. In his response,

Eisenhower acknowledged AFL-CIO support for West Berlin‘s freedom as well as labor‘s solidarity for American basic beliefs. The Berlin symbol with its attendant

31 Bridges, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt.10, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (1 July to 16 July 1959): 13285-6. 158

attributes found prominent expression in United States society through a powerful and representative labor organization.32

By August 11, Berlin‘s role in a burgeoning refugee crisis gained the attention of

Senator James Glenn Beall (R-MD), who offered a Record submission. He cited an article by editor and columnist J. William Hunt in the Cumberland Sunday Times

(Maryland). During a trip to the Marienfelde processing center in West Berlin for Iron

Curtain escapees, Hunt collected research on the stream of humanity for his newspaper.

In his report, the editor labeled West Berlin a symbol of freedom to millions under Soviet domination. Affirming the city lay at the center of intense international disputes, the columnist argued that Western Civilization offered both freedom and hope to an alleged

―Democratic Republic.‖ Detailing the defection of the nephew of the center‘s own director for public relations, Hunt noted 74,000 East German escapees that year while the

Soviet Zone suffered a net population loss of nearly 99,000 in 1958, despite more births than deaths. This dramatic population decline drove the Kremlin efforts to shore up their dictatorship, according to the editor, who stated:

The East German economy is already feeling the loss of so many young men, and West Berlin is such a thorn in the Communist side that Russia will do anything short of war to get the West out of this oasis in the Soviet desert.

Asserting that thousands risked their lives to flee a ―workers‘ paradise,‖ Hunt advocated the use of more personal stories to bolster support for sustaining the integrity of a symbol, which reflected Cold War characteristics.33

32 Alvin M. Bentley, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 11, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 30 July 1959): 14187-8.

33 James Glenn Beall, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 105, pt. 12, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (3 August to 17 August 1959): 15450. 159

Further fear of Communist manipulations prompted more House members to make Congressional Record statements on the bipolar conflict. On August 24,

Representative Francis E. Dorn (R-NY) reinstated his warning about a Communist timetable and the Far East role in free world defense, and observed, ―Lenin said the road to Paris is through Peking.‖ Claiming Khrushchev announced a visit to the United States timed to obscure an assault on Laos, Dorn postulated that the enemy planned to take over

Southeast Asia. From there, they could threaten Indonesia, out- flank , and overrun the Mideast oil region. Moving through North Africa, this master plan left a flanked

Western Europe deprived of essential oil and untenable. After absorbing the resources of

Africa, a Kremlin directed invasion of South America would isolate the United States and expose its ―soft underbelly.‖ Dorn asserted that ―Russian roulette with Khrushchev‖ opened the world to Communist domination.

That same day, Congressman Stratton introduced legislation to require truth in advertising for East German goods, especially cameras, produced cheaply with

Communist slave labor. Later on September 1, Representative B. Carroll Reece (R-TN) submitted statements from the German Union of Expellees, which represented those who suffered deportation or escape from Eastern territories, nearly one fourth of all Federal

Republic citizens. The organization comprised the largest group in West Germany.

Noting the Marshall Plan contribution to German democracy, the Union of Expellees expressed kinship with 100 million enslaved behind the Iron Curtain under totalitarian madness and Communist terror. The group‘s use of dramatic traits, which described

Europe‘s partition into two blocs translated to American society‘s identification of Cold

160

War symbolism.34 Continuing in the 1960s, the Record revealed that a divided Berlin evolved into a concrete representation of the Cold War.

34 Francis E. Dorn and Stratton, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 13, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (18 August to 31 August 1959): 16802; B. Carroll Reece, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 105, pt. 14, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (1 September to 9 September 1959): 17633-4. 161

Chapter 7

A Window About to Close: Early 1960s Berlin Division Presages Iconic Wall

During 1960 and 1961, Cold War tensions continued to focus on the partition of

Germany, and especially Berlin. As the number of Eastern sector refugees to West Berlin grew at a startling rate, the constant drain of humanity from the German Democratic

Republic (GDR) under Soviet domination served further to embarrass communism before the world. Aside from the golden propaganda opportunity for Western alliance commentators, this population stream constituted more than just a public relations problem in the so-called ―workers‘ paradise.‖ A large proportion of these defections came from the more highly educated East German citizenry, individuals with technical skills the Pankow government could ill afford to lose. In fact, unless Khrushchev and his

German minions developed a solution to this emigration equation, a valuable nation in the Soviet sphere of influence faced a net population loss that threatened its fiscal and military infrastructure. Successfully rebuilding a shattered former foe represented a fundamental component in Kremlin foreign policy to market communism as an alternative to to developing nations. East Germany already suffered in economic comparison to its Western counterpart, the Federal Republic. Continued depletion of trained human capital exacerbated the gap in a Cold War contest employed

162

to peddle influence in the Third World. Moreover, closer to home other elements presented less than stellar loyalty to the Soviet Union as evidenced in the

Hungarian revolt only four years previous. As Cold War stress ratcheted upward over a divided Berlin, United States leaders and the American press rallied in support of their

West German ally, Konrad Adenauer.

On March 14, 1960, Representative John W. McCormack (D-MA) praised West

German Chancellor Adenauer in the Congressional Record. The American politician called Adenauer an outstanding world leader, whose ability reflected sound vision, idealism, and courage. He further categorized the German leader as a proponent of world peace, dedicated to a ―government of law and not of men‖ and a bulwark of strength against ―the worldwide conspiracy of international communism.‖ The chancellor‘s visit to the United States with his Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano included a strategy session with President Dwight Eisenhower for the upcoming summit meeting between the Western allies and Soviets over Berlin issues. McCormack entered into the Record an editorial from the March 12, 1960, New York Times, which categorized German reunification as central to European peace. This article cautioned against Western concessions on Berlin, which could produce a deleterious chain reaction. The Times framed Berlin as the key to Western European defense and advocated the presence of

United States troops there until reunification of the German state. This New York daily further noted that three American universities planned to award honorary degrees to

Adenauer during his visit. The fact that United States academia, a major news daily, and

House member McCormack praised the chancellor‘s career position against communism

163

and for reunification and Berlin access reflected Cold War concerns centered on the divided German city.1

On the next day in the Senate, Kenneth B. Keating, (R-NY) also noted

Adenauer‘s arrival to prepare for East-West summit discussions. The New York senator labeled the German leader a legend who symbolized West Germany‘s free spirit and resurgence. Addressing Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev‘s continued pressure for the

West to abandon Berlin and accept a permanent division of Germany, Keating called for a continued American policy of support for West Germany and guaranteed free access to

Berlin. On March 16, Senator Karl E. Mundt (R-SD) described West Germany as ―the front line in the struggle of the free world to stem the advance of the Russian

Communists.‖ The senator recounted the Berlin Airlift and termed it a mercy mission and part of a . Noting the economic progress of the German Federal

Republic, Mundt asserted that this success contrasted sharply to Communist dominated

Eastern Europe. The South Dakotan inferred that the current crisis stemmed from

Communist aggression, which denied self-determination. Calling Berlin the center of

Communist pressure, he framed that city as a symbol, whose freedom encouraged those behind the Iron Curtain. He defined the transition from West to East Berlin as going from broad daylight into a dismal fog of darkness.2

On the same day, Representative Albert H. Bosch (R-NY) argued that Berlin‘s future remained central to world peace and detailed the events that led to the status of

1 John W. McCormack, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 4, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (2 March to 14 March 1960): 5499.

2 Kenneth B. Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 555; Karl E. Mundt, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 5705-6. 164

Berlin as independent of Allied zones in postwar Germany. He further recounted the

Berlin Airlift as a response to the Soviet blockade and police terror, and noted that the

Soviet regime had violated fifty of fifty-two agreements. He also categorized the previous year‘s Geneva conference, which addressed the issues of Germany and Berlin as unproductive. Warning that appeasement represented a catastrophic nightmare for the world, Bosch called for a firm stand on Berlin, which he placed at the center of the Cold

War conflict. Asserting that millions of citizens in the satellite nations viewed the

Western powers with hope, the congressman postulated that German reunification with

Berlin as the capital could lead to the resolution of the Cold War. In addition,

Representative Alvin M. Bentley (R-MI) called for unqualified Congressional support for

West Berlin freedom. These American leaders framed the bipolar conflict with communism and used Berlin as a symbolic image.3

On Wednesday, March 16, 1960, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN) submitted for the Record his recent speech in Milwaukee. In his remarks, Humphrey assessed the Berlin crisis and recounted Nikita Khrushchev‘s 1958 ultimatum to cede

Soviet authority for the Berlin access corridor to the German Democratic Republic. The senator asserted that the demands of the Soviet leader threatened the Western powers‘ legal rights in Berlin. He further maintained that the alleged Soviet lead in intercontinental ballistic missiles over the United States in the arms race contributed to the ever-hardening Russian position on the former German capital. Using vivid imagery,

Humphrey categorized the city as ―this little island of freedom in a totalitarian sea.‖ At

3Albert H. Bosch, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 5793-5; Alvin M. Bentley, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 5795.

165

the East-West boundary near the Brandenburg Gate, he labeled the division as a frontier between freedom and slavery. Noting Khrushchev‘s famous ―We Will Bury You‖ speech, the senator warned that Cold War policy required planning years, and even decades, into the future. He avowed that Democrats and Republicans joined in a united voice to stand firm on Berlin. The Minnesota leader described the Cold War having employed Berlin as a symbol that embodied negative attributes such as slavery and totalitarianism.4

Two days later, Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) referred to the previous year‘s Geneva

Foreign Ministers Conference and the upcoming East-West summit scheduled for May

16. The New York Senator offered support for Chancellor Adenauer‘s proposal to conduct a ―free plebiscite‖ in West Berlin prior to the summit to ascertain whether the city‘s citizens wished to maintain their status under the three Western Powers. Linking

Berlin‘s fate with Germany‘s role in the Western European alliance, Javits asserted that the city constituted the West‘s most advanced showcase to contrast life under freedom to

―the drab grimness of Communist living.‖ He directly labeled West Berlin a symbol of freedom to those nations enslaved behind the Iron Curtain.5 The following month, on

April 18, Senator Roman L. Hruska (R-NE) proffered his praise for the firm stand of the

Allies on the Berlin question. In addition to his remarks, the senator submitted for the

Record a letter to the New York Herald Tribune, April 14, 1960, from Major General

Julius Klein, United States Army (Retired). Hruska also included editorials from the

4 Hubert H. Humphrey, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 5821-2.

5 Jacob K. Javits, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 5957-8.

166

Herald Tribune (April 14) and the New York Daily Mirror (April 15) as well the text from a television interview with Chancellor Adenauer on March 29. The press panel incorporated representatives from NBC News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the New York Times. All of Hruska‘s entries focused on Berlin as the center of Cold War tensions. In sum, the articles addressed the possibility of nuclear confrontation, which stemmed from Western refusal to sacrifice the German city to the Soviets. Categorizing

Berlin with positive Western traits, these entries collectively framed Berlin as a Cold War icon and a bulwark of self-determination with a United States flag over it. The Record submissions from an American general officer, multiple major dailies, and network television also revealed powerful imagery, which employed negative traits such as Soviet satellites, Kremlin imperialism, and aggression.6

In the Congressional Record on April 27, Senator Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL) assessed the Cold War arms race with particular emphasis on current combat readiness and future research and development of American strategic forces. Classifying the

Soviets arms program as a national threat, Dirksen submitted an address by Secretary of

Defense Thomas S. Gates, Jr., given before the annual meeting of the Associated Press

(AP) on Monday, April 25, in New York City. The secretary downplayed Soviet space achievements since the 1957 Sputnik launch, but emphasized the Communists‘

―relentless programs to rule the world‖ that utilized not only military and economic fields, but also psychological and subversive measures. Specifically addressing the brutal

6 Roman L. Hruska, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 5, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (15 March to 29 March 1960): 8098-8101.

167

East-West boundaries Gates stated:

I have recently been to the borders that separate Germany from Czechoslovakia and Austria from Hungary. I wish all Americans could see these miles of Iron Curtain—the plowed road to reveal footprints, the electric and barbed wire fences, the land mines, and the interlocking series of steel watchtowers manned by the guards. I was told that back of this lie other miles of a policed area where special passes are required—no man‘s land where no one moves except as authorized.

It is difficult to believe the world can live indefinitely with these series of Iron Curtains that stretch across Europe, Korea, and south Asia. The plowed strips and electric fences must disappear before new generations can build a new structure suitable to the dignity of man.7

By offering these statements in the Record and before the AP, the senator and secretary of defense framed the bipolar conflict and arms race with a physical Iron Curtain representation. Given the world‘s focus on Berlin, these American leaders implicitly included the German city whose division would evolve into a concrete icon the following summer.

Senator Keating continued to call attention to beleaguered Berlin with his Record entries on May 9. The powerful labor organization, American Federation of Labor-

Congress of Industrial Organizations, (AFL-CIO) included a magazine supplement,

―American Labor Seeks Peace and Freedom,‖ in a Sunday edition of the New York Times.

The AFL-CIO magazine carried an article, ―If Peace Is To Be Kept,‖ by Under Secretary of State Douglas Dillon, who charged that Berlin constituted the central question, which faced the West and East. Dillon asserted that maintaining the city‘s status independent of

Communist control represented the critical issue concerning world peace. Further arguing for German and Berlin‘s reunification, the under secretary offered up a string of negative traits. Noting that Soviet bayonets bolstered the East German puppet regime,

7 Everett M. Dirksen, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 7, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (20 April to 5 May 1960): 8700-2.

168

Dillon cited over two and a third million refugees from the Russian zone. As he labeled

German division a powder keg, the State Department official employed imagery that used negative attributes such as totalitarian regime and slavery, while he called Berlin a ―lone island of freedom‖ within a vast Communist empire. Referencing Communist tyranny,

Senator Keating also submitted a memorandum from the Czechoslovak National Council of America, which addressed the forthcoming summit meeting on Berlin. The Council‘s statement denigrated the Iron Curtain with pejoratives such as captive nations, enslavement, bondage, and Communist imperialism. These Congressional Record entries indicated American leaders, newspapers, and an ethnic organization, which articulated the Berlin issue as a cultural signpost imbued with inflammatory traits that

United States citizens viewed as exceptionally negative.8

Other American leaders also sought to establish their positions on the Cold War and Soviet policy by focusing on the Berlin question and framing the emblematic city with antagonistic attributes. In his Record entry on May 12, Representative Brazilla C.

Reece (R-TN) called Berlin a bright beacon offering hope and the light of freedom

―amidst the dark sea of enslaved humanity trapped behind the Iron Curtain.‖ He labeled the Kremlin a Soviet octopus that secured the Eastern European border with ―manifold devilish paraphernalia‖ and willfully violated nearly all of its international agreements.

Reece also added these words of Lenin: ―As long as capitalism remains we cannot live in peace. In the end one or the other will triumph—a funeral requiem will be sung over the

Soviet Republic or over world capitalism.‖ California Congressman Jeffery Cohelan (D-

8 Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 8, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 May to 25 May): 9787-8.

169

CA) addressed the separation of Berlin and the Russian-inspired misery behind the Iron

Curtain edifice one week later in his submission.9

In his May 25 entry for the Record, Daniel J. Flood (D-PA) decried Soviet expansion in Cuba, and proclaimed it a threat to the Panama Canal. The Pennsylvania representative linked Russian aims in the Caribbean to East Germany, and called that zone a Soviet captive. Then Flood submitted an article from Major General Charles A.

Willoughby United States Army (Retired), who served as military editor for the publications Christian Crusade and American Mercury. This essay brimmed with inflammatory rhetoric, which criticized Marxism and the Iron Curtain by using terms such as antlike communes, mass murder, terror, and Ukrainian liquidation. Describing the Communist assault on , Willoughby employed the pejoratives Red police state, brigands, puppets, and stooges. The retired general singled out East German leader Walter Ulbricht for his police repression, and categorized it as a prostitution of conscience and subservience to Moscow. During May, Berlin stood at the forefront of

American fear of communism, a city in crisis, which reflected a slew of antagonistic terms employed in the Congressional Record and national press.10

In his Record Extension of Remarks (June 9) Senator Humphrey noted the collapse of the summit conference following the downing of a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Soviet territory and capture of American pilot Gary Powers. Calling for

Americans to reaffirm their support for Berlin, Humphrey inserted three entries: his

9Brazilla C. Reece, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 8, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 May to 25 May 1960): 10206-7; Jeffery Cohelan, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 8, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 May to 25 May 1960): 10725.

10Daniel J. Flood, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 8, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 May to 25 May 1960): 11123-4. 170

speech before the Minnesota Volkfest Association, the text of his remarks on Radio

Station WISN in Milwaukee, and an article from Washington Post columnist Roscoe

Drummond. The senator‘s submissions labeled West Berlin a striking symbol of freedom whose loss to Communist slavery would constitute ―the first step in the erosion of

American freedom itself.‖ The Minnesotan‘s speech carried the title, ―White Light of

Freedom in Communist Darkness,‖ while the Post column bore the caption, ―West

Berlin—A City of Light, Freedom.‖ Noting Khrushchev‘s own references to the city as a cancer or a bone stuck in his throat, the American authors characterized Berlin as a frontier, which offered a rainbow against East German darkness. When he called the city an island of freedom in a totalitarian sea, Humphrey contrasted this bipolar symbol with terms like Iron Curtain satellites, Russian dictatorship, and a morally evil tyranny.11

One week later, Senator William S. Symington (D-MO) placed in the Record a speech given by a former defense firm executive, Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr., to the

Independent Bankers Association in Denver, Colorado. The businessperson asserted that

Berlin constituted a new Rubicon and described the Cold War as World War III.

Lanphier further argued that the loss of Berlin would approximate the appeasement of

Munich in 1938. Within the context of his remarks on Berlin, he used the terms slave and dictator, and called for increased defense preparedness. Senator Symington concluded that proposed additional military appropriations constituted only two days of

United States income that offered the country vitally improved security.12

11Humphrey, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 9, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (26 May to 13 June 1960): 12320-2.

12William S. Symington, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 10, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (14 June to 22 June 1960): 1277-81. 171

At that time in the house, Henry S. Reuss (D-WI) noted that the next day, June 17, marked the seventh anniversary of the 1953 labor uprising in East Germany against

Russian rule. For the Record, Congressman Reuss entered the full text of an address by

AFL-CIO President George Meany. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) radio network had scheduled the labor leader‘s speech and intended to carry it nationwide that night to observe the worker revolt in the Soviet zone. In his remarks, the union chief executive commemorated the resilience of the East German workforce and praised them for inspiring later revolts in Poland and Hungary. Framing his points within the context of the failed summit conference, Meany asserted that a unified Germany and Berlin could serve as a bulwark for freedom and social justice. America‘s most powerful member of organized labor formulated his argument by using Berlin as a symbol of Communist designs that embodied a host of negative descriptors. Reviewing the success of the

Berlin Airlift, Meany equated appeasement with surrender and condemned the evil- natured Soviets as aggressors who used force, terror, and to achieve domination. Labeling Khrushchev a dictator and proponent of totalitarianism, the AFL-

CIO leader charged that the increased flow of Eastern refugees stemmed from the occupied zone‘s puppet regime having forced collectivization and slavery upon their populace. Cited in the Congressional Record and carried in a national radio address,

Representative Reuss and labor‘s bare-knuckled George Meany defined Berlin as a Cold

War icon with traits anathema to the American worker.13

Through the summer of 1960, a series of senators offered entries in the Record to clarify their positions in regards to the Cold War. On Wednesday, June 29, Vance Hartke

13 Henry S. Reuss, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 10, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (14 June to 22 June 1960): 12943-4. 172

(D-IN) noted a Sunday editorial in the Indianapolis Times, which recounted the Berlin

Airlift and called it one of the greatest victories for the West. Entitled ―Berlin Must

Always Be Free,‖ the article cited East German travel restrictions to stem the swarms of refugees from Russia‘s satellite. Hartke described Berlin as a test point of firmness for

United States defense of the free world with a profound influence on uncommitted nations. From a pioneer perspective, the Midwestern senator viewed the city as an outpost and bastion of freedom, which needed defense at all costs. Failure to hold the

Western stronghold amounted to a Munich style appeasement. He then articulated a six- point slippery slope of American decline, which could result in either death or slavery under Communist domination. Hartke employed Berlin as a powerful icon with the contrasting traits of frontier freedom or servile bondage at the East-West political fault line.14

In his August 17 submission, Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) applied Cold War epithets to the Soviet Union, and criticized the nation as totalitarian tyranny and an apparatus of terror. The Connecticut senator accused the Moscow regime of committing kidnapping and crimes of mayhem while the Kremlin exerted its domination over its own citizens and those behind the Iron Curtain. Dodd entered a New York Times (July 27) article, which chronicled the dramatic exploits of a Soviet citizen from the Ukraine. While serving as a teacher in the Soviet Consulate in New York City in 1948, Mrs. Oksana

Kasenkina defected successfully by leaping from the building‘s third story window and suffered internal injuries, multiple fractures, and a permanent limp. Dodd proclaimed the escapee a symbol of freedom to millions behind the Iron Curtain as he implicitly linked

14 Vance Hartke, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 106, pt. 11, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (23 June to 30 June 1960): 15041-2.

173

the defector to Berlin‘s refugees. The next day, Senator Humphrey included the text of an article authored by the junior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy.

Scheduled for publication in the August 22 edition of Life magazine, the Democratic presidential candidate‘s essay expressed his thoughts on what should constitute

America‘s national purpose. Categorizing the Soviets as lean, hungry and far from weakening, Kennedy employed the terms subjugation, ruthless exploitation, and totalitarian compulsion. As well as proposing assistance for Africa and Asia, the young senator called for America to meet the Soviet threat to Berlin with patience and determination.15

On August 27, Senator Keating placed his remarks captioned, ―Timely Address on Communist Menace‖ into the Congressional Record. New York‘s senator argued that the American people failed to understand fully ―the awesome reality of the Communist design for world conquest.‖ Calling attention to a massive world conspiracy, Keating commended a speech from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Allen W. Dulles given to the Veteran‘s of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Detroit, Michigan on August 22.

Encompassing the theme, ―know thine enemy,‖ the director‘s address warned of

Marxism‘s intrigue for world domination. After he recounted Stalin‘s pact with Hitler to absorb Poland, Dulles forcefully linked the strategic aims of Lenin to the openly declared goals in the Fuehrer‘s . The CIA leader asserted that Khrushchev still embraced the far-reaching designs of Lenin and Stalin and noted Chinese communism, the Korean conflict, and the Hungarian uprising. Citing Khrushchev‘s ―We Will Bury

15 Thomas J. Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 12, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (1 July to 18 August 1960): 16607-8; Humphrey, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 106, pt. 12, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (1 July to 18 August 1960): 16736-8.

174

You‖ speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. the previous September,

Dulles detailed a seven-point analysis of Soviet expansion. As he referred to the Berlin crisis as a case history, the director peppered his remarks with negative appellations: chaos, Iron Curtain, satellite allies, ruthless discipline, corruption, cruelty, and tyranny.

When CIA Director Dulles spoke to a powerful veteran‘s organization, he offered Berlin as an image to warn of subversive communism, an international conspiracy of evil men and malevolent dictators who used blackmail to reduce free nations to slave states.16

Senator Barry M. Goldwater (R-AZ) submitted in the Record on January 11,

1961, his earlier lecture on ―National Objectives‖ for the United States. The Arizonian‘s speech before the Air War College on Maxwell Air Force Base at Montgomery,

Alabama, addressed Cold War policy. On , 1960, Goldwater noted the need to exclude Berlin from the Communist orbit, and called Western control of the city an

American self-defense imperative. In his remarks to the officers, he stated, ―Peace is a worthy objective; but if we must choose between peace and keeping the Communists out of Berlin, then we must fight.‖ Defining those behind the Iron Curtain as captive peoples and enslaved friends, the future presidential candidate decried Communist aggression and argued for stronger measures to confront Red expansion.17

In his Extension of Remarks on May 2, 1961, Representative Clyde G. Doyle (D-

CA) employed the caption, ―A Total Commitment Designed to Enslave a Total World.‖

With fourteen years service on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC),

Congressman Doyle warned of subversive Communist infiltration, which used deceit and

16Kenneth B. Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 106, pt. 13, 86th Cong., 2nd sess. (19 August to 27 August 1960): 18024-6.

17Barry M. Goldwater, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 1, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (3 January to 26 January 1961): 582-5; 175

false identify within a godless philosophy. On May 19, Senator Gordon L. Allot (R-CO) also addressed the international Communist conspiracy. Allot entered an article from the previous day‘s edition of the Washington Daily News. Noting the Soviet premier‘s ―We

Will Bury You‖ statement, Scripps-Howard columnist Robert Molyneux developed his essay by comparing the manifesto from the Moscow Conference of world Communist leaders the previous December to George Orwell‘s novel 1984. The editorial employed terms such as criminal plot, totalitarianism, domination, and Communist enslavement.

Senator Allot assigned responsibility for political tension across the world and in Berlin to Communist manipulations. The Record revealed Berlin as a cultural shorthand for the

Cold War, which reflected numerous negative traits offered to senior military officers and the print media.18

Cold War concerns produced discussions more heated in the House on June 12,

1961. Numerous House members rose to praise Representative John R. Pillion (R-NY) who introduced a House joint resolution, The Victory Resolution. Claiming all 98 national Communist parties represented a single political entity directed by Moscow and committed to imposing world dictatorship, the resolution stated, ―The United States formally recognizes the de facto total global war being waged by the Communist Parties of the world, jointly and severally, against each and every government of the free world, its citizens and its institutions.‖ The proclamation further declared that a state of war existed between the America and the world‘s Communist parties, and named all 98 of them. Noting the 1960 Moscow Manifesto, Pillion cited a list of world crises including

Berlin. His supporters included Edgar W. Hiestrand (R-CA), Donald C. Bruce (R-IN),

18Clyde G. Doyle, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 6, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (1 May to 17 May 1961): 7022-4; Gordon L. Allot, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 7, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (19 May to 7 June 1961): 8486-7. 176

Dale Alford (D-AK), Thaddeus J. Dulski (D-NY), and Ralph F. Beermann (R-NE). In his address, Congressman Bruce R. Alger (R-TX) said, ―Mr. Speaker, America is at war.

It does not matter that we call it a cold war, we are engaged in a struggle for survival with a deadly and dedicated enemy.‖ As tension over Berlin intensified, these representatives collectively labeled the international Communist conspiracy with subversion, espionage, deceit, and terror. They continued to posture and used terms such as slavery, bondage, servitude, and captive nations. Their shrill pejoratives assigned to a totalitarian doctrine offered brutal imagery to American society.19

By June 20, Senate exchanges between Senators Henry S. Bridges (R-NH) and

Michael J. Mansfield (D-MT) reflected more Cold War heat over Berlin. As senior

Republican in the Senate, Bridges directly called Berlin a free world symbol and strategic area, which related to national survival. Following President John F. Kennedy‘s talks with Khrushchev in Vienna, Bridges submitted this remark from the president:

I made it clear to Mr. Khrushchev that the security of Western Europe and therefore our own security are deeply involved in our presence and our access rights to West Berlin: that these rights are based on law, not on sufferance; and that we determined to maintain these rights at any risk and thus our obligation to the people of West Berlin and their right to choose their own future.

Referencing Soviet pressure on Berlin, Bridges employed the terms subversion, blackmail, and appeasement. Mansfield framed his support for the symbolic city and said:

The range of this commitment extends from a beginning of the words of firmness to a midpoint of expenditure of immense resources and enormous taxes and other sacrifices, to a final pledge of the lives and fortunes of every man, woman and child in the Nation.

19 John T. Pillion and Bruce R. Alger, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 8, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (8 June to 22 June 1961): 10093-10101.

177

The Montana Senator offered a wearisome list of examples of editorials on the Berlin issue from the Christian Science Monitor, Washington Daily News, Washington Post,

New York Herald Tribune, , Washington Evening Star, New York Times,

Great Falls Tribune, Providence Evening Journal, Baltimore Sun, Cincinnati Enquirer,

Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, , New York

Mirror, Wall Street Journal, and WRDW Television, Augusta, Georgia. In sum, this overwhelming body of comment characterized Berlin as an image that embodied the harsh attributes of a puppet regime, parrot talk, captive nations, and Soviet slavery.

Politicians and press featured the iconic city with its increasing flood of refugees as a striking showcase of freedom against an international Communist menace.20

On June 21, Senator John S. Cooper (R-KY) addressed the Berlin crisis while he noted Khrushchev‘s thinly veiled reference to nuclear war and President Kennedy‘s refusal to abandon the citizens of West Berlin. He called for the formation of a nonpartisan committee of foreign policy experts to offer consultation for the president.

Later on July 5, Cooper entered submissions from the June 23 editions of the Houston

Post, New York Times, and Louisville Courier-Journal, which supported his proposal to assist Kennedy ―to stand firm‖ on West Berlin policy and the defense of its citizens.

Also on July 5, Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA) linked the American Declaration of

Independence to the free peoples of West Berlin who faced the Communist menace in the

East German satellite. The senator included an editorial titled, ―The Berlin Powder Keg,‖ from Oakland Tribune assistant publisher and former Senate member, William F.

Knowland. Comparing the beleaguered city to the iconic battles at the Alamo, Fort

20 Henry S. Bridges and Michael J. Mansfield, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 8, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (8 June to 22 June 1961): 10765-76.

178

Sumter, and Corregidor, the retired California senator described the city as an outpost and an island of freedom against tyranny. Knowland cited the ―lesson of Munich‖ in his call to defend the Cold War symbol, and summarized his argument with the conclusion to the

Declaration of Independence: ―And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.‖21

Next for the Record, Senator Bridges placed an editorial from the Boston Sunday

Herald, which stressed military preparedness to shield Berlin from Communist imperialism and advocated a firm stance on the strategic city‘s status. As they supported strong defense appropriations on July 14, both Senators Cooper and Javits called

American access to West Berlin nonnegotiable, whereas Mansfield proclaimed the city vital to United States security. On the same day in that body, A. Willis Robertson (D-

VA) addressed the Khrushchev threat to turn over West Berlin‘s access corridor to an independent East Germany. Robertson asserted that the satellite would remain under the control of Soviet dictators. He submitted an editorial from the Staunton News Leader whose author, Major General E. Walton Opie (Retired) advocated the mobilization of the

National Guard and Reserves as a response to the Russian aggression. Opie argued that failure to stand up in Berlin would translate to Western weakness across the world. In the

Extensions of Remarks, Senator Wiley described the Berlin crisis as Communist-created.

The Wisconsin leader presented the city as an icon of Westernism and a showplace of

21 John S. Cooper, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 8, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (8 June to 12 June 1961): 10992-3; Thomas H. Kuchel, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 9, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (26 June to 14 July 1961): 11966-70.

179

progress in contrast to drab Eastern Europe, which drained refugees.22

Noting the second anniversary of on July 19, T.

Schneebeli (R-PA) referred to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain‘s ―peace in our time‖ comment and linked Khrushchev to Hitler. Recalling the Hungarian revolt in 1956, he characterized the world as half slave and half free. Schneebeli openly stated, ―To

Germany and the whole world, West Berlin is an outstanding symbol of a free society, a signpost of freedom glowing in the wilderness of Communist oppression.‖ As he advocated confrontation as a response to Soviet aggression, the representative concluded,

―But brinksmanship for freedom is better than appeasement for an illusionary peace.‖

The next day, Congressman Robert H. Michel (R-IL) submitted a speech from his House colleague, Harold R. Collier (R-IL). Entitled ―Communism and Its Goal of World

Domination,‖ Representative Collier‘s remarks at the Human Events Conference on July

15 prophesized an East-West clash over Berlin. Recalling Marx‘s goal of totalitarian to tyrant masters, Collier warned of an international Communist conspiracy, which promoted Red aggression over satellite nations. As he argued for a firm American policy to sustain the West German status quo, Collier described the city as an island of freedom from tyranny and stated, ―As West Berlin flourishes in progress and prosperity, it offers the greatest element of hope for the masses in the Red empire of Eastern Europe.

This is one reason for what may be a major showdown before too long.‖ In response to the tensing situation in Berlin, the House saw two resolutions referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs on July 24. Following Pillion‘s ―Victory Resolution,‖ Representative

22 Bridges, Cooper, Javits, and Mansfield, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 9, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (26 June to 14 July 1961): 12019; 12610-13; A. Willis Robertson, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 9, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (26 June to 14 July 1961): 12543-5; Alexander Wiley, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 12750. 180

James A. Haley (D-FL) introduced House Joint Resolution 496, which also declared war against the 98 Communist Parties, which formed the international conspiracy.

Congressman Michael A. Feighan (D-OH) offered House Concurrent Resolution 354 that supported Kennedy‘s reply to the Soviets concerning Germany and Berlin.23

On July 24, Senator Bridges entered the text of a Columbia Broadcasting System

(CBS) radio program, The Leading Question. Aired nationwide the previous day over numerous radio stations, the episode featured the junior Senators John Sparkman (D-AL) and Jack Miller (R-IA). Broadcast with the caption, ―How Can the United States Best

Meet the Threat in Berlin?‖ the interview noted the position of House Speaker Sam

Rayburn (D-TX) who termed the Berlin crisis the greatest threat ever to Western civilization. As both senators praised President Kennedy‘s firm stance on Berlin defense, they emphasized increased American resolve to meet Soviet aggression. In addition to the radio text, Bridges submitted a July 13 editorial from the Washington Daily News.

The article labeled East Germany a captive state whose food shortages produced a flow of refugees to West Berlin, an iconic rift in the Iron Curtain that revealed communism as a drab and shabby failure. Advocating free elections for the oppressed under the Kremlin yoke, Senator Frank L. Lausche (D-OH) noted Kennedy‘s proclamation of Captive

Nation‘s Week and cited Iron Curtain food shortages as well.24

That same day, Senator Javits remarked that the 200,000 East German refugees in

1960 had ballooned to 300,000 escapees from tyranny by mid-1961. Categorizing the

23 Herman T. Schneebeli, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 12947-8; Robert H. Michel, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13135-6; James A. Haley and Michael A. Feighan, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13202.

24Bridges and Frank L. Lausche, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13215-8. 181

Soviet zone as a puppet regime and Communist prison, Javits entered articles from the

New York Times (July 23) and New York Herald Tribune (July 24) which addressed the refugee issue and placed the Berlin crisis at the center of international tension. On July

26, Representative McCormack submitted the text of Kennedy‘s address to the nation the previous evening on the Berlin worldwide threat. The president assessed the city as an isolated outpost and frontier of freedom possessed of America‘s solemn vow for its security. Comparing the defense of Berlin to that of heroic Bastogne as a testing place of courage and focal point of commitment Kennedy stated, ―It is more than a showcase of liberty, a symbol, an island of freedom in a communist sea. It is even more than a link with the free world, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain, an escape hatch for refugees.‖ Then the president continued, ―For the fulfillment of our pledge to that city is essential to the morale and security of West Germany, to the unity of Western

Europe and to the faith of the entire free world.‖25

More members of the Senate took positions in the Record on the Cold War as the

Berlin crisis surged toward the erection of the infamous wall that summer. Senator Strom

Thurmond (D-SC) offered a series of statements delivered in radio broadcasts that year to address the total threat of the Communist menace. Noting abrogation of fifty out of fifty- two post-war agreements with the Reds, Thurmond cited the captive peoples and East

Berlin as evidence of a conspiracy for world domination under totalitarian tyranny. He defined West Berlin as a ―capitalist oasis in a Communist desert.‖ Senator Keating also praised the Kennedy address on the Berlin crisis and the president‘s firm stand on the issue while calling for self-determination in the captive nations. Senator Wiley entered

25 Javits and McCormack, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13243-5; 13460-2. 182

his radio address from WIND, Chicago, in which he proclaimed the Communist bloc,

―the greatest threat to freedom in history‖ as it employed espionage, sabotage, and subversives for world conquest. Wiley also submitted the script from a Defense

Department film, ―The Challenge of Ideas,‖ used in orientation of armed service personnel. Featuring press and Hollywood notables including Edward R. Murrow and

John Wayne, the film short contrasted freedom to Communist domination, which imposed puppet regimes in Iron Curtain satellites. The works noted failed uprisings in

East Germany, Poland, and Hungary. At month‘s end, Senator Kuchel cited for the

Record an article from the New York Herald Tribune (July 30) on the swelling exodus of escapees to West Berlin. With an ominous foreshadowing, the entry stated, ―Despite somewhat tighter police controls on the East German trains used by most refugees to reach Berlin, the Communists clearly have not attempted as yet any major physical interference with the refugees.‖26

In the Extension of Remarks in the House on July 31, James B. Utt (R-CA) proffered support for Western defense of Berlin. Utt also accused both East Germany and the Soviet Union of suffering significant food shortages, while he decried lack of firm action to retrieve an American plane hijacked to Cuba for blackmail. That same day, Representative Alger also addressed the aircraft hijacking, and called Cuban leader

Fidel Castro a bandit. Alger advocated the threat of military force to retrieve the airline property, asserting that such action would strengthen the United States position in Berlin threatened by a worldwide Communist conspiracy for domination. On August 1, Senator

26Strom Thurmond, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13611-4; Keating and Wiley, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 10, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (17 July to 29 July 1961): 13618; 13974-7; Kuchel, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 14184. 183

Stephen M. Young (D-OH) submitted for the Record an article from the Cleveland Press, which criticized Khrushchev for exacerbating the flight of East Berliners to the West.

Then Senator Keating assessed reports that the East German government construed a mythical polio epidemic in West Germany to restrict access to the Western zone.

Keating equated the Soviet satellite‘s actions to Nazi erection of the wall around the

Warsaw ghetto based on specious charges of contagious disease. As he stressed self- determination for Eastern Europe, Keating noted America‘s commemoration of Captive

Nations Week two weeks earlier. Linking the Holocaust to the Berlin crisis and Iron

Curtain totalitarianism, the senator formulated his Cold War position with brutal imagery.27

By August 7, the stark division between East and West Germany in general and the separation of East and West Berlin in particular continued to roil and exacerbate Cold

War tensions found in the Record. Senator Kuchel articulated America‘s duty to stand firm on Berlin and against international communism with its vast interconnected probing across the world. He entered a Washington Daily News editorial on former Chief of

Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke (Retired). The senator also included a Burke address to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. from August 3. In his remarks,

Admiral Burke connected the Berlin crisis to Communist aggressions in Cuba, Latin

America, and Southeast Asia. Characterizing the Sino-Soviet bloc as tyranny, the naval officer accused the Communists of enforcing discipline with terror and intimidation.

Burke chastised their godless ideology and declared Berlin a symbol of freedom versus slavery. Also on August 7, Senator Gale A. McGee (D-WY) submitted a series of

27 James B. Utt and Alger, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 4188-9; Stephen M. Young and Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 14208-9. 184

articles in the Laramie Boomerang from Dr. Charles P. Beall, former Director of

International Affairs at the University of Wyoming. The academic affirmed that both

East and West had overcommitted politically to Berlin to the point that they saw the city as a holy relic. Beall assessed the city and its Western garrison troops as an island of freedom, which embodied prestige power symbolism.28

On August 8, Jack R. Miller (R-IA) addressed President Kennedy‘s call for increased mobilization of armed forces in response to the Berlin crisis. Senator Miller submitted an article from the Washington Evening Star (June 27), which advocated

Western trade embargoes and severing diplomatic relations with the Soviets in response to their aggression and lawlessness. He also entered articles from the Washington Post

(July 11) and the Cleveland Press (August 3), which assessed the military situation and cited Russia‘s use of blackmail and extortion. In his Life (July 14) magazine submission, that publication equated the crisis with prewar 1939 while it noted that three out of five

Americans approved the use of nuclear weapons if circumstances dictated. Life further argued that Berlin represented a symbol of Soviet weakness to their European slaves in the other captive nations. Miller drew attention to a special issue of Berliner Illustrirte, which carried a piece captioned, ―Who Has Berlin Has Germany.‖ The magazine article asserted, ―Berlin is no kindergarten; in fact, its history since 1945 will in future times be a saga of our century.‖ This eerily prescient quote foreshadowed the collapse of the Soviet

Union and even before the iconic image‘s formation.29

28 Kuchel, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 14822-7; Gale A. McGee, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 14822-7.

29 Jack R. Miller, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961) 1961: 15095-9.

185

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) failed to convince anyone that an alleged polio epidemic in West Germany justified further GDR restrictions on its citizens and the East-West border. On August 8 for the Record, Minnesota‘s inserted a Washington Post editorial, which ridiculed the Ulbricht regime as slavishly

Stalinist and mocked Khrushchev‘s bone in the throat medical metaphor. The Post argued that the true hemorrhage constituted a human flood from tyranny and the East

German puppet government to the West Berlin magnet. Also employing the flood image on August 9, Senator Javits called for financial relief legislation to assist East German refugees and linked their plight to Hungarian and other escapees from the captive nations.

The following day, Senator Philip A. Hart, (D-MI) declared a new age of migrations of refugees from Cuba, China, East Germany, and Soviet world domination. As he impugned the totalitarian system for its tyranny, Hart warned of further restrictions from the East puppet regime. The senator‘s Washington Post (August 8) entry noted weekday record of registrations at West Berlin‘s Marienfelde refugee center. Citing an East

German Parliament meeting in the city‘s Soviet sector, the Post with unfortunate prescience ominously concluded, ―Observers believe the Central Committee of the

Communist Party is in session and an important new step may be announced at the meeting.‖30

In his Record statement on August 14, Frank F. Church (D-ID) contended that the

Berlin crisis cast illumination on ―the nightmare of thermonuclear war.‖ The senator predicted future crises even if events brought a resolution to the Berlin question.

Referencing a New York Times magazine article on Soviet aggressiveness and the

30 Humphrey, Javits, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 15145-6; 15222-3; Philip A. Hart, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 11, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (31 July to 10 August 1961): 15408. 186

disarmament question, Church urged continued study and efforts on the issue. On the other hand, in the House, John R. Pillion inserted the text of a broadcast captioned, ―Free

World Should Declare War on Communism Now.‖ Congressman Pillion explained his

House Joint Resolution 447, which asked Congress to recognize a global war against the free world by the international Communist conspiracy. The proposal sought an affirmative declaration of war against 98 Communist Parties. Warning that totalitarianism could reduce America to captive nation status, Representative Pillion expressed Cold War issues in the context of the Berlin crisis. With this cultural shorthand, he employed startling imagery that reflected abhorrent attributes such as subversion, tyranny, dictatorship and slavery, traits found in the newly erected barbed wire barrier that earned the epithet, the Berlin Wall.31

31 Frank A. Church, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15713-4; Pillion, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15805-6. 187

Chapter 8

Berlin Wall Rises; Tensions Soar; An Icon Assured

Over the August 12-13 weekend in 1961, the German Democratic Republic

(GDR) formally closed the boundary between East and West Berlin. The Pankow government‘s actions reverberated around the world and raised global concerns to a heightened sense of awareness over the Cold War contest. Although Britain‘s Winston

Churchill had articulated the Iron Curtain metaphor fifteen years before this Berlin event, the East German regime now brought a renewed focus of attention on the political fault line between the Communist bloc and the Western Powers. With the obvious consent and backing of Moscow, Walter Ulbricht invoked the harshest military measures yet to halt the flood of refugees to the city‘s Allied sector. Political tensions over the partition of a defeated Nazi Germany had reflected the conflicting goals of Stalin‘s Russia and his democratic partners. Disputed access to National Socialism‘s devastated capital had manifested the first physical contest in the Cold War, which pitted Soviet will against

Western ingenuity. The opening round of the bipolar struggle saw the Berlin Airlift stymie Stalinist designs over the prostrate city. In response to an ever-increasing exodus of their human resources, the Communist leaders desperately initiated a stratagem to staunch the refugee flow and curtail propaganda embarrassment. Their policy laid the

188

foundation of a physical structure, which instantly metamorphosed into a Cold War symbol that embodied the host of pejorative descriptors that American society assigned to

Karl Marx‘s legacy.

By Tuesday, Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) dramatically addressed the United States

Senate following his West Berlin visit. Incensed at the newly erected barrier, Dodd assessed the tense situation and recounted his personal observations from the previous day, as he employed striking imagery. Near the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin civilians massed into a surging mob, and shouted at the East German border guards. According to

Dodd, the angry multitude threatened to assault the barbed wire barrier and tear it down bare handed. The senator characterized the Communist troops and Russian armored vehicles as sentinels of slavery. West German authorities employed tear gas to force the emotional throng back from the barbed entanglements and to prevent an international incident, which could lead quite possibly to armed conflict between the Cold War principals. The Connecticut leader argued that the military personnel and their civilian dependents of the West Berlin garrison now constituted symbolic human representatives of freedom at this decisive bipolar point. Noting the extreme motivation, which prompted families to risk death and terrible punishment, Dodd questioned, ―What is this basically terrible evil thing in the world we call communism?‖ Continuing in his remarks, Dodd framed the Eastern bloc as a prison house, which induced a running sore of fleeing humankind from a festering situation. He noted his proposed amendment to a foreign aid bill, which would restrict American resources to Communist nations.

Moreover, Dodd advocated the production of a detailed film to document the refugee

189

plight in answer to Communist propaganda and falsehoods.1 Recalling his visit to the

West Berlin refugee center at Marienfelde, he described the escapees and stated:

I saw infants 7 days old. I saw infants 8 or 10 weeks old. I saw children from those ages to an age where they were able to take care of themselves. I met a father and mother who swam one of those deep and dangerous canals that afternoon, the mother carrying her 3-year old daughter and the father carrying his 4-year old son. They have escaped from tyranny. If we of the West continue our job, they will be taken again into the mainstream of our free society and once again will live lives of hope and perhaps happiness. 2

Senator Ernest H. Gruening (D-AK) commended Dodd and asserted that never before in Senate history had a member witnessed firsthand the very moment of world crisis as a historic event. Several more senators rose to praise Dodd for his vivid account of the Berlin border closing. Kenneth B. Keating (R-NY) also addressed his own previous inspections of refugee centers and asserted that all American citizens should connect to escapees from Communist slavery.3 Senior Senator Prescott S. Bush (R-CT) raised the question of trade sanctions against East Germany and articulated that Dodd

―actually saw the Brandenburg Gate slammed in our face, so to speak.‖ Frank L.

Lausche (D-OH) further extolled Dodd‘s report and cited the junior senator‘s participation in the Nuremberg trials, thus Lausche implicitly equated the Berlin border structure and its Communist manufacture to war criminals responsible for the Holocaust.

Questioning the commitment of Eastern European troops under Soviet domination,

Lausche argued that Khrushchev‘s ―wall of iron and concrete‖ offered the Soviet leader the physical restriction of the Communist populace, but affirmed that ―mentally and

1 Thomas J. Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15911-3.

2Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15911-3.

3 Ernest H. Gruening and Kenneth B. Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15911-3. 190

spiritually those people in all the captive nations and in East Germany will be on this side of the iron wall.‖ These senators framed the Berlin Wall as an immediate icon, which reflected Cold War traits antithetical to American mores.4

On Tuesday, August 15, 1961, in the Extension of Remarks, Alexander Wiley (R-

WI) inserted the text of his address on Chicago radio station, WGN, and offered his assessment of the Soviet-created crisis. The Wisconsin senator argued that the presence of 450,000 Soviet troops in East Germany reduced that nation to a puppet state. As he called for the mobilization of military forces and the marshaling of world opinion, in the

Senate Wiley stated, ―Mr. President, the slamming shut of the gates between East and

West Berlin represents a provocative act—a flagrant violation of postwar treaties.‖ The next day Senator John G. Tower (R-TX) placed in the Record Barry M. Goldwater‘s (R-

AZ) address to the Virginia State Bar Association on August 6. Senator Goldwater‘s remarks formulated the Cold War as a ―worldwide struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of slavery.‖ Condemning the Kremlin as tyranny and dictatorship with a stooge in Cuba, he asserted that the Berlin crisis represented yet another effort to extend Soviet domination and the yoke of communism. To ensure American survival, the Arizonian urged a vigorous American response and noted, ―Every time we have stood up to the Russians they have backed down. Our trouble is we haven‘t stood up to them enough.‖ On Thursday, August 17, Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) characterized the

Iron Curtain nations as satellite states with inmates ―restrained at gunpoint.‖ Employing the ―lesson of Munich‖ and the slamming prison door metaphor to describe the closed

4 Prescott S. Bush and Frank L. Lausche, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15911-3.

191

Berlin border, he joined his fellow senators who established their Cold War positions as they used the wall for a trademark with negative attributes.5

By Friday of that same week, Senator Dodd once again addressed the Berlin predicament over the sealed frontier. He argued the need to convince Khrushchev that the West remained irreversibly dedicated to the city‘s defense. Dodd further asserted that the West had missed an opportunity during the Hungarian revolution to force Soviet retreat from their satellite empire to the Kremlin‘s prewar borders. Urging the continued presence of civilian dependents of United States military personnel in Berlin to bolster

German morale, Dodd also linked the current crisis to Soviet designs in Cuba and Laos.

He accused the Communists of employing aggression, subversion, and other repressive measures to thwart the self-determination of captive peoples trapped in an armed camp.

For the Record, the senator inserted the formal August 15 Berlin ―Commandants‘

Protest‖ note against the border closing from the United States, British, and French military leaders, as well as articles from the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, and Washington Post. These entries framed the wall as an arbitrary barrier composed of roadblocks and barbed wire, while tanks imposed terror and slavery over a divided

Berlin. While connecting the former German capital to 1938 Munich and appeasement,

Dodd again advocated the production of a documentary film focused on the Marienfelde refugee center to counter Communist tyranny and the propaganda of Moscow masters over their East German quislings and puppets in the satellite nations. Referencing the

5Alexander Wiley, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15939; John G. Tower, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 15952-5; Jacob J. Javits, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16126-7.

192

Berlin Airlift in 1948, the Senator promoted a massive aerial transport of media personnel from around the world to focus universal attention on a beleaguered Berlin, a symbol of the Cold War that illuminated the antithetical traits between Western democracy and

Eastern totalitarianism.6

On August 21, just over a week after the border closing, Senator Albert A. Gore

(D-TN) submitted for the Record three statements from Vice President Lyndon B.

Johnson, who had visited Berlin as the personal representative of President John F.

Kennedy and the American people. Johnson conveyed his remarks in support of West

Berlin on both his arrival and departure from that city, as well as to its legislative body.

As a gesture of American military backing, the former Commander in Chief Europe

(CINCEUR) and architect of the 1948 Berlin Airlift, General Lucius Clay, accompanied the vice president on his official visit. Johnson labeled the Western portion of the divided city a barrier to tyrants and a symbol of freedom and bravery. He decried the Communist hirelings who imposed bondage and servitude on a suffering people by separating the city with barbed wire, bayonets, and tanks. Criticizing the Communists for their tyranny and dictatorship, Johnson asserted that the force of history lay with the West and not the

Kremlin. When he praised Berlin‘s citizens as staunch allies of the Western powers, the vice president stated, ―For many years this city, which has worn its tribulation like a crown of glory, has compelled our admiration.‖7 Senator Javits then offered his praise for the vice president‘s eloquence while inserting a New York Times article into the

Record. The entry categorized Berlin as an island and outpost of democracy, which stood

6 Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16352-7.

7 Albert A. Gore, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16434-5. 193

as a showcase of economic and political freedom. In addition to Senator Wiley proffering admiration for Johnson‘s statements, Senator John S. Cooper (R-KY) made the point that as a minority member of the Senate from , he ascribed a

―Churchillian quality‖ to the vice president‘s remarks. The Congressional Record revealed the executive branch, powerful senators, and influential Times that framed

Berlin as a Cold War symbol for its readership.8

On Monday, August 21, Senator Wiley submitted a Washington Post article from the previous day captioned, ―Berlin Clamp Shattered Lovely Soviet Vision.‖ Referring to

Joseph Stalin‘s brutalizing days, the Post linked Khrushchev‘s bloody suppression of the

Hungarian revolt to the Berlin situation. The essay argued that the East Berlin barrier represented the culmination of a failed experiment, physical proof that a nation occupied with a multitude of Soviet troops still required a ―padlock‖ on it. As the newspaper column described a lock comprised of barbed wire, bayonets, machine guns, and tanks, the article also noted Khrushchev‘s ―bone in the throat‖ phrase and applied that metaphor to Soviet agricultural problems. That day in the Extension of Remarks, Senator Wiley inserted his recent address broadcast on Chicago radio station WGN, which assigned blame for the crisis to the Soviets. Berlin constituted one of the gravest threats to global peace since World War II, he asserted, while he decried Communist aggression, which sought to enslave the citizens of that city. The Iron Curtain had slammed down between the East-West zones in an effort to darken West Berlin‘s light of freedom and to destroy a

8 Javits, Wiley, and John S. Cooper, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16435-6. 194

Western showcase of progress, which served as a Mecca for millions of Communist refugees.9

The next day, Senators Humphrey and Keating paid tribute to Vice President

Johnson for his steadying influence at Berlin. While Humphrey affirmed American responsibility not only for West Berlin, but also for free people everywhere, he cited

1500 United States Army reinforcements to Berlin during Johnson‘s state visit.

Recounting appeasement and the ―gloomy specter of 1938,‖ Keating also praised increased British troop strength in West Berlin. He advocated a firm response to any totalitarian menace, Fascist or Communist, whether that threat came from powerful dictators such as Russia‘s Khrushchev or puny ones like Havana‘s Fidel Castro. On

August 23, Wallace F. Bennett (R-UT) offered his critique of communism to state that

Marxist dogma sought to abolish both private property and religion. Asserting that every church needed to fight communism with vigorous means, the Utah Senator praised the

Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints as the most militant denomination in its resistance to communism. The Mormons sent ward teachers monthly to each family in the 1,700,000-member church. He quoted the church‘s 1961 July lesson plan, which declared, ―Communism is Godless,‖ antithetical to all religions, an enemy of Christianity and concluded, ―Communism is one of Satan‘s schemes to take us captive forever.‖

Utilizing print, electronic media, and church organizations, American leaders cast the

Berlin Wall as an icon, which represented the contrasting features of Cold War opponents locked in a titanic struggle. When United States notables employed the terms godless

9 Wiley, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16439-40; Wiley, Congressional Record Extension of Remarks, House, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16575. 195

ideology, crown of glory, or Mecca, they escalated the contest from a mere political and military dispute to a battle for the very soul of humanity.10

Senator Humphrey on August 25 once again commended in the Record Lyndon

Johnson‘s diplomacy in Berlin, when the Senator entered an article by Max Freedman, a

British correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. Appearing also in the Washington

Post and Times Herald, Freedman‘s article recounted Johnson‘s moving visit to a refugee center where an elderly German woman presented the Texan with a ―shriveled and forlorn bouquet of flowers‖ carried during her escape from East Berlin. Noting the tumultuous West Berlin welcome for Vice President Johnson, American diplomat

Charles E. Bohlen, and General Lucius Clay, the British author framed Berlin as a frontier of freedom against Communist tyrants. The mere mention of President

Kennedy‘s name, he stated, elicited raucous cheers from colossal German crowds. That same day Senator Keating inserted the text of a report from Dr. Laszlo Bartok, a former

Hungarian career diplomat, who recalled Soviet aggression during the Hungarian

Revolution. Bartok argued that the Soviet dictator, employing Communist subversion techniques, sought a triumph over Berlin to bolster his position in Africa, Asia, and Latin

America.11

In the Record on August 28, Michael J. Mansfield (D-MT), entered the text of a radio broadcast from a program entitled, ―Capitol Cloakroom,‖ heard on the Columbia

Broadcasting System (CBS) several days earlier. Interviewed by CBS correspondents

10 Humphrey, Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16653-4; Wallace F. Bennett, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 12, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (11 August to 23 August 1961): 16774-5.

11 Humphrey and Keating, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17033-4; 17045-6. 196

Bill Downs, Neil Strawser, and Wells Church, the senator noted the drawn line between

East and West Berlin and that city‘s access routes, and called the East German barrier a

―wall of sorts.‖ As he expressed his apprehension concerning the convoy, which reinforced America‘s Berlin garrison with 1500 combat troops, Mansfield addressed the role of Berlin in advancing Western interests with leaders in neutral nations such as

Jawaharlal Nehru of India.12

In response to increasing Cold War tensions over Berlin, Senator J. Strom

Thurmond (D-SC), who in 1964 would change from the Democratic to the Republican

Party, assessed the role of psychological warfare in armed conflict with the Communists.

He cited Edward Hunter‘s publication Brainwashing: From Pavlov to Powers and submitted the last chapter of that work entitled, ―Now It‘s Our Turn—We Adopt A

Code.‖ Implemented during President Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s administration to guide

American Armed Forces, the Articles of the Code of Conduct encompassed six major points:

1. I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and my way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense. 2. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist. 3. If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favor from the enemy. 4. If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information nor take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way. 5. When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to give only name, rank, service number and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

12 Michael J. Mansfield, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17143-5. 197

6. I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

As he linked the specter of Communist brainwashing to United States prisoners of war who defected following the Korean conflict, Thurmond‘s Record statement sought to inflame American anti-Communist passions. Both first and last Articles of the Code of

Conduct started with, ―I am an American fighting man.‖ All six addressed military duty in the phrases such as: ―prepared to give my life,‖ ―never surrender,‖ ―continue to resist,‖

―keep faith,‖ ―obey lawful orders,‖ and ―give only name, rank, service number.‖ The

Code of Conduct concluded with, ―I will trust in my God and in the United States of

America.‖ With this new emphasis on a martial code, one of the Senate‘s most fervent

Cold Warriors invoked American concepts of manhood, military duty, and religious belief during the Berlin crisis centered on its iconic wall.13

On August 28, Jack R. Miller (R-IA) offered for the Record articles from the

Christian Science Monitor and Washington Evening Star, which impugned the

Communist sealing of the Berlin border. Accusing the Moscow masters of directing their

East German puppets and stooges, the newspapers framed East Berlin as a vast concentration camp ringed with barbed wire and brick walls. The Berlin Wall stood as a locked door within Pankow prison, which represented Communist suppression and aggression. Miller defined West Berlin as a decisive showcase symbol and outpost that faced jail gates constructed by dictators at the behest of a Moscow Vatican. On the following day, Senator Dodd also included for the Record an article from the Sunday

London Times (August 13), which recounted the Four-Power occupation plan and

13 J. Strom Thurmond, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17197-8.

198

Berlin‘s role as an escape route for four million East German refugees. Declaring West

Berlin‘s status nonnegotiable, the editorial formulated the city as an island of freedom, which reflected the values of Western civilization. American senators and press on both sides of the Atlantic featured a divided Berlin and its wall as a Cold War emblem that embodied a host of opposing traits.14

In the House of Representatives, Daniel J. Flood (D-PA) called for the formation of a Special House Committee on Captive Nations and discussed the history of Captive

Nations Week designated for the third week of July. President Eisenhower in 1959 had signed Public Law 86-90, which proclaimed American support for citizens that suffered under Communist domination. Flood decried the Russian dictatorship, which subjugated satellite populations into bondage with Soviet slave camps. His entry charged the Soviets with employing genocide in their tyrannical aggression in Cuba, Laos, and Berlin.

Noting that the House Rules Committee had received forty resolutions requesting the creation of a Special House Committee on Captive Nations, he referred to the thousands of escapees from under the Kremlin‘s boot. As he advocated broadcasts from the German city, the Pennsylvania Congressman stated, ―A barbed wire and concrete-block fence in Berlin serves as eloquent testimony that the Soviet Union today remains what czarist Russia was—a prison of nations.‖15

In the Extension of Remarks on September 5, Representative Howard W. Robison

(R-NY) submitted a speech from Senator Keating at the dedication of a new civic

14 Jack R. Miller, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17223-5; Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17378-9.

15 Daniel J. Flood, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 17619-31; 18193-4. 199

administration center in Endicott, New York. Opening his address with a humorous anecdote concerning Khrushchev and his shoe-pounding incident at the United Nations,

Keating contrasted the Soviet and American economic systems and described the mass flight from East Germany as a human hemorrhage bleeding the Soviet zone white. Citing an East German killed in an attempt to escape slavery, the senator mocked the satellite nation as a puppet state and showcase of defeat driven to fabricate walls against its own populace. After Keating defined the city as a symbol of freedom, he cautioned, ―Berlin is at once the moment of truth for the free world, and the point of no return. We are in a time of national crisis, of world crisis, and we must soberly face this cold hard reality that we have faced so often before in our history.‖16

On September 7, Senator Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL) entered an article into the

Record from the Washington Evening Star captioned, ―Eisenhower‘s Berlin Stand.‖ The former president recounted a history of problems with the suspicious Soviets who imprisoned East Germany as a satellite. When he framed the Berlin division as a moral issue, Eisenhower described the city as a symbol of freedom and focal point in the world struggle against Communist domination. Assessing the Berlin Wall, the Evening Star stated:

Eisenhower sees in Berlin, on the two sides of the barbed wire and masonry wall raised by the Communists, two powerful philosophies which hold precise but opposite conceptions of man. On the East stands a complete philosophy of materialism which defines man as a mere machine, soulless, and therefore fit only to be used as a slave for the glorification of the state. On the West stands the belief that man is a creature of the spirit, possessing an individual soul, born free and in the image of his Creator.17

16 Howard W. Robison, Congressional Record, House, Vol. 107, pt. 13, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (24 August to 5 September 1961): 18213-4.

17 Everett M. Dirksen, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 14, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (6 September to 13 September 1961): 18567-9. 200

The following day, Senator Dodd scorned the Communist leadership for enslaving one billion people and the Kremlin for murdering another twenty million with slave labor and concentration camps. Noting the totalitarian oppression of this dictatorship, he called the

Russian empire a Soviet prison house, which subjugated Eastern Europe with its tyranny and aggression. Dodd applied vivid Cold War imagery to the Communist created icon and stated, ―…Khrushchev closed the largest hole in the Iron Curtain by building a concrete wall across the center of Berlin that is more literally an Iron Curtain than Stalin ever erected.‖ In both the press and the Record, American leaders established firm positions on United States foreign policy as they employed the Berlin Wall symbol with its potent characteristics.18

For his Record entry on September 8, Senator Roman L. Hruska (R-NE) submitted an editorial advertisement published in the New York Times the day before.

Founder of International Latex Corporation and its chairman, the author, A.N. Spanel captioned his piece, ―Our Opportunity Against Red Imperialism.‖ The editorial recalled

Khrushchev‘s shoe tantrum at the United Nations and railed against the imprisonment in the Soviet premier‘s slave empire over the captive nations with their puppet leaders.

Accusing the Kremlin masters of blackmail, murder, terror and entrapment, Spanel cited bloody uprisings in East Germany, Hungary and Tibet. While they criticized Soviet resumption of nuclear testing, Hruska and Spanel decried entombment of the Red prison colony with its barbed wire, walls of stone and military cordons in the German city.19

18Dodd, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 14, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (6 September to 13 September 1961): 18667-9.

19Roman L. Hruska, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 14, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (6 September to 13 September 1961): 18748-9. 201

On September 12, Samuel J. Ervin, Jr. (D-NC) placed two entries in the Record, which also exposed strong emotions about the Cold War and Berlin in the private sector.

The North Carolina State Council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics had adopted ―Resolution 9: Communistic Menace,‖ which labeled the threat a cancerous growth malignantly spreading enslavement with brute force and the deceit of broken treaties. The organization called for increased activity from the Senate Committee on

Internal Security and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and advocated the required study of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar

Hoover‘s book, Masters of Deceit, in schools and colleges. In addition to the resolution,

Senator Ervin submitted a private letter to the father of an American college student that concerned his visit to Eastern Europe and Berlin. The young scholar noted the dearth of happiness in the satellite nations and expressed his American pride when he contrasted a rebuilt and modern West Berlin sector to the East, much of which still lay in postwar ruin. Demanding a firm American position on Berlin, the student stated, ―Communism is a religion whose purpose is to destroy the mind of man and man‘s power to think and reason.‖ These Record entries illustrated a societal aversion to communism symbolized in the Berlin Wall.20

Senator Humphrey again addressed the Cold War crisis centered on Berlin with his submission on September 12 of five newspaper articles. Collectively the essays recounted the partition of Germany, and especially Berlin, under the Four-Power agreement signed in London on September 12, 1944, and the accord, which lifted the

Soviet blockade of Berlin, penned in New York on May 4, 1949. When Moscow issued a

20 Samuel J. Ervin, Jr., Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 14, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (6 September to 13 September 1961): 18985-6. 202

note on November 27, 1958, that it no longer considered itself bound by the earlier agreements, the Kremlin laid the foundation for the Berlin crisis and the eventual construction of the controversial wall. Noting ―he who controls Berlin controls Germany, and he who controls Germany controls Europe,‖ the commentaries expressed support for

America‘s firm stance for the city‘s status quo. The essays branded Berlin an escape hatch in the Iron Curtain and a symbol of hope and freedom to the Soviet‘s satellites.

After mentioning Khrushchev‘s bone in the throat metaphor, the papers asserted that the

Soviet premier‘s actions now represented a de facto codification of German partition with the Eastern zone under the iron grip of the Red army. One article particularly emphasized the continuation of radio broadcasts from West Berlin on Radio in the

American Sector (RIAS), which offered a strong signal to advocate the West‘s position and counter Kremlin propaganda in East Germany. The most disturbing feature in one essay concerned a representative poll, which asserted that the majority of the American voting public accepted the risk of war to continue present American access to the former

German capital. Published not Midwestern Minnesota dailies, but also in the powerful Washington Post, and the preeminent New York Times (all the news that is fit to print), these articles reflected the United States militant stance on the Berlin Wall, which represented American loathing for communism.21

The Record illustrated again America‘s intractable position on the Cold War struggle with communism expressed in Senator Bennett‘s entry on September 15. He offered the commencement speech from former Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft

Benson, given at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, August 26, 1961. Benson

21 Humphrey, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 14, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (6 September to 13 September 1961): 19005-8. 203

asserted that no American or Latter-day Saint could be true to his or her beliefs while holding Socialist or Communist values. The former secretary cited Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints President David O. McKay, who stated, ―Communism is antagonistic to the American way of life. Its avowed purpose is to destroy belief in God and free enterprise.‖ This church leader argued that every United States child should receive instruction on the superiority of the American Constitution and the sacredness of individual freedom to counter the Marxist philosophy, which reduced a person to a

― number in a horde bossed by a few despots.‖ In his address to the graduates,

Benson accentuated agricultural progress in the United States, while he decried the

Communist conspiracy that yielded slavery behind the Iron Curtain. After he discussed his personal observations of concentration camps and the Warsaw ghetto, Benson affirmed that communism constituted an atheistic philosophy and not just an economic program, thus he linked the sealing of the Berlin border to the Holocaust. Denouncing the tyranny, which boarded up a Berlin show window and made prisoners of seventeen million East Germans, Benson argued that the eyes of the world focused on Berlin and godless communism. His use of the city‘s wall symbol exemplified American Cold War resistance in a major denomination of the United States religious community.22

On September 25, several senators praised President Kennedy‘s speech to the

United Nations (UN), which addressed Cold War concerns over the Iron Curtain and the

Berlin situation. While A.S. (D-OK) decried colonialism behind the

Iron Curtain, Kentucky‘s Cooper charged the Soviet Union with responsibility for the

Berlin crisis. After he labeled the President‘s address one of the greatest for their

22 Bennett, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 15, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (14 September to 21 September 1961): 19639-42. 204

generation, Senator Mansfield entered Kennedy‘s remarks into the Record. The

American leader called for world law to replace world war, while he affirmed self- determination and condemned the use of terror and aggression. The president emphasized Western legal rights for access to Berlin, and advocated a free election for those citizens in both East and West sectors to determine their status. Kennedy described

West Berlin as an island of free people encircled with barbed wire and concrete blocks, which the United States would defend by any means.23

On the same day in the Record, Barry M. Goldwater (R-AZ) noted that morning papers addressed a statement by the president‘s younger brother, Attorney General

Robert F. Kennedy, that America and the elder Kennedy retained the option to employ nuclear weapons in the defense of West Berlin‘s freedom. Goldwater then entered two editorials from the Chicago Sunday Tribune and the Chicago Daily Tribune entitled,

―Munich, 1961,‖ and ―Ineptitude as Policy,‖ respectively. The essays characterized the

Soviet puppet regime as a Communist satrapy and East German slave state, as they affirmed continued Western support for the satellite nations and captive peoples under

Soviet occupation and the Kremlin yoke. Both articles defined the newly sealed border, which divided Berlin on August 13, 1961, as ―the wall,‖ a physical structure that embodied all of the antithetical traits used to define the Cold War.24

In the House on September 26, John W. McCormack (D-MA) submitted an address on the Cold War and communism from his colleague, Francis E. Walter (D-PA), to the Disabled American Veterans Convention (DAV) in St. Louis, Missouri, August 22.

23 A.S. Mike Monroney, Cooper, Mansfield, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 16, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (22 September to 26 September 1961): 21104-6.

24 Barry M. Goldwater, Congressional Record, Senate, Vol. 107, pt. 16, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (22 September to 26 September 1961): 21162-3. 205

Having served in the air service of the United States Navy in both World Wars, the

Pennsylvania congressman had chaired the HUAC for a number of years. He denounced the evil intent of communism, which enslaved millions with subversion and deceit, while he linked the Berlin crisis to other international calamities in Asia, Africa, and Latin

America. Moreover, Walter characterized the Soviet Union as a criminal conspiracy, whose subterfuge had issued ―a blunt declaration of war against all free men and nations‖ with the United States as its prime target.25

Also on September 26 in the Extension of Remarks, John M. Ashbrook (R-OH) described the Cold War as ―the life-and-death challenge of the international Communist conspiracy,‖ which constituted history‘s most tyrannical force. While criticizing the

State Department of the United States for appeasing the forces of slavery, he impugned

Communist imperialism for its use of murder, deceit, and subversion in the puppet states and captive nations. He asserted that Presidential Proclamation 2914 issued on

December 16, 1950, still remained in effect and quoted the final paragraph, which stated:

Whereas the increasing menace of the forces of Communist aggression requires that the national defense of the United States be strengthened as speedily as possible: Now, therefore I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do proclaim the existence of a national emergency.

In addition to Truman‘s statement, Ashbrook noted the Captive Nations Declaration under President Eisenhower, which proffered support for the satellite nations under the

Communist yoke. Then the representative cited testimony from FBI Director J. Edgar

Hoover before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on efforts by the Communist

Party U.S.A. to infiltrate American organizations and corrupt youth. The Ohio congressman charged, ―Khrushchev closed the largest hole in the Iron Curtain by

25 John W. McCormack, Congressional Record Extensions of Remarks, House, Vol. 107, pt. 16, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (22 September to 26 September 1961): 21554-6. 206

building a concrete wall across the center of Berlin that is more literally an Iron Curtain than Stalin ever erected.‖26

With their use of inflammatory imagery, American leaders employed a divided

Berlin and its Communist Wall as a microcosm of the Cold War to define their foreign policy positions and to rally political support. This iconic structure offered a ready symbol to reflect the antithetical traits of the bipolar struggle. Politicians do not deserve the total blame for their incendiary rhetoric as they articulated an ―us versus them‖ construct before the voting public. The citizens themselves already held a deep-seated paranoia for the Marxist/Leninist philosophy expressed in the many press and electronic media entries submitted for the Congressional Record. During the most intense period of international tension in a nearly one-half century Cold War, United States notables and their constituents engaged in a reflexive relationship. As leaders and followers embraced in a tango of national pride and Communist prejudice, the partners flaunted their celebratory Western values while they denigrated the standards of their Eastern opponents. When employed as a warning signpost in cultural shorthand, the Berlin Wall became an iconic image and emblematic symbol that represented the perceived contrasting traits of Cold War antagonists. While American society assigned celebratory characteristics of freedom, individual rights, and frontier strength and heritage to West

Berlin, most United States citizens defined the Berlin Wall as the embodiment of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and criminality. Furthermore, society also embraced the Rosenthal

Iwo Jima photograph, John Wayne screen person, and Apollo images with their attendant

26John M. Ashbrook, Congressional Record Extensions of Remarks, House, Vol. 107, pt. 16, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (22 September to 26 September 1961): 21595-7. 207

traits in the Cold War. These icons carried potency into the post Cold War period to the present.

Author’s Personal Photographs, March 1988

Figure 8.1: Berlin Wall, 1988, Note anti-Soviet Graffiti and Guard Tower in the Background

208

Figure 8.2: Check Point Charlie, Western Frontier

209

Figure 8.3: Viewing Stand

Figure 8.4: Brandenburg Gate

210

Figure 8.6: Memorial Crosses for Slain Defectors

211

Chapter 9

American Cold War Icons: The Joseph Rosenthal Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Photograph, John Wayne Screen Persona, Apollo Images, and Berlin Wall Explored in the Post Cold War Era

The Joseph Rosenthal photograph of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi has become synonymous with the battle for Iwo Jima, military success, and is inexorably linked to the United States Marine Corps. Even after the end of the Cold War, this

American cultural icon showed no sign of diminished impact on the citizenry who embraced the image and the attributes that it embodied. When television broadcasters wished to catch audience attention, the programs used the Rosenthal still picture, Genaust movie film, de Weldon statue, or a combination thereof. During its Memorial Day broadcast of Tora! Tora! Tora!, American Movie Classics (AMC) commercial breaks flashed the icon. 1 CBS Sunday Morning News utilized the image in its ―This Week in

History‖ feature and noted the anniversary of the Iwo Jima invasion.2 Comedian John

Stewart on Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show lampooned Lynn Cheney‘s book for

1American Movie Classics, Advertisement, May 24, 2003.

2CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, February 23, 2003.

212

children that modeled its cover illustration of youngsters as they raised a flag in a manner similar to the Iwo image.3 When wished to make a patriotic statement on Independence Day, its announcer, Lillian Garcia, sang ―America the

Beautiful‖ with two flag-raising pictures in the upper left and right corners of the screen.4

A political talk show, History Center, hosted by Steve Gillon used the icon on a background panel, and the History Channel overwhelmed its viewers with the image during military history broadcasts.5

Film and television productions continued to employ the flag-raising image from

Iwo Jima to address the traits of heroic courage, patriotic nationalism, military prowess, and teamwork. A Marine Corps enlistee at age sixteen, award-winning actor Gene

Hackman narrated Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima and stated that in one-four hundredth of a second Rosenthal created the most reproduced photograph of all time. When a television ministry preached a sermon entitled, ―America‘s Legacy,‖ the Rosenthal image hung behind the pulpit. Both historical series Pacific: The Lost Evidence and Shootout!

Offered episodes called, ―Iwo Jima,‖ which assessed battle details and opened with the

Genaust movie film footage. At a new National Museum of the Marine Corps, promotional shots of the building‘s exterior revealed a two-hundred- ten foot stainless steel mast, which slanted over top of the building, and evoked the Mount Suribachi flagpole.6 During a lecture by actor Al Pacino to a CIA trainee in the movie, The Recruit,

3John Stewart, Daily Show, on Comedy Central, August 21, 2002.

4WWE Smackdown, on TNT, July 4, 2002.

5Marine Raiders, 2001; Dangerous Missions, 2002.; Great Blunders in History, 1998; This Week in History, 2002; Outlaw Biker Gangs, 1999; War Stories, 2001, 2002; Guns of World War II, 1999; Moments of Truth, 2001; all episodes shown on the History Channel.

6 Gene Hackman, narrator, Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima, A&E Television, 2001; America’s Legacy, sermon 213

the de Weldon statue stood as a patriotic icon while the potential agent pondered duty and honor.7 When two-time Academy Award winner for direction shot Flags of Our Fathers and (filmed in Japanese with English subtitles), the filmmaker explored the battle from both antagonists‘ perspectives while he utilized realistic sets and the symbolic flag-raising. Nominated for Best Picture, Flags confused some Pacific veterans who equated staged battle footage with actual newsreel film from

1945.8 Television featured the Iwo Jima icon with the de Weldon Marine Corps

Memorial, Genaust film, and Rosenthal photograph on programs, which ranged from

Memorial Day concerts and professional wrestling to outdoor episodes and documentaries of World War II. In a piece on the Associated Press (AP) archives for

CBS News Sunday Morning, AP photo librarian Zach Zoeller displayed the Rosenthal film negative and called it ―arguably the most famous.‖ CBS correspondent and host

Charles Osgood asserted, ―News has been called the first draft of history.‖ As a cultural touchstone, the Iwo Jima flag-raising image has presented a powerful signpost to

American society.9

(Tyler, Texas), April 6, 2003; Pacific: The Lost Evidence, A&E Television, 2005; Shootout!, History Channel, 2006; James Brady, ―In Step With the Marines,‖ Parade Magazine (November 5, 2006): 18; Henry Allen, ―Heroes, But No Heroics at Marine Museum,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-12, December 3, 2006.

7The Recruit, directed by Roger Donaldson (Touchstone Pictures, 2002): 115 min.

8Clint Eastwood, ―We All Have the Same Fears,‖ Parade Magazine (October 15, 2006): 4-5; Rich Heldenfels, ―Eastwood Earns Stripes With New Film,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, October 20, 2006; Terry Lawson, ―Eastwood Looks Back at Reluctant War Heroes,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, October 23, 2006; Bill Gallo, ―Sights, Sounds and Smells of Iwo Jima Still Fresh,‖ Akron(OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-2, October 24, 2006; Steve Daly, ―Brothers In Arms,‖ Entertainment Weekly (October 27, 2006): 26; ―Movies for Grownups,‖ AARP, (March and April 2007); , ―The Humanity of ‗Iwo Jima‘,‖ Akron(OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-15, February 25, 2007.

9 National Memorial Day Concert, PBS, 2007; WWE Monday Night Raw, Memorial Day episode, May 28, 2007; American Rifleman, Outdoor Channel, 2007; , The War, episode ―The Ghost Front,‖ PBS, 2007; Matt Roush, ―Ken Burns; The War: A Battle Hymn for the Ages,‖ TV Guide (September 24, 2007): 34; Zach Zoeller, CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, June 3, 2007. 214

In spite of the concerns of Congressmen Hebert (D-LA), Cole (R-NY), and

General A.A. Vandergrift that for-profit ventures not use the photograph, commercial entities exploited the icon. A financial institution in Norfolk, Virginia, site of a large naval installation, issued its MasterCard Platinum Plus credit card emblazoned with marines as they raised the flag.10 Hamilton Authenticated produced a collectible knife bearing the Marine Corps crest, an American eagle, and the icon entitled, ―Honor.‖ In extremely fine print, the advertisement carried a disclaimer that stated, ―Neither the

United States Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this product.‖11 On television, the History Channel flashed the image in a commercial that promoted History Channel Magazine.12

Moreover, in cyberspace the official online store of Arts and Entertainment Television

Network (A & E) advertised a 513-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Rosenthal photograph, and used it on the link to the ―World War II Shop.‖ 13

The Bradford Exchange offered a limited edition plate, number A4214 entitled,

―United We Stand,‖ by Jim Griffin. The plate depicted a Statue of Liberty with three firemen who raised the flag at ground zero, site of the World Trade Center bombings, which strongly suggested the Rosenthal image.14 On January 30, 2005, Parade Magazine carried a one-page advertisement for a ―USMC Esprit de Corps Lamp,‖ from The

Hamilton Collection that used a sculpture of the icon plated with a gold and silver

10Gary Wisma, interview by author, Urbana, Ohio (December 28, 2002).

11Parade Magazine, Advertisement (February 16, 2002): 21.

12History Channel, Advertisement, May 23, 2003.

13 : July 9, 2002,

14 Jim Griffin, Bradford Exchange, Plate No. A4214, 2002.

215

finish.15 When the Social Studies School Service issued its 2007 catalogue of study aides for Advanced Placement (AP) United States History, the cover displayed a box of flashcards from the Barron Company with the Iwo Jima image.16 In the summers 2006 through 2009, Cedar Point Amusement Park (Sandusky, Ohio) featured a multimedia production called Hot Summer Lights: Fire Up the Night, which employed music, fireworks, and a video montage on a drive-in movie sized outdoor screen.

Choreographed to sports and martial music, large fireballs accentuated a series of images, which depicted professional and college football, along with patriotic scenes, that included the Rosenthal photograph.17 The United States Postal Service issued a catalogue, which offered stamps that commemorated specific military veterans and activities. The brochure included the 1945 three-cent stamp and a reissued thirty-two cent stamp from 1995 that depicted the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.18 In January 2008 at the Hilton Hotel gift shop, 1919 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C., the venue offered a ―digital picture postcard‖ that provided a computer slideshow and screensaver of two-hundred and fifty photographs of Washington, D.C. landmarks, which included, naturally, the Marine Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Littleton Coin

Company featured advertisements in its winter 2008-2009 as well as its spring 2009 catalogues, which promoted a U.S. Marine silver dollar in Choice Proof that depicted the

Iwo Jima flag on the obverse side. The winter edition also used the Iwo Jima image to

15 Parade Magazine, Advertisement (January 30, 2005).

16 Social Studies School Service, AP United States History Catalogue, 2007,

17 Cedar Point Amusement Park, Hot Summer Lights: Fire Up the Night, summers 2006-2009,

18 U.S. Postal Service, Publication 528 (July 2003): 18.

216

endorse a World War II Mercury dime set, whereas the spring 2009 catalogue employed a color rendering of the icon to sanction silver nickels issued during the same conflict.19

Furthermore, during fall semester at Kent (OH) State University, the College

Republicans, College Democrats, and the Undergraduate Student Government organizations placed the Rosenthal photograph on flyers to solicit donations for holiday care packages for American troops in Iraq during fall semester 2008.

The icon also appeared frequently in print and on book covers. A list of monographs using the image included Iwo Jima by Karal Ann Marling, Immortal Images, by Tedd Thomey, Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley, Iwo Jima Legacy of Valor by

Bill D. Ross, and Shadow of Suribachi, by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr. and J. Douglas

Smith. Richard Jensen‘s World War II on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites featured the 7th War Loan poster entitled, ―Now All Together.‖ When Parade Magazine ran a feature for Independence Day on the courage symbolized by the , it employed the Rosenthal photograph.20 At Kent (OH) State University in an Elementary

II Latin language class, Instructor Elizabeth Raber incorporated the icon as a memory aid on her vocabulary lists, having obtained the picture from the Google Search engine, key word: images.21 In the fall semester at the same institution, Instructor Linda B. Markley,

J.D. utilized a picture of the de Weldon statue on a bulletin board, which promoted her

Criminal Justice class, ―When There is No Peace: Military Law, Terrorism, and the

19 Littleton Coin Company (Winter 2008-2009 Catalogue): 17, 94; Littleton Coin Company (Spring 2009 Catalogue): 17.

20Larry Smith, ―Something Worth Defending,‖ Parade Magazine (July 2, 2002): 4-6.

21Elizabeth Raber, interview by author, Kent, Ohio (March 12, 2002).

217

American Way,‖ accompanied by a flyer with clip art of the Rosenthal photograph.22

The icon even appeared in the comic strip ―Blondie‖ when Dagwood Bumstead created one of his famous oversized sandwiches topped by a miniature replica of the flag-raising to commemorate the Marine Corps‘ 225th anniversary.23

The historical events on Iwo Jima drew further attention from print media at the start of the twenty-first century. In a small company circular in 2003, Backcountry

Brewery Times contained an essay, which addressed a local tradition to maintain a flag on top of 12,800 foot Peak One outside of the town Frisco, Colorado, to memorialize the

September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center‘s twin towers. Each year the locals replaced the weather-damaged banner with a new one, and the accompanying quarter page photograph suggested the Iwo Jima representation. The

Akron (OH) Beacon Journal (ABJ) on June 8, 2003, carried the obituary of Felix de

Weldon, the sculptor who designed the massive bronze Marine Corps Memorial in

Arlington, Virginia. The same paper carried an article on the sixtieth anniversary of the battle as well as a personal interest story of a woman who lost her young love on Iwo

Jima. After Joseph Rosenthal‘s death at age ninety-four, an AP obituary carried his photograph with the Marine Memorial in the background, and a later article in the

American Association of Retired Persons Bulletin (AARP) praised the photographer for his immortal image.24 An ABJ article with a colored illustration of the flag-raising noted two Iwo Jima veterans at a small luncheon where they both described their combat

22Linda Markley, interview by author, Kent, Ohio (November 13, 2002).

23Dean Young and Denis Lebrun, Blondie, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, November 10, 2000.

24Back Country Brewery, Vol. 1, no. 2 (Winter Edition); Justin M. Norton, ―Man Who Photographed Iwo Jima Image Dies at 94,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-6, August 22, 2006; Hal Buell, ―The Picture That Moved a Nation,‖ AARP Bulletin (November 2006): 43.

218

experiences and witnessed the flag atop Mount Suribachi. Beacon Journal cartoonist

Chip Bok employed the Iwo Jima image to make sardonic political points in two of his illustrations, which mocked sensitivity training and the partisan position of Democrat

Party leaders opposed to the Iraqi War.25

In addition to Rosenthal‘s single photographic image, the flag event found extensive distribution in the Marine Sergeant William H. Genaust‘s film footage shot simultaneously and adjacent to the civilian AP photographer. Killed in action and buried in a collapsed cave on Iwo Jima, Genaust never saw his iconic recording developed. In summer 2007, Michael Rubinkam of the AP detailed efforts to locate and retrieve the

Marine‘s body, initiated and funded by private sources. Concerning the recovery endeavor, a local paper also carried AP articles, which employed the Rosenthal image and a picture of the suspected cave openings.26 A front-page Sunday ABJ article featured an individual with the Iwo Jima image emblazoned on his baseball cap and T-shirt, further proof of the widespread acceptance of the icon.27 Perspectives, The

Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association displayed the flag symbol on its front cover with a featured article captioned, ―Lessons from Iwo Jima.‖ The AP carried a brief obituary for Raymond Jacobs, the last survivor of the Marines who raised the first flag on Iwo Jima before the Rosenthal image. For three months in 2009, the Ohio

25 Obituary of Felix de Weldon, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-10, June 8, 2003; Jim Carney, ―‖Iwo Jima Took Love of Her Life,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-1, February 19, 2006; Jim Carney, ―After 62 Years, Marines Meet Up,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-1, February 24, 2007; Chip Bok, Political Cartoon, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-10, April 16, 2007; Chip Bok, Political Cartoon, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-3, June 6, 2006.

26 Michael Rubinkam, ―U.S. Team to Search for Body of Marine,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-12, June 24, 2007; ‖Team Looks for Marine Who Filmed Flag-raising,‖ Steubenville (OH) Herald-Star, sec. B-14, June 25, 2007; ―Team Finds Two Caves in Search for Iwo Marine,‖ Steubenville (OH) Herald-Star, sec. B-10, June 29, 2007.

27 Paul Tople, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-1, August 19, 2007.

219

Historical Society featured an exhibit of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs that included the Rosenthal picture. For Memorial Day 2008, Parade Magazine carried an article entitled, ―The Battle for Iwo Jima,‖ with a Rosenthal picture inset.

On May 4-5, 2009, Kent State University sponsored its tenth annual Symposium on Democracy, which commemorated and studied the May 4, 1970, tragedy that involved the shooting of student protestors by Ohio National Guardsmen. In one session, Paul T.

Murray, Professor of Sociology at Sienna College, made a presentation on iconic images from the Civil Rights movement. In his introduction, he cited American iconic images such as Dorothea Lange‘s Migrant Mother and Joseph Rosenthal‘s Iwo Jima photograph.

He argued that an enduring icon needed six factors: repetition, emotional intensity, communication of a critical issue, tells a story, is visually arresting, and is well composed. It is significant that he picked the Iwo Jima image as one of his prime examples.28

Rosenthal‘s image often served as the backdrop for official events promoting courage, patriotic nationalism, military success and teamwork. On Memorial Day, 2002, the ABJ recounted the events before and after the flag-raising and the page included not only a large picture of the Rosenthal shot, but portrait insets of the three survivors: Ira H.

Hayes, John H. Bradley, and Renee A. Gagnon. Two years later, that same paper carried a quarter page photograph of the Cuyahoga Falls (OH) Memorial Day parade float that reenacted the flag event. In 2005, also at Cuyahoga Falls, the ABJ carried a quarter page colored print of youngsters (Chesty Puller Detachment of the Young Marines) as they reenacted the raising on a Memorial Day parade float. In Fairlawn (OH) in the Fourth of

28Paul T. Murray, presentation at the Symposium on Democracy, Kent (OH) State University, May 5, 2009.

220

July parade, the Weekend Warriors, an off-road motorcycle and all terrain vehicles

(ATV) group also entered a reenactment float.29 By presidential proclamation and law, the American flag flies twenty-four hours a day at the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo

Jima) in Arlington, Virginia.30 When the Postal Service issued ten commemorative stamps for the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the first, Scott number

2981a (CM1747a), displayed the Iwo image.31 One of the Marine Corps‘ most effective recruiting advertisements featured the Genaust film superimposed over a free style solo rock climber on a sheer cliff face. While a deep voice intoned: ―Be one of the world‘s greatest warriors, the few, the proud, the Marines,‖ the climber‘s civilian clothes transformed into a Marine dress uniform.32

For a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) pledge drive, stations broadcast a program starring Pat Boone who sang patriotic songs with video and still scenes of

United States parks and monuments in the background. The singer‘s rendition of ―This is

My Country‖ featured Washington, D.C. monuments, which included the Marine

Memorial at Arlington and the ―Marine Corps Hymn‖ concluded with the Genaust film.33

During the 14th National Memorial Day Concert in Washington, D.C., musical numbers

29 Mark J. Price, ―American Icons,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-1, May 27, 2002; Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-4, June 1, 2004; Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-1, May 31, 2005; Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-6, July 5, 2005.

30A Capital Fourth: Flag History, July 9, 2002.

31The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps (New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2000), 130-1, 358-9.; Maurice D. Wozniak, ed., Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps (Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2001), 345-5; David S. MacDonald, ed., Brookman: United States, United Nations and Canada Stamps and Postal Collectibles (Bedford, New Hampshire: Brookman/Barret & Worther, 1998), 73, 160.

32Music Television, Recruitment Advertisement, January 29, 2003; X-Men, Advertisement before movie, May 3, 2003.

33Pat Boone’s American Glory, PBS, 1996. 221

used a similar montage of various American flags, public buildings such as the Capital and White House, structures like the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, and of course, the de Weldon statue and Genaust film.34 After terrorists destroyed the World

Trade Center, the Learning Channel produced a one-year anniversary special on the

September 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., with special emphasis on heroic rescue efforts at the Pentagon. The documentary concluded with a medium distant shot of the Marine Memorial with the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background that zoomed into a close-up.35 Thomas Franklin‘s photograph depicting three New York City firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero paralleled the Rosenthal photograph.36 Political cartoonist Chip Bok addressed concerns about the proposed racial makeup of a bronze memorial for the firefighters when he linked it to the de Weldon statue.37 When the Shelby County Alabama Legislative Delegation promoted a ―Stand

Up for America Rally‖ just prior to the start of the second , the guest speakers identified support for the military with the Iwo Jima battle. After dramatic, direct, and live coverage of President George W. Bush‘s jet aircraft landing on the nuclear carrier

USS Abraham Lincoln, the first ever by an American president, the chief executive‘s address proclaimed major combat operations completed in Iraq while he noted the battles

34National Memorial Day Concert, PBS, May 25, 2003.

35Pentagon Under Fire, 2002, an episode on The Learning Channel, September 11, 2002.

36Thomas Franklin (photographer), ―The Best & Worst of Everything,‖ Parade Magazine (December 30, 2001): 4.

37Chip Bok, Political Cartoon, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-14, January 16, 2002.

222

for Normandy and Iwo Jima.38 Both of these engagements figured prominently in John

Wayne war movies.

Following the Cold War period, the John Wayne screen persona maintained its iconoclastic hold on popular culture, which reflected traits of heroic courage, rugged individualism, patriotic nationalism, and the ideal military leader. When an American helicopter pilot who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder inflicted in Vietnam reflected on his combat failures, he observed that John Wayne would have been successful.39 As distant sniper fire interrupted Bob Hope‘s Christmas USO show in

Vietnam, the entertainer winced and quipped, ―I must have forgot to take my John Wayne pills.‖40 While a Navy Seal described a hand wound, which ―looked like hamburger,‖ he recalled that John Wayne once pulled out an Indian arrow and completed his mission.

Under fire he mistook a lump in his hand for the enemy bullet and tried to pull it out with his teeth; it turned out to be an attached bone instead.41 During an interview about the first major American ground action in Southeast Asia depicted in the film, We Were

Soldiers, Ia Drang Valley veteran George Forrest noted, ―What the Vietnam vet needed was a John Wayne, and in this movie became the Vietnam Veteran‘s John

Wayne.‖42 The family of the late Colonel Francis Kelly, Commander Special Forces

Vietnam, remarked that while the actor was doing research for his upcoming motion picture, The Green Berets, John Wayne himself wanted to go on an actual patrol. The

38―Presidential Address,‖ CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox Network, May 1, 2003.

39Operation Reunion, 1999, an episode on the History Channel.

40100 Years of Hope and Humor, NBC, May 25, 2003.

41Complete History of the United States Navy Seals, 1999, an episode on the History Channel.

42History vs. Hollywood, 2002, an episode on the History Channel.

223

commander reportedly retorted, ―I‘m not going to tell you how to make movies; don‘t tell me how to run a war.‖43 Historian Stephen E. Ambrose described a heroic American paratrooper, Sergeant Harrison Summers, at Normandy as the Sergeant York of World

War II and likened his actual witnessed exploits to John Wayne and Hollywood.44 In an interview about the Home Box Office miniseries Band of Brothers, 101st Airborne

Division veteran and World War II amputee Sergeant ―Wild Bill‖ Guarnere referred to

John Wayne tactics.45

References to the Wayne icon often described United States foreign affairs and policy. Khrushchev challenged the actor to a drinking contest that matched Russian against the actor‘s tequila and ended in a prearranged draw.46 Historian James S.

Olson asserted that Wayne‘s film, The Alamo, was a metaphor for the Cold War and

Texas scholar Stephen L. Hardin called the epic a secular religion in his state.47

Following the second Gulf War, brokers at the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco questioned the nation‘s John Wayne approach to world affairs.48 Student editors at Kent

(OH) State University criticized President Bush‘s foreign policy as ―John Wayne-style braggadocio.‖49 Some political observers termed the administration‘s remark ―dead or

43Special Ops: Recondo, 2001, an episode on the History Channel.

44Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day June 6 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 297-99.

45Ted Johnson, ―The War Zone,‖ TV Guide (September 22-28, 2001): 14-22.

46American Movie Classics, part 4, 2001, an episode on the History Channel.

47History vs. Hollywood, ―The Alamo: Liberty‘s Last Stand,‖ 2001, an episode on the History Channel.

48David M. Halbfinger and John W. Fountain, ―Toppling of Baghdad has Americans Talking,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-6, April 13, 2003.

49No Nukes Are Good Nukes,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, p. 4, March 19, 2002.

224

alive‖ in regards to terrorist Osama bin Laden as ―unpresidential—too violent, too John

Wayne.‖50 In addition, a sarcastic letter to the editor in the ―Voice of the People‖ feature equated the president to John Wayne and Hollywood fantasy.51

The late actor‘s screen persona still generated profits in the field of collectibles, which referred to iconic attributes. Wayne and his motion picture Stagecoach appeared on the United States Postal Service ―Classic Films Issue‖ stamps, which commemorated

Hollywood‘s Golden Era.52 The Franklin Mint hawked dozens of plates that celebrated different John Wayne films. In a letter from corporate chairman Stewart Resnick regarding the precision ―John Wayne Stagecoach,‖ he recalled the actor as ―rugged, brave, [and] independent.‖53 Wayne‘s son Michael, President of Wayne Enterprises, promoted a commemorative cavalry sword that reflected courage and fighting spirit inscribed with the words ―Lest We Forget.‖ A small porcelain sculpture entitled, ―John

Wayne, Combat Sergeant,‖ portrayed his Sergeant Stryker character and the brochure used combat photographs that included the Rosenthal image.54 Accompanying literature for a watercolor print termed the actor rugged, courageous, independent, and patriotic, a statement for the spirit of America and its core values.55 The Franklin Mint Christmas catalogue carried not only the precision ―John Wayne Stagecoach‖ model, but also two

50Rowland Nethaway, ―U.S. Should Treat Osama Like the Lawless Thug He Is: Execute him,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-6, January 3, 2002.

51―Dubya da man!‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-2, May 13, 2003.

52The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps, 304-5; Wozniak, ed., 1-15; MacDonald, ed., 157.

53Franklin Mint, Advertisement, December 2002.

54Franklin Mint, Advertisement, May 15, 1999.

55Franklin Mint, Advertisement, October 28, 2002; April 20, 2002.

225

cowboy miniatures that portrayed the ―Legendary Horseman‖ and ―Hondo‖ characters.56

Literature promoting a collector watch accented in sterling silver and 24-karat gold noted former President Jimmy Carter‘s quote that described the Duke as ―the ideal of the average American.‖57

When Wayne Enterprises registered ―John Wayne,‖ ―Duke,‖ and the performer‘s signature as trademarks, the company established his name, likeness, and image (all related indicia) as intellectual property of that firm. At Breckenridge Ski Resort,

Colorado, for at least 2006-2010, a sixteen by twenty-four inch portrait of Wayne in classic cowboy garb with hands on pistol butt and rifle barrel glared at skiers in the popular Peak 9 restaurant. The Bradford Exchange offered a two-foot long stained-glass panorama that displayed various Wayne images in an illuminated frame in 2006. Next year the company placed both an insert in TV Guide and a full-page advertisement in

Parade Magazine, which promoted a ten and one-half inch knife with the actor‘s likeness. In June 2007, another TV Guide insert from Bradford celebrated the one- hundredth anniversary of Wayne‘s birth with a commemorative plate banded in twenty- two karat gold. All of these collectibles contained copy, which proclaimed John Wayne an American legend and hero with honor.

That year at Cedar Point Amusement Park (Sandusky, OH) on frontier trail, the

Cedar Creek Trading Company prominently featured in its front window display a toy

Winchester rifle kit with pictures from the Wayne films, The Searchers, Undefeated, and

True Grit. Inspired by large John Wayne movie posters, another park visitor, Joey

56Franklin Mint Christmas Catalog (December 2002).

57Franklin Mint, Advertisement, February 7, 2003.

226

Wellman from Huntington, West Virginia, proudly wore a custom T-shirt of his own design with a stern portrait of Wayne captioned, ―Life is tough, But, Stupid is

Tougher.‖58 Throughout 2008, Kames Sports in Canton, Ohio, ran advertising supplements in the ABJ, which promoted fishing and hunting gear that included

Winchester Limited Edition .30-30 caliber rifle ammunition with Wayne‘s image on the box. Ironically, another outdoor retailer in the same paper featured its most expensive piece, a commemorative Winchester 1892 John Wayne .44-40 lever action rifle, on sale and marked down from $2000 to only $1600. The 1892 .44-40 caliber weapon utilized as a prop in most Wayne motion pictures not only failed to match the limited edition .30-30 caliber rounds, but also constituted an anachronism with its 1892 manufacture compared to most Western film periods.59

Long after his death, John Wayne maintained his popularity with many

Americans who enjoyed his iconoclastic legend. Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) featured a full day of Wayne films as an alternative to holiday programming on

Christmas Day.60 When A & E‘s Biography carried a week of ―movie tough guys‖ actors, it built the series around John Wayne.61 Turner Classic Movies (TCM) held a

58 John Wayne portrait, Wayne Enterprises, Design 2005; John Wayne: An American Legend, The Bradford Exchange, 2006; John Wayne: An American Hero, The Bradford Exchange, 2007; John Wayne: An American Hero, Parade Magazine (2007): 11; Legend of the West, The Bradford Exchange, TV Guide (June 4 to 10, 2007); Cedar Point Amusement Park, Cedar Creek Trading Company, October 13, 2007; Joey Wellman, interview by author, Sandusky, OH, August 1, 2007.

59Kames Sports, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, advertising supplement, July 6, 2008, September 7, 2008, September 13, 2008, October 10, 2008, November 16, 2008; Goschinski‘s Fin, Feather & Fur Outfitters, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, advertising supplement, May 4, 2008.

60TV Guide (December 21-27, 2002): 135-51.

61TV Guide (November 16-22, 2002): 111; ―A&E Series Profiles Movie Tough Guys,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-3, November 18, 2002.

227

Western movie festival dominated by the actor‘s works.62 Television comedy star Lucille

Ball generated a fifty greatest moment‘s list where number twelve revolved around her theft of the Duke‘s cement footprints from Grauman‘s Chinese Theater.63 In an article entitled, ―Closing Lines Make Movies Magical,‖ a John Wayne quote from True Grit made the top ten list.64 In a crime drama as a bomb squad member attempted a particularly dangerous and ultimately fatal disarming procedure, he commented, ―gonna have to John Wayne it,‖ to his fellow police officers.65 When the American Film

Institute (AFI) compiled a top one hundred list of love stories, ranked seventy-sixth.66 The Institute‘s best films of all time scored Stagecoach sixty-third and

The Searchers ninety-sixth.67 The AFI also produced a compendium of Hollywood legends that placed John Wayne thirteenth for all time and his character of Rooster

Cogburn, True Grit, as the thirty-sixth of fifty greatest movie heroes ever.68

Popular television series, documentaries and motion pictures continued to incorporate Wayne‘s iconic screen persona to represent positive traits that connected with receptive audiences. Reruns of Miami Vice episodes made several John Wayne references. While addressing bold detectives in ―Smuggler‘s Blues,‖ a criminal stated, ―I

62R.D. Heldenfels, ―All Duke, All the Time,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, October 31, 2002.

63―John Wayne‘s Footprints,‖ an episode of , 1955, TV Guide (October 13-19, 2002): 22.

64Randy Myers, ―Closing Lines Makes Movies,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-9, February 25, 2002.

65―Bomb Scare,‖ an episode of CSI Miami, September 30, 2002.

66―Casablanca No. 1 On List of Movie Love Stories,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-2, June 12, 2002; TV Guide (June 8-14, 2002): 112; ―AFI‘s 100 Years-100 Passions‖ (Twentieth Century Fox, 2002).

67Louis B. Parks, ―Welles‘ Movie Leads 100 List,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-1, June 20, 1998; ―AFI 100 Greatest American Movies‖ (Twentieth Century Fox, 1998).

68―AFI‘s 100 years-100 Stars-America‘s Screen Legends‖ (Twentieth Century Fox, 1999); ―AFI‘s 100 Years-100 Heroes and Villains‖ (Twentieth Century Fox, 2003).

228

ain‘t John Wayne; I don‘t have an ‗S‘ on my chest,‖ which linked the Duke to Superman.

In the ―Whatever Works‖ episode, one officer suggested that they storm a criminal‘s house and his partner replied, ―Storm the house, what are you, John Wayne?‖ Because he did not want to deliver a eulogy, one lead character cautioned the other star not ―to be a John Wayne‖ with solo heroics in a scene from ―Child‘s Play.‖ Another television series, Nip Tuck, featured two plastic surgeons that heroically performed reconstructive facial surgery on mutilated rape victims. In ―The Carver‖ episode, a psychotic slasher threatened the physicians and the sociopath stated, ―You two have to pull a John Wayne and destroy my beautiful work.‖69

Other television programming kept Wayne‘s image before American audiences who readily recognized the positive attributes in his carefully manufactured Cold War persona. In a promotion called, ―Summer Under the Stars,‖ TCM channel ran a twenty- four hour block of different Hollywood stars‘ performances in August, 2004, which led off with Wayne features. To open its twentieth anniversary season, American Masters offered the episode, ―John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend,‖ which labeled the actor a national icon and cinema‘s greatest hero. The documentary asserted that Wayne symbolized United States military might as the prototypical American fighting man. Placing his image in patriotic context, the production noted a film clip with this Wayne quote: ―Uncle Sam has been elected sheriff to protect us all from this ‗red gang,‘‖ which emphasized the actor‘s Cold War stance. The documentary concluded that the John Ford/John Wayne collaboration represented, ―…the creation of a body of work

69 Miami Vice, episodes ―Smuggler‘s Blues,‖ ―Whatever Works,‖ 1985; Miami Vice, episode ―Child‘s Play,‖ 1987; Nip/Tuck, conclusion episode ―The Carver‖ series, 2006.

229

that has stood the test of time and in many ways shaped the hearts and minds of a generation of Americans.‖70

A review of science fiction motion pictures provided a surprising collection of

John Wayne references in works produced both during and after the Cold War. Of course, all of these films gained repeated exposure in numerous rerun broadcasts on network and cable television. When the marooned extraterrestrial being in ET studied romantic human relationships on television, he observed John Wayne and Maureen

O‘Hara in the Quiet Man. After a mechanical robot became alive and sentient in Short

Circuit, he resolutely confronted his antagonists during the film‘s climax. The lone hero paraphrased one of Duke‘s lines in a John Wayne voice impression and stated,

―Sometimes a life form‘s [man‘s] gotta do, what a life form‘s [man‘s] gotta do.‖ More recently in Transformers, a warrior robot grew frustrated providing an explanation to humans and abruptly concluded as he mimicked Wayne: ―Any more questions you wanna ask?‖ According to the Internet Movie Database (IMD), True Grit with the actor‘s Oscar winning performance gained mention or provided clips in numerous television and film productions, which included Terminator 2: Judgment Day. These motion pictures represented the collaborative efforts of screenwriters, directors, and film editors,

Hollywood professionals who employed an easily recognizable Cold war symbol with signature traits to connect to American audiences with cultural short hand. The film industry would have American audiences believe that a ―first contact‖ alien visitor should assess the John Wayne image to understand better the human condition. Following the

70 TV Guide ―Summer Under the Stars‖ (August 1 to 7, 2004); American Masters, episode ―John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend,‖ (Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc): 2006; TV Guide, ―Master‘s Voice‖ (May 10, 2006): 62; Matt Steigbigel, review of ―The John Ford Collection,‖ Playboy Magazine (June 2006): 25. 230

binary conflict with communism, the John Wayne screen persona icon has endured in

American culture.71

Well into the twenty-first century, what would have been Wayne‘s ninety-ninth birthday garnered attention when TCM and Encore Western channels ran film marathons of the actor‘s work on his birth date, Friday, May 26, 2006. These collections conveniently preceded a fest of combat pictures for Memorial Day weekend. The next year, the centennial anniversary of John Wayne‘s birth saw collections of his films released on digital videodisk (DVD). The feature story on CBS News Sunday Morning covered a one- hundredth-birthday celebration in the performer‘s hometown of Winterset,

Iowa. Noting groundbreaking for a John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning

Center, the piece cited Stagecoach, Sands of Iwo Jima, and the Academy Award-winning performance in True Grit. Host Charles Osgood called the performer a national icon who personified the American ideal of manhood with his blunt talk and no-nonsense attitude.

Osgood summarized Wayne‘s legacy as ―a Hollywood legend whose star will never set.‖

On Saturday, May 26, American Movie Classics (AMC) and Encore Western channels broadcast all-day marathons of the actor‘s motion pictures. TV Guide critic Michael

Scheinfeld asserted, ―…John Wayne remains one of the most popular and beloved movie stars of all time. He has become a genuine icon because he embodied all the attributes of the archetypical American ideal: honest and humble, but able to take decisive action in the cause of justice.‖72

71 Transformers, directed by Michael Bay (DreamWorks SKG, July 3, 2007): 144 min.; Short Circuit, directed by John Badham (David Foster Productions, May 6, 1986): 98 min.; E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, directed by (, June 11, 1982): 115 min.; The Quiet Man, directed by John Ford (Argosy Pictures, September 14, 1952): 129 min.; True Grit, directed by Henry Hathaway (Paramount Pictures, June 11, 1969): 128 min.

72 TV Listings, ―Networks celebrate John Wayne‘s Birthday,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, May 24, 2006; 231

As the entertainment industry remained cognizant of this Cold War symbol, the

Wayne screen persona drew attention across a broad spectrum. On Channel the morning program, Fox and Friends, interviewed the actor‘s son, Ethan Wayne, who promoted a charitable cancer research organization named for the performer. The next year on President‘s Day preceding Oscars week, the O’Reilly Factor featured a segment on movie icons where host Bill O‘Reilly asked, ―Why is John Wayne still the biggest movie star almost thirty years after his death?‖ After playing film clips from

McClintock!, , Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Shootest, the performer‘s son, , asserted that his father represented the model for and fulfillment of the American dream. As chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute,

Patrick cited his father‘s death from the disease that afflicted the artist during the production of his final picture, The Shootest. O‘Reilly praised the research institute as a worthy charity while he proclaimed John Wayne the ―biggest Hollywood star ever.‖

When acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns needed an example of home front motion pictures to illustrate civilian support during World War II, he chose John Wayne‘s

Flying Tigers from a huge genre of combat films. ―We would jump up and cheer because the good guys were winning,‖ recalled former paperboy Burt Wilson as he remembered children‘s perception of heroism and sacrifice in the conflict. In a 2006 production, the

AFI broke the corpus of motion pictures into ten genres and compiled a top ten list for each one. Wayne‘s Searchers headed the Western field with Red River and Stagecoach

Advertisement, ―Happy Birthday, Duke,‖ Parade Magazine (May 13, 2007); CBS Sunday Morning News, ―Birthday Party for an American Icon,‖ May 27, 2007; TV Guide, ―Wayne‘s World‖ (May 26, 2007).

232

at fifth and ninth, respectively. In both electronic and print media, the Wayne cultural signpost showed few symptoms of abating.73

Wayne‘s iconic attributes even translated to a generation born after his demise. In the comic strip ―Beetle Bailey‖ written by Mort Walker, a black officer questioned a green lieutenant‘s hero worship of the actor.74 A college newspaper noted the rugged individualism of a politician in its staff editorial.75 References to the posture of cavemen, cowboys, and a John Wayne style of walking appeared in a poetry and art journal published at a Midwestern university.76 When a student columnist penned an article about school spirit for the football team, he used a simile about John Wayne on a bulldozer.77 Another undergrad cited the distinctive John Wayne walk as uniquely

American.78 The same school newspaper carried an AP article by Eileen Putman who quoted a psychiatrist at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Frank Ghinussi stated, ―The American culture, which has long prided itself on rugged individualism, has also been buoyed by a sense of youthful invulnerability.‖79 When a fifth grade reading

73 Ethan Wayne, interview on Fox and Friends, Fox News Channel, June 4, 2007; Patrick Wayne, interview on The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News Channel, February 18, 2008; Ken Burns, The War, episode ―FUBAR,‖ PBS, 2007; TV Guide, ―PBS Wins With The War‖ (October 8 to 14, 2007): 9; American Film Institute, ―10 Top 10,‖ 2008.

74Mort Walker, Beetle Bailey, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, September 29, 2002, Sunday comics section.

75―Beam Him Out,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, July 24, 2002.

76Lora Eves, ―One Man Show Number Two,‖ Luna Negra, Kent (OH) State University, (Fall 2001): 6.

77Steele Nowlin, ―New Look at Bringing Back Kent Pride,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, p. 4, September 2, 1998.

78Anders Brooks, ―Everyone Understands the Language of Drinking,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, p. 4, February 19, 2003.

79Eileen Putman, ―Travel Slows; Terrorism, SARS Blamed,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, p. 3, April 30, 2003.

233

teacher assigned state research projects, which included celebrities, a young man rejoiced that his assigned Iowa was the birthplace of John Wayne.80

References to the Hollywood legend abounded in various newspapers and periodicals. Ski cinematographer Warren Miller recounted hitting the slopes with a wealthy Texas socialite whose father sent his personal DC-3 to pick her up. He noted how her private pilot saluted just like John Wayne before takeoff.81 When the AARP magazine published a list of first time Oscar winners over the age of fifty years old, the article quipped that the character Rooster Cogburn in True Grit was over the hill but

Wayne, age 62, was not.82 In the Halloween issue of Biography Magazine, Wayne‘s life story was billed on the Biography television channel, and his grave was the lead feature in an article on burial sites of the famous.83 A notice for the Cleveland Institute of Art‘s movie house, Cinematheque, cited Japan‘s director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro

Mifune as the greatest actor-director team in the history of film, and called Mifune the

John Wayne of Japan.84 Columnist Walter Scott observed that the actor was the

―quintessential American film hero‖ and wrote that audiences expected nothing less from the actor.85 In a health article concerning men‘s reluctance to seek medical attention, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the George Washington University, Dr.

Jefferey Akman stated, ―Men like to see themselves as John Wayne or Humphrey

80Mary Nelson, interview by author, Kent, Ohio (May 15, 2003).

81Warren Miller, ―The Girl and the DC-3,‖ Ski Magazine (February 2003): 168.

82―Big Stars, Late Wins,‖ AARP Magazine (May/June 2003): 22.

83―Bioscope October: What‘s on Biography,‖ Biography Magazine (October 2002): 46; Gregg Felsen, ―Tombstones,‖ Biography Magazine (October 2002): 66.

84The Cleveland Institute of Art: Cinematheque, January/February 2003.

85Walter Scott, Parade Magazine (November 24, 2002): 4.

234

Bogart—the sturdy oak that stands up and survives, no matter what.‖86 Another health feature noted research on sleep deprivation conducted by the United States Army whose leaders followed a tradition of going without rest like John Wayne.87 When a reader questioned the masculinity of the name Marion in an Ann Landers column, she received

5,000 letters from people who informed her that Marion was John Wayne‘s given title.88

Comedian George Carlin sarcastically referred to himself as a ―bad American‖ because his heroes were ―John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers, and whoever canceled Jerry

Springer‖ (an obnoxious talk show host who catered to the lowest prurient interest).89

During the second Gulf War humor columnist Dave Barry lampooned the French military while he referred to Americans as gun slinging John Wayne cowboys.90 Finally, when

Cowboys and Indians, a periodical billing itself as the premier magazine of the West, polled Hollywood stars, film critics, and its readership to create a top 100 Western film and television series list, John Wayne led the slate of actors with the most appearances in eighteen features.91

Considering John Wayne‘s fantasy body count of Japanese in film, his screen persona translated as a remarkably effective promotional tool in Japan. A graduate international marketing text reprinted a Wall Street Journal blurb, which recounted

86Michele Meyer, ―Why Guys Don‘t Go to the Doctor,‖ Parade Magazine (June 9, 2002): 6.

87Brigid Schulte, ―Studies Put Sleep Myths to Rest,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-10, March 3, 1998.

88Ann Landers, ―Dear Ann Landers Advice Column,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-4, October 3, 1998.

89―Love That George Carlin,‖ (personal email) (June27, 2002).

90Dave Berry, ―C‘mon, Let‘s Extend Olive Jar to our Friend, France,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E- 2, March 16, 2003.

91David Hofstede, ―The 100 Best Westerns Ever Made,‖ Cowboys and Indians (January 2002): 144-156.

235

soaring sales of Levi jeans in that nation following an advertising campaign that linked the clothing to American legends , Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne. The cover of a scholarly journal carried a promotional shot from Duke‘s Fighting Kentuckian in which the featured article compared the border state‘s culture to southern gentility. A movie review of the police action film, S.W.A.T., referred to a character who ―pulled a

John Wayne‖ while author David Halberstam called baseball great Ted Williams, ―the real John Wayne,‖ for the athlete‘s service in World War II and Korea.92 When a critic advocated that America‘s youth reconnect to Western film classics, he recommended

Wayne pictures shot in Monument Valley, a location also promoted in a syndicated travel column for its Hollywood linkage. After educators received a promotional kit that touted the accuracy of a remake of Wayne‘s epic, The Alamo, the scholarly paper, The

Chronicle of Higher Education, assessed the new production in relation to earlier features, and noted the film‘s consultation with professional scholars. Thus, the John

Wayne image infiltrated academia‘s literature as well as popular print media.93

Research revealed further references to the Cold War Wayne symbol, which contrasted to real life examples such as the experiences of veterans. A

Canadian columnist characterized the Green Berets as naïve and jingoistic compared to other politicized antiwar films about Vietnam. The AP obituary of oil well firefighter

Paul N. ―Red‖ Adair noted his supreme contribution to capping 732 burning Kuwaiti

92Philip R. Cateora, International Marketing, 9th ed. (Chicago, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1996), 409-10; 483-4; Julie Human, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 98, no. 4 (Autumn 2000): 427; George M. Thomas, ―S.W.A.T.: Cinematography Takes it Beyond Average Action Flick,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E, August 8, 2003; TV Guide, “The Teammates,‖ ESPN Original Entertainment (August 25, 2003): 190.

93Robert W. Butler, ―‘Stagecoach‘ Leads List of Top 10 Westerns,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-4, August 22, 2003; Gary A. Warner, ―Monument Valley,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. G-1, October 26, 2003; Eric Hoover, ―Myth Understood,‖ Chronicle of Higher Learning (April 16, 2004). 236

wellheads following the first Gulf War. Regarding Wayne‘s portrayal of him in the

Hellfighters, Adair asserted, ―that‘s one of the best honors in the world: to have The

Duke play you in a movie.‖ The cover of Parade Magazine carried portraits of famous

Scots- that included the most decorated war veteran Audie Murphy,

General George S. Patton, President Ronald Reagan, and performer John Wayne. (The lead article by Emmy award-winning journalist James Webb categorized the ethnic group as ruggedly individualistic) In another Parade feature on Gulf War General Tommy

Franks, the essay employed the phrase, ―Saddle up,‖ a trademark line from Wayne‘s

Sands of Iwo Jima character, Sergeant John Stryker. In still other polls, a Harris survey placed John Wayne seventh on a list of ten favorite motion picture stars, whereas an

America Online (AOL) poll and the Discovery Channel included Wayne in a group of one hundred greatest Americans affirming his iconic status.94

Through 2006, popular literature continued to refer to John Wayne movies and his emblematic symbol. As head of Wayne‘s Batjac production company, his daughter-in- law Gretchen Wayne oversaw the critical restoration of two older films from the early

1950s, The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky. (She also donated the Duke‘s hat from his only 3-D release Hondo to the Smithsonian museum.) In an article entitled, ―Be a Man Dammit!‖ History Channel celebrity R. Lee Ermey, a former Marine Corps sergeant and Vietnam veteran, praised Wayne‘s performance in Sands of Iwo Jima.

Following the Katrina hurricane disaster, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin proclaimed

94David Halberstam, ―This is Korea, Fifty Years Later,‖ AARP (July & August, 2003): 48-55; Lorne Gunter, ―Hollywood is at it Again,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-2, July 1, 2004; AP, ―‘Hellfighter‘ Red Adair Dies,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. B-6, August 9, 2004; James Webb, ―Why You Need to Know the Scots-Irish,‖ Parade Magazine (October 3, 2004): 4-5; Lyric Wallwork Winik, ―The General Has His Say,‖ Parade Magazine (August 1, 2004): 4-7; Carrie Rickey, ―Actresses Rare in Top 10 Lists,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-2, January 17, 2005; ―List of 100 Greatest Americans Released,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-1, April 19, 2005.

237

Army Lieutenant General Russel ―Ragin‘ Cajun‖ Honore, ―one John Wayne dude,‖ for his leadership in relief efforts. While one cartoon strip noted that Wayne never cried, another comic character in ―Beetle Bailey‖ flattered the top sergeant as ―strong and powerful‖ with a John Wayne resemblance. After an author called for celebratory films like the Fighting Seabees to boost patriotism in the war against Islamo-fascism, another writer eulogized the passengers who fought terrorists on the doomed Flight 93 and equated their American-style heroism to John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. 95 Unlike this grim linkage of fantasy exploits to genuine courage, a Wayne reference revealed itself in an English children‘s poem in which a nine year old boy penned a thank you letter to

Father Christmas for ―…a train and a book O‘John Wayne.‖ Such a poem represented a diffusion of the Wayne image even to overseas youth. These youngsters lived in the nation most closely aligned to the United States in its military operations in the second

Iraq War, an alliance that traced its tight bonds back to the Cold War.96

Just as in electronic media with it increased DVD distribution, print publishing manifested numerous connections to Wayne‘s Cold War symbol during the one- hundredth anniversary of his birth. A blurb in TV Guide asserted that The Searchers inspired the wildly successful Star Wars, which featured an ―Evil Empire,‖ a phrase later appropriated by President Reagan and applied to the Soviet Union. After one American critic rated Searchers as best Western ever, he further cited a once a decade critical poll

95 Rich Heldenfels, ―Keeping Duke‘s Legend Alive,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-2, July 13, 2005; Eric Gillin, ―Be a Man Dammit!‖ Maxim Magazine (August, 2005): 128-32; Larry Neumeister, ―‘Ragin‘ Cajun‘ General Spurs Katrina Aid,‖ AP, September 11, 2005; , , Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-6, January 20, 2006; Greg and Mort Walker, Beetle Bailey, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, May 14, 2006; Andrew Klavan, ―Where is Hollywood Now?‖ sec. B-2, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, May 14, 2006; Michael Kinsley, ―Flight 93: Courage on the Fly,‖ sec. B-2, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, May 16, 2006.

96Ivor Davis, ―P.S. to Santa,‖ (November 29, 2006). 238

conducted by British magazine Sight & Sound, which classified that production the best

Western, as well as eleventh out of all pictures. To bolster further his argument, the

American noted that a survey ten years later by the same British publication elevated

Searchers up to fifth place among all films. While the American Film Institute (AFI) placed Stagecoach and Searchers third and fifth, respectively, on their Western list,

Searchers skyrocketed from ninety-sixth to twelfth for all films produced.97 One columnist called the macho Wayne an everyman hero for his generation, whereas another referred to the performer as a secular saint and cited the actor‘s quote, ―Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.‖ In Oklahoma City, the National Cowboy and

Western Heritage Museum erected an eight-foot, eight-inch bronze statue of John Wayne in honor of his one-hundredth-birthday anniversary. When the Sunday Akron (OH)

Beacon Journal carried a three quarter page article addressing the actor‘s career, the critic‘s essay offered a detailed assessment of Wayne‘s best performances. The film writer warned against interpreting the John Wayne screen persona as caricature, and argued that the performer‘s powerful and evocative image would maintain a singular presence even until the Wayne bicentennial.98

As a Cold War symbol, the Wayne image emphasized power and strength not only in its traits of courage, nationalism, leadership, and individualism, but also romantic relationships. One writer asserted that the five pairings of John Wayne and Maureen

97TV Guide (January 14 to 20, 2007): 39; Rich Heldenfels, ―Best Western Film Debatable,‖ sec. E-1, February 8, 2007; , ―Ranking Films has Purpose,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-2, June 21, 2007.

98Walter Scott, Parade Magazine (December 30, 2007): 2; Kevin Horrigan, ―Take Comfort in a Saint‘s Doubts,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-11, September 12, 2007; ―John Wayne Honored,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-6, 2007; Rich Heldenfels, ―This Will be 100…Pilgrim,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, May 20, 2007.

239

O‘Hara in film placed second only to William Powell and Myrna Loy at fourteen performances. On the Wayne/O‘Hara couple in The Quiet Man, he argued, ―That‘s one of the top romantic movies of all time, period.‖99 In another article, he examined the concept of the sullen and complex hero, and cited the iconic Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima,

Red River, and The Searchers. At Halloween, a different essay on ―trick or treating‖ addressed childhood courage when the piece mentioned Wayne‘s voice and image. With regards to leadership, when an AP story covered baseball‘s American League manager of the year, the news service noted that the Cleveland Indians‘ first ever recipient of that honor, Eric Wedge, kept a John Wayne calendar in his office, and categorized the stoic manager as a no-nonsense guy. Political commentator David Brooks classified the

Republican Party as an organization, which embraced John Wayne-style heroes and rugged individualism. Shortly after the one-hundredth-anniversary of Wayne‘s birth, a health article asserted that Americans insisted on independence as a heroic ideal. Dr.

Henry S. Lodge stated, ―John Wayne‘s rugged individualism is the model we all grew up with, and the image is so deeply wired into our cultural myths that we take it as something nature intended for us.‖100 A broad survey of popular literature supported a compelling argument that the John Wayne screen persona rested on characteristics of courage, patriotism, leadership, and individuality. Although constructed during the Cold

99Rich Heldenfels, ―William Powell and Myrna Loy are Screen Mates,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-1, February 7, 2008; Joe Morgenstern, ―Kissing and Telling,‖ Wall Street Journal, sec. W-9, January 5- 6, 2008; Rich Heldenfels, ―A Bit of Screen Romance,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. G, November 16- 22, 2008.

100Rich Heldenfels, ―What‘s a Hero?‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, July 7, 2008; Jeffery Deaver, ―My Haunted House,‖ Parade Magazine (October 25, 2008): 12-14; AP, ―Wedge, Melvin Named AL, Managers of Year,‖ November 14, 2007, < http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/nes/story?id=3110184> (November 19, 2007); David Brooks, ―A Republican Revival Directed by John Ford,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-7, May 6, 2009; R. Henry S. Lodge, ―Why Emotion Keeps You Well,‖ Parade Magazine (June 17, 2007): 16-17.

240

War, this cultural icon maintained its influence on and visibility in the United States and to some extent other nations, well after the conclusion of the bipolar conflict.

After the Cold War, both television and film further addressed American‘s lunar achievements with Apollo images that included Earthrise, lunar footprint, and astronaut with flag. All of these representations reflected the traits of heroic courage, patriotic nationalism, individualism (juxtaposed to teamwork) and technological prowess. Lone

Wolf Pictures examined the Apollo 8 mission, which produced Earthrise and the episode closed with the lunar footprint. Triage Entertainment studied the role of comic book superheroes and incorporated Earthrise and astronaut with flag. When the British

Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recounted the space race in a two-part production, the second episode employed Earthrise, Whole Earth, astronaut with flag, as well as lunar rover. In an Arts and Entertainment (A&E) feature, Star Trek Tech used Earthrise, Blue

Marble, astronaut with flag, and the lunar rover, and the production asserted that the science fiction compendium of five television series and ten motion pictures over a forty- year span constituted ―part of Americana‖ in the nation‘s lexicon.101

On a History Channel series, Our Generation characterized the ―baby boomers‖ as the ―largest and most vocal generation in American history‖ with its promotional montage of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and an Apollo astronaut, which defined ―iconic moments.‖ While Astro Spies addressed the militarization of space,

National Geographic Television‘s Secret of the Moon Landings incorporated Earthrise

101To the Moon, NOVA Production by Lone Wolf Pictures, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999; Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked, A&E Television Networks, 2003; Deborah Cadbury, Space Race, episode, ―Race for the Moon,‖ BBC, 2005; Star Trek Tech, Blind Vision Films, A&E Television Networks, 2007; TV Guide, ―TV‘s 20 Hottest Kisses of All Time!‖ (February 6-12, 2005): 48; TV Guide, ―Sex on TV Time Line,‖ (March 24-20, 2008): 20. Star Trek broke civil rights ground with the first interracial kiss on network television between Captain Kirk and Lt. Uhura.

241

and astronaut with flag as it concluded with lunar footprint. Soviet motion pictures also traced space science fiction from Allita: Queen of Mars (1924), through the Cold War productions of The Heaven’s Call (1959), and To the Stars by Hard Ways, (1981), which

Cleveland‘s Cinematheque showed in a retrospective entitled, ―From the Tsars to the

Stars.‖102 In a segment called, ―Houses of Worship in All Their Forms,‖ CBS News

Sunday Morning cited the inclusion of an actual moon rock in a stained glass window at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and Discovery Films utilized Earthrise in one of its documentaries. Concerning a six-hour series on the NASA missions, TV Guide called the images staggering and the astronauts heroic while Apollo‘s Jim Lovell stated,

―In truth it [Earthrise] is probably one of the greatest photographs of the century seeing the earth as it really is.‖103

American‘s Cold War victory in space circulated through more electronic media, sometimes manifesting in unexpected programs as well as obvious ones. A CBS piece on fashion mentioned that Apollo commander Allan Bean carried a McBean tartan swatch of highland plaid fabric on his lunar expedition. In 1958, Congress mandated release of space technology for public use; affirmed that over one-thousand products resulted from NASA research. These included energy-saving insulation, health enhancing polarized optics, and improved life-saving fire equipment. Another CBS

News program studied the impact of presidential oratory, which included speeches from

102Steve Gillon, ―Our Generation,‖ AARP Magazine, (January/February 2007): 12; Astro Spies, NOVA Production by C. Scott Films, LLC, WGBH Boston, 2007; Secrets of the Moon Landings, Produced by National Geographic Television, NGHT, Inc., 2007; From the Tsars to the Stars, The Cleveland (OH) Institute of Art: Cinematheque, schedule pamphlet, (January/February 2007).

103CBS News Sunday Morning, ―Houses of Worship in All Their Forms,‖ April 8, 2007; In the Shadow of the Moon, directed by David Sington, (Discovery Films 2007): 109 min.; Matt Roush, TV Guide, ―A Smorgasbord of Summer TV,‖ (June 9, 2008): 26; When We Left the Earth: The NASA Missions, Discovery Channel, Discovery Communications, Inc. (June 22, 2008).

242

John F. Kennedy on lunar exploration and Ronald Reagan who eulogized the crew that perished in the Challenger space shuttle tragedy.104 On the fiftieth anniversary of

Russia‘s Sputnik launch, which spurred the study of science and mathematics in United

States education, a morning broadcast concluded, ―At the end of the day, there is no

Soviet Union.‖ Regarding respective dates on CBS News Sunday Morning segment

―Sunday Morning Passage,‖ CBS offered the perspective that the world‘s population viewed Apollo 11 in the news in 1969, but now interpreted the event as history. When

Biography profiled television inventor Philo Farnsworth who changed the face of communication and mass culture, the innovator observed Neil Armstrong‘s descent from the ladder to the lunar surface and commented, ―This makes it all worthwhile.‖105

The successful Apollo explorations prompted additional patriotic references in media and inspired another nation‘s lunar research. Comparing and contrasting the

Earthrise photograph, astronaut with flag, lunar footprint, and moon rover representations to new images, National Geographic assessed Japan‘s recently deployed lunar orbiter, which replicated Earthrise in high definition (HD). Designed to map the surface and measure magnetism, the Kaguga moon probe produced vastly enhanced 3-D representations of earth‘s neighbor. In a fictional motion picture, The Astronaut Farmer opened with a space boot and lunar footprint, which in ironic misdirection occurred on

Texas soil.106 A program of patriotic music featured the astronaut with flag as well as a

104CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, November 11, 2007; Modern Marvels, ―It Came from Outer Space,‖ produced by Actuality Productions, Inc, History Channel, 2007; CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, January 20, 2008.

105CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, September 30, 2007; CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, July 20, 2003; Eureka! The 20th Century’s Top 15 Inventors, A&E Biography, Kralyevich Productions, Inc. (June 4, 2002).

106Direct from the Moon, National Geographic Channel, November 8, 2008 ; Elana Levine, 243

documentary on German contributions to the Apollo missions. First on the Moon: The

Untold Story, employed Earthrise, the flag, and lunar footprint to examine the courage, individualism, and technological prowess of the Apollo 11 crew when their onboard computer crashed at ten thousand feet. Using manual override, pilot Neil Armstrong landed with fifteen seconds worth of fuel remaining; whereas later before takeoff, Buzz

Aldrin repaired the engine arm circuit breaker with a ballpoint pen still carried in his pocket.107

When a newscast discussed the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, the reporter stood before a mural, which depicted the United States flag on the moon. Furthermore, a later special on American flag history cited the Apollo banner. Discovery Channel‘s

Mythbusters debunked conspiracy theories, which challenged the authenticity of the moon landings in relation to the lunar footprint and flag. (It does not wave in space vacuum; it vibrates on the pole and extension frame.) In his review of In the Shadow of the Moon, Roger Ebert argued that restored footage of the iconic Apollo landings portrayed courage, patriotism, individualism/teamwork, and technological prowess, ―a masterpiece of ingenuity.‖ Including a color photograph of Apollo 17 Commander Gene

Cernan saluting the flag, Ebert stated, ―The Apollo missions were, after all, the most momentous steps ever taken by mankind.‖ With this affirmation, the reviewer

review of The Astronaut Farmer, director Michael Polish, The Journal of American History (December 2007): 1039.

107Pat Boone’s American Glory, PBS, Pat Boone Enterprises (1996); Roger Mudd, Science and the Swastika, Smithson Production Channel Four Television Corp., History Channel, 2002; First on the Moon: The Untold Story, Discovery Science Channel, 2005. ―Game Boy technology exceeds all the computer power used to send Neil Armstrong to the moon,‖ according to Stuff magazine, as reported in the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, February 24, 2003.

244

concluded, ―These astronauts are still alive, but as long as mankind survives, their journeys will be seen as the turning point—to what, it is still to be seen.‖108

Either while implicitly linking lunar missions to commercial products and services or explicitly employing Apollo images, American companies often utilized the

United States space icon in advertising copy. With the Blue Marble, a full-page spread connected National Geographic magazine to Westvaco paper products and summarized the technical skill, the firm‘s national pride, and its ―courage of innovation.‖ Cambridge

Research Group, Ltd. Placed the same image on a poster above the ancient Roman coliseum and a modern stadium and proclaimed, ―It‘s A Whole New Ball Game‖ in career development. Milso/Wilso Industries and Enterprises from Louisiana painted the

Blue Marble on its two and a half ton panel truck. On CBS, the motion picture Day After

Tomorrow concluded its promotion with that image and American Telegraph and

Telephone (ATT) organized the company‘s whole campaign for the introduction of the I-

Phone with a Blue Marble, which morphed into that corporation‘s logo. An advertisement for Fifth/Third Bank opened with footage of the lunar landing module followed by a booted foot making a print in the moon dust. After the boot and footprint altered into a bare foot in the sand, a deep voice intoned, ―We are your mission control‖ for checking and savings.109

108CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, February 2, 2003; CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, April 4, 2004; Mythbusters, episode ―NASA Moon Landing,‖ Discovery Channel, 2008; Roger Ebert, review of In the Shadow of the Moon, director David Sington, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. F-6, September 27, 2007.

109National Geographic, Vol. 174, no. 5 (November 1988); Cambridge Research Group, Ltd., 1993, poster at Kent (OH) State at Salem Campus (Fall 2008); Milso/Wilso Industries Enterprises, Louisiana; Day After Tomorrow, directed by Roland Emmerich (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation: May 28, 2004): 124 min.; ATT, I-Phone Commercial, debuted winter 2007-08; Fifth/Third Bank, 2007.

245

Tommy Hilfiger apparel showed young men smiling and in control with a one- page montage that included a motorcycle, surfboards, and an earth bound United States flag, and the Apollo astronaut with flag. For a patriotic Flag Day promotion on Fox

News Channel for The Journal Editorial Report, hosted by , lead-in music employed ―These Colors Don‘t Run‖ and the national anthem lyrics ―Our Flag was Still

There‖ with a series of American banners on Iwo Jima, the World Trade Center, and the lunar landscape. When Jackson Hole ski resort featured a full-page advertisement, the caption over a huge astronaut helmet simply stated ―MAKE HISTORY.‖ A reflection superimposed on the dark visor of the helmet revealed snow capped mountains, the

Jackson Hole ski gondola posed as the lunar landing module, and an astronaut with flag on skis, poles in hand. Distributed at the American Historical Association (AHA) annual meeting in New York City, January 2-5, 2009, a large glossy brochure in color contrasted

George Washington‘s inauguration with a spaceman saluting the lunar banner. The

LexisNexis copy read, ―Just because it took 180 years to create such an amazing collection, doesn‘t mean it should take that long to search it.‖110

More promotional copy illustrated a broad collection of products, which employed the Apollo expeditions‘ image. Before scandal reduced the value of his endorsements, Gatorade sports drink cast golf legend Tiger Woods as he hit a drive on the moon to the melodies of 2001: A Space Odyssey theme, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and

Norman Greenbaum‘s Spirit in the Sky. After a commercial for the website

Boomertown.com used footage of Apollo astronauts, a campaign spot for Republican

110Maxim Magazine (April 2000); Paul Gigot, Fox News Channel, The Journal Editorial Report (June 14, 2008); Tony Millins, Donnie Van Zant, and Johnny Van Zant, These Colors Don’t Run, Columbia Nashville, October 9, 2007, Audio CD; Ski Magazine: The Magazine of the Ski Life, Vol. 73, no. 2 (October 2008): 86; LexisNexis, U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection (January 2009).

246

presidential candidate Senator John McCain featured a lunar image with a voiceover of

President John F. Kennedy‘s speech, ―We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, because they are hard.‖111 The arcade at Cedar Point

Amusement Park offered a bewildering selection of video games and classic pinball machines cleverly designed to separate patrons from their cash. While ―Lunar Lander‖ challenged aspiring explorers, the ―Pioneer‖ pinball game displayed patriotic and heroic images of minutemen from the Spirit of 1776, a frontiersman, lunar entry module (LEM), and an astronaut with NASA and NSA patches on his spacesuit.112

The U.S. Mint and Littleton Coin Company, LLC, both appropriated the lunar icon with the issuance of the Eisenhower dollar, minted 1971-1978, which adapted the

Apollo 11 insignia on the reverse side of the coins. Specifically referencing the formation of NASA during the Eisenhower administration, the literature also noted the dual-dated Bicentennial 1776-1976 issue. The U.S. Mint retained the Apollo reverse design on smaller Susan B. Anthony dollar coins produced only from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999, the first coinage to represent an actual woman instead of an allegorical figure. Littleton‘s flyer boldly asserted:

Coins are History As you examine each coin in your collection, the past comes to life, recalling the events of a bygone era. Coins are history you can hold in your hands. Coins are Travel When you collect coins from across the nation or around the globe, you‘ll discover fascinating cultures—without leaving your home.

111 Richard Strauss, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, City of Prague Philharmonic, (1996 Reissue) Audio CD; Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky, Reprise, Audio CD (2001); CNBC (April 13, 2007), ; CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS (June 29, 2008).

112 Cedar Point Amusement Park, Main Arcade, Sandusky, OH, ―Lunar Lander,‖ Atari, Inc. (1979); ―Pioneer,‖ D. Gottlieb and Co. (1975).

247

Coins are Important Coins make a statement about the politics, religion, and culture of the they represent. They are symbols of strengths and struggles113

Various outlets in print media often referred to the Apollo symbol and its traits of heroism, patriotism, individualism/teamwork, and technical achievement produced in the

Cold War struggle. Perspectives on History addressed a Gary Edgerton presentation at the American Historical Association, which assessed the lunar landing as a global event and ―instant history.‖ In Walter Cronkite‘s ninetieth birthday interview, he stated, ―The moon landing was certainly one of the greatest stories of the century and perhaps will be the greatest story of many centuries.‖ A Philadelphia Inquirer editorial reprinted in the

Daily Kent (OH) Stater compared the early space race between global superpowers to the

$10 million Ansari X Prize awarded to the first spacecraft built by a private company.

National Geographic recounted earlier space efforts in the bipolar conflict while speculating on future exploration programs conducted in other nations.114 One nostalgic food article even recalled a Baskin-Robbins ice cream flavor called Lunar Cheesecake and a children‘s craft item detailed the construction of a simulated moon rock made to celebrate the Sea of Tranquility, landing site of the Apollo 11 mission. As political commentator Michael Douglas called to mind the discord of 1968, he noted the Earthrise image photographed by the Apollo 8 crew. The writer observed, ―They read from

Genesis, and whether you were believer or not, you couldn‘t help but be moved. Even a

113 Littleton Coin Company, LLC (December 2008); Littleton Coin Company, LLC (February 2009).

114Perspectives on History, ―The Historian Film Committee‖ (March 2008): 39; Marisa Guthrie, ―Cronkite Still Legend at Age 90,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-2, November 4, 2006; Editorial, ―Last Frontier Now a Wide-open Market,‖ Daily Kent (OH) Stater, sec. A-4, October 11, 2004; Guy Gugliotta, ―The Space Age at 50,‖ National Geographic, Vol. 212, no. 4 (October 2007): 106.

248

13-year-old could grasp, amid a year of such wreckage, the profound reminder of what we share.‖115

When textbooks focused on the turbulent events of the Cold War era, volumes such as Taking Sides and A Time of Paradox adopted Apollo images for their cover photographs and scientific blubs on astronomy employed the lunar footprint.116 Parade

Magazine used an astronaut with flag photograph in a short piece about the engraved names of Apollo crews on mission plaques and other messages left on the lunar surface from world leaders, which included Pope Paul VI. Parade also utilized the astronaut and flag representation for an upcoming documentary and a feature story that advocated future space initiatives to compete with China. The ABJ employed the same image of

Edwin ―Buzz‖ Aldrin when the paper discussed a recording package called To the Moon with six 33 1/3 rpm (revolutions per minute) vinyl accompanied by a hardcover book.117 In an advertisement for the book Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts by

Robert Jacobs, AARP Magazine utilized a shot of Apollo 16‘s John Young leaping in low-gravity while saluting the flag. For an article captioned, The 100 Most Memorable

TV Moments, the Apollo moon landing with astronaut and flag fell to second place behind the image of the collapse of the South Tower during the Trade Center attacks

115Nancy Luna, ―Baskin-Robbins Updates Web Site,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, January 16, 2008, ; Kathy Antoniotti, ―Rock Away on Lunar Surface,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-2, July 13, 2002; Michael Douglas, editorial, ―When Things Blew Apart,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. A-14, December 14, 2008.

116Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle, Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volume II, 9th ed. (New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2004); Glen Jeansonne, A Time of Paradox: America from the Cold War to the Third Millennium, 1945-Present (Oxford, New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007); Playboy Magazine, (June 2007): 25.

117Walter Scott, Parade Magazine (June 3, 2007): 4; Parade Magazine (August 26, 2007): 19; Neil deGrasse Tyson, ―Why America Needs to Explore Space,‖ Parade Magazine (August 5, 2007): 44-6; Rich Heldenfels, ―Nostalgic Album of Moon Mission,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-1, April 17, 2008.

249

September 11, 2001. Even though the Soviet Union failed to plant a flag on the lunar surface, they equated the erection of a Russian flag on the ocean floor under the North

Pole to America‘s Apollo 11 success. That Associated Press article on underwater exploration indicated that Cold War wounds still left sensitive scars on the Soviet psyche.118

The binary conflict between the Soviet Union and America produced a space race, which yielded an iconic image that literally transformed humankind‘s perception of its home world. Whereas geographers once constructed an earth image with a globe inscribed in the ancient Latin text, Whole Earth or Blue Marble supplanted the original view of the world with an Apollo photograph. This lunar representation dominated the front-page sections of American newspapers while various groups appropriated the symbol to advertise an assortment of events.119 When a civic organization needed an insignia on a sticker for Election Day voters, the group utilized the Blue Marble as did gardening home shows, Earth Day recycling efforts, and a flyer for a Women‘s History

Read-In.120 Ohio Schools magazine featured a student created cover for one issue, which approximated the Whole Earth representation. Furthermore, AARP Magazine noted

Earthrise while a cartoon employed the Blue Marble image.121 The Apollo likeness even

118Bill Newcott, ―Moondust Memories,‖ AARP Magazine (July and August 2009): 14; Greg Evans, TV Guide, ―The 100 Most Memorable TV Moments‖ (December 5-11): 32; Vladimir Isachenkov, ―Secrets of 1957 Sputnik Launch Revealed,‖ AP (October 2, 2007): 2-4.

119Mary Beth Breckenridge, ―New Twist in Light Bulbs,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, March 10, 2007; George Thomas, ―Space, It‘s No Race,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1 November 29, 2002; Daily Kent (OH) Stater, advertisements, March 14, 2007; April 20, 2007; April 25, 2007.

120 November 2, 2004; Mary Beth Breckenridge, ―Akron‘s Home Show Goes Green,‖ Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. E-1, February 23, 2008; Woody Wilson and Graham Nolan, Rex Morgan, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, sec. D-5, April 22, 2008; Flyer, Women‘s History Read-In, Kent (OH) State University at Salem, March 11, 2009.

121Justin Hudgins, Ohio Schools Magazine, Vol. 82, no.5, (May/June 2004): 1; Marilyn Milloy, ed., ―1968: 250

addressed funerary rites when an online printout of a CBS News Sunday Morning piece noted that a private company launched the remains of notables such as astronaut Gordon

Cooper and actor James ―Scotty‖ Doohan of Star Trek into space. In a promotional flyer distributed at Cleveland Cinemas Cedar Lee Theatre for In the Shadow of the Moon, the advertising summary declared that the film, ―…communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up at America.‖122

As a Cold War icon expressing a series of negative traits, print media often featured the Berlin Wall symbol, sometimes with contrasting positive attributes ascribed to the United States. U.S. News & World Report detailed the Cold War from the Winston

Churchill Iron Curtain speech to one decade after the disintegration of the hated emblem.

This well respected magazine carried numerous images of the barbed wire barrier with an imposing border guard before the Brandenburg gate on the issue‘s cover. Emphasizing the tyranny and oppression, which required the infamous prison obstacle, the contributors argued in their timeline assessment that the positive outcome for the West remained far from certain within the view of policy makers.123

When the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released a ―Celebrate the Century‖ series, the pane of fifteen stamps representing the 1980s bore the caption, ―Space Shuttle

Launched, Berlin Wall Falls.‖ With an issue of ninety million (90,000,000), the

The Year That Rocked Our World,‖ AARP Magazine (May/June 2008): 58; Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, Zits, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, Sunday Comics Section, July 6, 2008.

122Bill Geist, CBS News Sunday Morning, ―The Departed Take Flight In Space,‖ May 6, 2007 ; Cleveland Cinemas Cedar Lee Theatre, flyer, In the Shadow of the Moon, September 22, 2007

123John Lewis Gaddis, ―Face-Off,‖ U.S. News & World Report (October 16, 1999): 38.

251

explanatory copy on each sheet stated, ―The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 presaged the end of the Cold War.‖ Scott number 3190-K (CM 2105-K) entitled, ―Fall of the Berlin Wall,‖ spotlighted a young man smashing an oversized sledgehammer into the structure while uniformed East German guards stood on the barrier passively and observed. On its promotional flyer, the Kent Free Library affirmed that twenty-two million Americans collected stamps and declared, ―Stamps tell about a country‘s history, economy, geography and heroes; its life and culture. Often, they are works of art themselves.‖124

In the Hillsdale College publication Imprimis with the subtitle, ―Because Ideas

Have Consequences,‖ an August 2002 issue recounted President Ronald Reagan‘s strategy to confront Soviet aggression, which the Berlin Wall epitomized. In addition to assessing the Reagan‘s partnership with Prime Minister , the essay argued that he embraced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly called ―Star

Wars,‖ in response to Soviet cheating on a 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Employing a key Berlin Wall descriptor, totalitarian, to justify America‘s armed response in Granada, the article asserted that the President‘s foreign policy refused to accept

―peace at the expense of other people‘s freedom.‖ Along with his famous quote before the Brandenburg gate at the Berlin Wall, Imprimis included this Reagan statement, which framed America‘s anti-Communist philosophy given in Westminster Palace before the

British Parliament:

124Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps, ―Celebrate the Century‖ (New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2000): 23, 296; Maurice D. Wozniak, ed., Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps, ―Celebrate the Century: 1980-1989‖ (Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2002): 386-9; Kent Free Library, flyer, ―Stamp Collecting Guides from KFL Open a Window on the World for Hobbyists,‖ September 2002.

252

What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long-term. The march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history, as it has left other tyrannies which stifled the freedom and muzzled the self- expression of the people.125

The Iron Curtain wall in the German city garnered further comment in newspaper articles. An AP piece on a Cold War submarine memorial at Patriot‘s Point Naval and

Maritime Museum in South Carolina described America‘s triad defense strategy of

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos, strategic bombers, and nuclear missile submarines. Calling the Cold War struggle a unique conflict, the naval memorial defined the bipolar era with the period from the Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947, to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Another AP article assessed the impact of exotic travel T-shirts purchased as souvenirs. Labeling the Berlin Wall a ―terrible specter,‖ the writer proclaimed, ―Actually, a superficially simple T-shirt is a complex weave of symbols and implications,‖ and noted Berlin apparel with the Checkpoint Charlie warning, ―You are leaving the American zone.‖126

In still another essay, U.S. News & World Report investigated the sharp debate among White House staffers over the proposed ―tear down this wall speech.‖ According to the address‘s author, presidential speechwriter Peter Robinson met considerable opposition to his suggested theme. Many Reagan advisors and members of the State

Department considered Robinson‘s recommendation too confrontational and embarrassing for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Because he sensed continued bitter

German resentment to the barrier during an investigative tour of Berlin, Reagan‘s

125Edwin Meese, III, ―Morality and Foreign Policy: Reagan and Thatcher,‖ Imprimis, Vol. 31, no. 8 (August 2002): 2.

126Jim Heintz, ―Travel T-shirts More Than Clothing,‖ sec. G-4, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, July 27, 2003; Bruce Smith, ―Tribute to Submariners,‖ sec. H-3, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, April 27, 2003.

253

speechwriter advised, ―just beneath the surface they hated it every day of their lives‖ while he employed the phrase captive peoples. Furthermore, Robinson advocated that the speech could evoke imagination, which articulated a worldview without the oppressive barrier. After his Berlin Wall appeal, that night President Reagan recorded in his diary,

―Addressed tens and tens of thousands of people stretching as far as I can see. I got a tremendous reception—interrupted 28 times by cheers.‖127

The concrete icon and its traits that symbolized the international fault line found expression on both serious, scholarly monographs, and in standard college textbooks. In its German History section, the Princeton University Press brochure called the dismantling of the wall a crucial watershed event in the copy for Mary Elise Sarotte‘s,

1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, whose cover bore an illuminated image of the Brandenburg gate. For the ―Politics and Culture in Modern America‖ series,

University of Pennsylvania Press offered Through the History of the Cold War with a

Berlin Wall image on the front.128 A promotional flyer for the journal Cold War History featured a series of barbed wire images from the wall to entice readership. When

Cambridge University Press needed a volume for a military history pamphlet, the prestigious British university chose Black Market, Cold War, which examined, ―…how and why Berlin became the symbolic capital of the Cold War.‖129 After one textbook recalled President Kennedy‘s military response during the Berlin crisis in 1961,

127Kenneth T. Walsh, ―Seizing the Moment,‖ U.S. News & World Report (June 18, 2007): 39-41.

128Princeton University Press, pamphlet (Winter 2009-2010); University of Pennsylvania Press, pamphlet (2010).

129Cold War History, Vol. 7, 2007, < http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/onlinesamples.asp>; Cambridge University Press (Military History Catalog Spring 2007), .

254

undergraduates read that the Berlin Wall ―…stood 28 years as an unsightly symbol of communist oppression, [which] further undermined the Soviet image.‖ Before a German throng in that city Kennedy later declared, ―Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect. But we have never had to put a wall up to keep people in.‖

Other history volumes employed images of jubilant crowds as they struck the wall and danced on the barrier. Defining the Cold War as a contest, which pitted against totalitarian socialism, a former Soviet political dissident exalted, ―The fall of the Berlin Wall was welcomed with great enthusiasm as the end of the Cold War, the end of communism, and even the end of history. Twenty years later, we must admit we were too enthusiastic.‖130

Following the demise of the German Democratic (GDR) barrier, the Cold War icon continued to gain mention in electronic media where the symbol offered either explicit or implicit comparisons to the former bipolar antagonists. When CBS reported the sale of the original manuscript of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for $3.2 million, the news program cited the music‘s use in historic and significant ceremonies such as the

Olympics. Of all the musical possibilities the reporter intoned, Beethoven‘s Ode to Joy best expressed the fall of the Berlin Wall to the citizens of Germany in particular, and the world‘s population in general. In 2002, television commentator Bill Moyers recalled the only documentary that won an Emmy for Program of the Year. Concerning East German efforts to dig under the wall in The Tunnel, Moyer‘s argued, ―Not before or since on television have I seen a more powerful of freedom‘s hold on the human heart,

130Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon, Connections: A World History (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009), 890; Jeanne Boydston, Making a Nation: The United States and Its People, Vol. 2 ( New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004), 761; Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner, The Western Heritage, Eighth Edition, Volume Two: Since 1648 (New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall 2004), 1069; Vladimir Bukovsky, Cato’s Letter, Vol. 8, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 1. 255

nor a documentary that so excelled at bringing dramatic narrative to the service of story.‖

Once called the most trusted man in America, CBS television reporter Walter Cronkite in his assessment stated, ―But for me as a viewer, some of the most dramatic scenes I ever witnessed were those images of the Berlin Wall being torn down. The heroism of those people taking the wall down chunk by chunk was truly something to behold.‖131

Cold War films also employed the Berlin barrier at the East/West divide as a plot device. Although released in December 1961 after the border closing, the motion picture

One, Two, Three (1961) ostensibly took place that summer while Berliners‘ still had access to the city‘s different Four-Power zones. Comic director Billy Wilder delivered a satirical farce, which ridiculed extreme aspects of all Cold War antagonists. In his last starring role, represented the penultimate senior capitalist driven to achieve business success at the expense of family relationships. Older Russians displayed ruthless oppression with unabashed cynicism while naïve youngsters spouted ideological nonsense within a city racked with German war guilt. Career retrospectives for both Hollywood legends Wilder and Cagney prompted numerous rerun broadcasts on television. Intended as a breathless comedy with nonstop one-liners, the contrasting grim and often deadly presence of a barbed wire barricade dampened the film‘s effort to achieve humor. The fatal consequences of the contested Berlin border manifested as integral plot elements at both introduction and conclusion of Cold War motion pictures and their television rebroadcasts. To begin The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965),

Richard Burton witnessed an agent‘s execution at the border, whereas East German guards gun-down James Mason from behind as he helped an innocent British girl to

131CBS News Sunday Morning, CBS, ―Ode to Joy,‖ May 25, 2003; Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite, TV Guide (April 10 to 17, 2004):27, 14. 256

escape Communist intrigue at the end of The Man Between (1953). In these later works, both United Kingdom and American audiences viewed the Cold War fault line in Berlin as a deadly symbol that revealed contrasting traits. Long after the conclusion of the Cold

War, a broad range of electronic and print media presented not only the Berlin Wall, but also the Rosenthal photograph, John Wayne screen persona, and Apollo images as emblems of that global contest.132

132One, Two, Three, directed by Billy Wilder (Mirisch Corporation: December 15, 1961): 115 min.; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, directed by (Salem Films Limited: December 16, 1965): 112 min.; The Man Between, directed by Carol Reed (London Film Productions, November 2, 1953): 100 min. 257

Chapter 10

Enduring Icons

The Berlin Wall and its subsequent fall marked a watershed event signaling the end of the Cold War. Following the formation in 1980 of Solidarity, an independent in Poland led by Lech Walesa, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began economic and political reforms in March 1985, termed ―.‖ In a 1986 summit meeting at Reykjavik, Iceland, with President Ronald Reagan, Gorbachev proposed substantial reductions in both nations‘ nuclear arsenals, and a year later in West Berlin

Reagan made his ―tear down this wall‖ speech before the Brandenburg Gate. After the

German Democratic Republic (GDR) opened its border with West Germany in

November 1989, joyous German citizens literally dismantled the Berlin Wall piece by piece. Subsequent to German reunification the next year, the Soviet Union acknowledged the dissolution of the Iron Curtain, which allowed Eastern European nations‘ access to the West and eventual entry into the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) itself and the European Union. By December 1991, aspiring reformer of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down, and his Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolved. After seventy-four years of Communist rule and nearly half a century of Cold War conflict, America‘s totalitarian nemesis melted from a

258

superpower challenger of Western democracy into the loose Confederation of

Independent States.1

Evolving as iconic images during the Cold War, the Rosenthal photograph, John

Wayne screen persona, Apollo images, and Berlin Wall endured past the breakup of the

Soviet Union into the twenty-first century. With the United States engaged in two

Middle Eastern theatres of combat, these dramatic symbols still held powerful sway over much of American society. What conclusions did the research infer about these iconic representations expressed in cultural shorthand? More specifically, what suppositions can one construe regarding the traits embodied in these emblems? If the images suggested heroic courage, did this in fact make the United States a heroic nation? Did the patriotic nationalism conjectured in these symbols reflect a justified sense of pride or merely a slight of hand manipulation by self-serving politicians? Were Americans ruggedly individualistic and if so, how did this address the concept of teamwork? Did the military prowess exhibited in the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima equate to America‘s construct of the ideal military leader expressed in the John Wayne screen persona? As the achievement of a civilian agency, did the Apollo missions that generated multiple images with their attendant characteristics merely reflect technological prowess in outer space exploration or exist solely as an outgrowth of the military/industrial complex?

Moreover, did the Berlin Wall symbol manifest an accurate representation contrasting the two superpowers, which engaged in a struggle for global supremacy?

Regarding the subject of Euro-American heroism, North American first peoples would offer a decidedly negative response, as would the remaining descendants of the

1John Lewis Gaddis, ―,‖ U.S. News & World Report (October 18, 1999): 39-46.

259

My Lai village in Vietnam. On the other hand, the winner of the Congressional Gold

Medal and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as the 1986 Nobel

Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel experienced liberation from Buchenwald concentration camp by U.S. armed forces. As a human rights advocate and an author of more than forty books, the Boston University professor avowed, ―Ever since that encounter, I cannot repress my emotion before the flag and the uniform—anything that represents American heroism in battle.‖2

On the subject of America‘s patriotic nationalism, history is replete with unprincipled politicians who resort to inflaming their constituents through demagoguery.

Yet during the Vietnam conflict on college campuses, one form of nonviolent protest sometimes involved refusal to stand at sporting events for the national anthem. Seated in block formation, the Black United Students (BUS) organization at Kent (OH) State

University often employed this expression of disapproval. Following the events of

September 11, 2001, aside from an occasional individual demonstration, such displays were significantly absent at football, basketball, and hockey contests attended by this author. For that matter, one need only attend any sporting event or morning elementary classroom to hear the national anthem or Pledge of Allegiance. While an observer may suggest that this produces emotionless rote repetition, failure to render proper respect with removal of headgear and by standing will often elicit a firm prompt or reproachful glance from others nearby. In one expression of national affiliation, a popular song offered this justification in a divorce for irreconcilable differences: ―She never cried

2Elie Wiesel, ―The America I Love,‖ Parade Magazine (July 4, 2004): 4-5. 260

when Old Yeller died, she wasn‘t washed in the blood of the lamb. She never stood for the ―Star Spangled Banner,‖ and she wasn‘t a John Wayne fan.‖3

As a society that evoked periods of extreme towards immigrants and those faiths outside conventional Protestantism, as well as a rejection of nontraditional lifestyles, the United States has been less than accepting of those whose individualism strayed beyond the confines of conformity. Nevertheless, American obsession with individualism exposed itself on every highway and at every campus as cell phones activated to transmit all manner of mundane personal detail. When a lecture has suffered interruption from ringtones, many instructors asserted that cultural individualism bordered on disruptive self-centeredness. However, according to the Pew Hispanic

Center, 12.8 million immigrants to America earned their naturalized citizenship by 2005, which reflected an increase of annual naturalizations from less than 150,000 in the 1970s to over 650,000 in the mid-1990s.4 Considering the bureaucratic obstacles and the intense study required to achieve naturalized citizenship, this significant increase suggested more than mere economic motives. A criticism often leveled at this nation‘s native born noted a higher level of civic education and historical awareness for those first generation arrivals seeking assimilation. Within the dualistic construct of individualism/teamwork, the nation‘s overwhelming obsession with secondary school sports, college athletics, and professional teams revealed a society that placed a high value on team performance, while business and other organizations routinely conducted team-building exercises.

3 Confederate Railroad, ―She Never Cried,‖ Audio CD, 1992.

4 (March 16, 2010).

261

Despite John Wayne fans‘ obsession with his fantasy military exploits, the actor failed to serve in World War II and, citing his marriage and five children, actively sought deferment from military service. Yet the performer received awards and accolades from successful and decorated career military personnel including the United States Marine

Corps, which achieved the overwhelmingly difficult victory on Iwo Jima that produced the Mount Suribachi flag photograph. The performer‘s combat motion pictures dominated broadcasts on national holidays, such as Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the

Fourth of July. Active combat personnel still referred to valorous conduct as ―pulling or doing a John Wayne,‖ and held the performer in high regard. In just one example, combat veteran Major Scott Horrigan, airborne ranger, Special Forces qualified, and a member of the 10th Mountain Division with over three years service in Afghanistan named his first-born son in honor of the actor.

Notwithstanding the agency‘s civilian status, there can be no denial that NASA missions offered the potential for direct military applications. Even though the two superpowers never elevated outer space operations beyond intelligence gathering to direct military confrontation, NASA research definitely informed missile technology for

America‘s armed forces. Within the construct of patriotic nationalism, Apollo 8

Commander Frank Borman readily admitted that exploration remained subordinate to political considerations when he stated, ―It was all about beating the Russians.‖5 In regards to technological prowess, senior curator in the Division of Space History at the

Smithsonian Institution‘s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Dr.

Roger D. Launius, argued that of several sociocultural interpretations of United States space history, the dominant narrative expressed ―American triumph, exceptionalism, and

5To the Moon, NOVA Production by Lone Wolf Pictures, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999: 120 min. 262

success.‖ Formerly the chief historian for NASA from 1990-2002 and author/editor of more than twenty books on aerospace history, Launius bolstered this affirmation with a caustic statement from the late comedian Sam Kinison, who in 1988 issued a challenge to other nations: ―You really want to impress us! Bring back our flag!‖6 Since

Congressional mandate stipulated that NASA research remained available for private applications, every citizen could garner the advantages of successful Apollo missions and their predecessors, thus, experiencing a connection to a Cold War achievement.

The ultimate distillation of the global Cold War conflict into the Berlin Wall symbol generated the broadest and deepest range of negative descriptors revealed in primary sources, most notably the Congressional Record. In addition to the official documents, pejorative imagery of the Soviet bloc inundated all manner of electronic and print American media. A United States foreign policy of interventionism went well beyond altruism since expansion of America‘s sphere of influence generated a plethora of political, military, and especially economic benefits for the Western alliance. No critical assessment of United States confrontation and of Communist interests can conclude that the nation acted solely with philanthropic motives. Given Western hostility towards Bolshevism at its very inception, even the casual observer would envisage conflict of the highest intensity. With the humiliating defeat in the Great War, a loss of a substantial portion of the Czarist empire, and followed by the shockingly near fulfillment of Hitler‘s strategic aims delineated in Mein Kampf, Stalin‘s efforts to establish a buffering sphere of influence in Eastern Europe seemed logical from the Kremlin‘s perspective. The two competing alliances articulated diametrically opposed philosophies

6 Roger D. Launius, ―Recalling the Space Age: History, Master Narratives, and the Power of Memory,‖ presentation at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 2-5, 2009. 263

with neither side disposed to serious negotiation to resolve or reconcile their respective differences effectively.

In spite of America‘s ravenous appetite for power and economic dominance, the westward flow of humanity through the Berlin window in the Iron Curtain offered the best commentary on the respective attributes of the two bipolar antagonists. When the

Kremlin and Pankow governments could only resort to erecting a barbed wire barrier to prevent the ultimate depletion of their human resources, the Berlin Wall metamorphosed into an iconic symbol of Cold War struggle, which expressed Communist traits of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and criminality juxtaposed to the Western tradition of an individual‘s worth, agency, and property rights. The ultimate tragedy of the binary confrontation was that the world squandered wealth, resources, and most regrettably of all, lives during the second half of the twentieth century.

264

265

References

Books

Albee, Parker Bishop, Jr., and Keller Cushing Freeman. American Photography, A

Century of Images. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1995.

Allen, Richard, and Bruce Hershenson. War Movie Poster. West Plains: Hershenson

Publishers, 2000.

Ambrose, Stephen E. American Heritage: New History. New York: Penquin Putmam,

Inc., 1997.

—. D-Day June 6, 1944. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Barbour, Alan G. John Wayne. New York: Pyramid Publications, 1974.

Basinger, Jeanine. America Cinema: One Hundred Years of Filmaking. New York:

Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1994.

Becker, Stephen. Comic Art in America: A Social History of the Funnies, the Political

Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons and Animated Cartoons. New

York: Simon and Schuster, 1959.

Berger, Arthur Asa. The Comic Stripped American. New York: Walker Publishing

Company, Inc., 1973.

Bernhard, Nancy E. U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960. United

Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Block, Herbert. Herbert's Here and Now. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955.

—. Herblock's Special for Today. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958.

265

266

Boydston, Jeanne. Making a Nation. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004.

Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. Flags of our Fathers. New York: Bantam Books, 2000.

Butterfield, Roger. The Saturday Evening Post Treasury: Selected from the Complete

Files. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.

Cateora, Philip R. International Marketing, 9th Edition. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin, 1996.

Clarke, Graham. The Photograph. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Czech, Kenneth P. Snapshot: America Discovers the Camera. Minneapolis: Lerner

Publications Company, 1996.

Daniels, Les. Comix: A History of Comic Books in America. New York: Bonanza Books,

1971.

Doherty, Thomas. Cold War, Cool Medium: Televison, McCarthyism, and American

Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

Ellwood, David, ed. The Movies as History: Visions of the Twentieth Century.

Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Redwood Books, 2000.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The Young American: 1844." Essays and Lectures. The

Library of America, 1983.

Goldberg, Vicki. The Power of Photography. New York: Abbeville Press, 1995.

Hess, Stephen, and Milton Kaplan. The Ungentlemanly Art: A History of America

Political Cartoons. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

Horowitz, Richard P., ed. American Studies Anthology. Wilmington: A Scholarly

Resources Inc., Number 4, 2001.

266

267

Jackson, Nancy. History and Culture Through the Camera. New York: Facts On

File, Inc., 1997.

James, D. Clayton, and Anne Sharpe Wells. From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day: The

American Armed Forces in World War II. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1985.

Jeansonne, Glen. A Time of Paradox: America from the Cold War to the Third

Millennium, 1945. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. Library of America, 1984.

Judge, Edward H., and John W. Langdon. Connections: A World History. Upper Saddle

River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009.

Kagan, Donald, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. The Western Heritage. 8th

Edition. Vol. 2. Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004.

Kvet, Bryan W. "Nazis, I Hate These Guys": Portraits of Germans in World War II

Films, 1939-1994. Master's Thesis, Kent: Kent State University, 1998.

Lamb, Chris. Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons. New York:

Columbia University Press, 2004.

Levy, Emanuel. John Wayne: Prophet of the American way of Life. Metuchen: The

Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1988.

Library of Congress. Herblock's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the

Millennium. Washington, D.C., 1977.

Lloyd, Henry Demarest. Wealth Against Commonwealth. New York: Harper and

Brothers, 1894.

Lupoff, Dick, and Don Thompson. All in Color for a Dime. New Rochelle: Arlington

House, 1970.

267

268

MacDonald, David S., ed. Brookman: United States, United Nations and Canada Stamps

and Postal Collectibles. Bedford: Brookman/Barret and Worther, 1998.

MacDonald, J. Fred, Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Vietnam. New

York: Praeger, 1985.

Madaras, Larry, and James M. SoRelle. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial

Issues in American History, 9th Edition. Vol. II. New York: McGraw-

Hill/Dushkin, 2004.

Marling, Karal Ann, and John Wetenhall. Iwo Jima Monuments, Memories, and the

American Hero. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Martin, James Kirby, et. al. America and its Peoples: A Mosaic in the Making. 3rd

Edition. Vol. 1 and 2. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1997.

McDarrah, Fred W., and Gloria S. McDarrah. The Photography Encyclopedia. New

York: Schirmer Books, 1982.

McGhee, Richard D. John Wayne: Actor, Artist, Hero. Jefferson: McFarland and

Company, Inc., 1990.

Miller, Francis Trevelynan. History of WWII. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company,

1945.

Parenti, Michael. Inventing the Politics of New Media Reality. 2nd Edition. New York:

St. Martin's Press, 1993.

Press, Charles. The Political Cartoon. East Brunswick: Associated University Presses,

1981.

Oates, Stephen B. Portrait of America. 5th Edition. Vol. 1 and 2. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin Company, 1991.

268

269

O‘Connor, John E., ed. Image as Artifact: The Historical Analysis of Film and

Television. Malabar: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc., 1990.

Peter, Paul J. A Preface to Marketing Management. New York: Irwin Book Team, 1997.

Reynolds, Moria Davison. Comic Strip Artists in American Newspaper, 1945-1980.

Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2003.

Ricci, Mark, Boris Zmijewsky, and Steve Zmijewsky. The Films of John Wayne.

Secaucus: Citadel Press, 1970.

Roark, James L., et. al. The American Promise. 2nd Edition. Vol. 1 and 2 Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin, 2002.

Roberts, Randy, and James D. Olson. John Wayne: American. New York: Free Press,

1995.

Rollins, Peter C. The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the

Movies Have Portrayed the American Past. New York: Columbia University

Press, 2003.

Rosenblum, . A World History of Photography. New York: Abbeville Press, 1997.

Ross, Bill D. Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor. New York: Vangard Press, 1985.

Shain, Russell Earl. An Analysis of Motion Pictures about War Released by the American

Film Industry: 1930-1970. New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Shepherd, Donald, Robert Slatzer, and Dave Grayson. Duke: The Life and Times of John

Wayne. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1985.

Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. New York:

Smith Publishing, 1989.

269

270

Spillane, Mickey. The Mike Hammer Collection. Vol. 2/Mickey Spillane. New York:

New American Library, 2001.

Susman, Warren I., Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the

Twentieth Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1973, 1984.

Thomey, Tedd. Immortal Images: A Personal History of Two Photographers and the

Flag Raising on Iwo Jima. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996.

Thompson, Dick, and Don Lupoff. All in Color for a Dime. New Rochelle: Arlington

House, 1970.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or Life in the Woods. The Library of America, 1985.

Tower, Samuel A. Cartoons and Lampoons: The Art of Political Satire. New York:

Julian Messner, 1982.

U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps. New York: Harper Collins

Publishers, 2000.

Walker, Brian. The Comics Since 1945. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002.

Ward, John William. Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age. New York: Oxford University

Press, 1962.

Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Wheeler, Richard. Bloody Battle for Suribachi. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1965.

—. Iwo. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1980.

White, David Manning, and Robert H. Abel, eds. The Funnies: An American Idiom.

London: The Free Press of Gencoe, 1963.

270

271

Wills, Garry. John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity. New York: Simon and

Schuster, 1977.

Wozniak, Maurice D. Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps 2002 Edition.

Iola: United States Postal Service, 2001.

Journals

Cosgrove, Denis. "Contested Global Visions: One-World, Whole-Earth, and the Apollo

Space Photographs." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84, no.

2 (1994): 270-294.

Human, Julie. The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (Autumn 2000): 427.

Isenberg, Michael T. Review of Guts and Glory: Great American War Movies, by

Lawrence H. Suid. The Journal of American War Movies 66, no. 1 (1979): 210-

211.

Johnstone, John W.C. Reviews of The Powers That Be, by David Halberstam, Deciding

What's News, by Herbert Gans, Making News, by Gaye Tuchman. The American

Journal of Sociology 87, no. 5 (March 1982): 1174-81.

Jones, Dorothy B. "The Language of Our Time." The Quarterly of Film Radio and

Television 10, no. 2 (Winter 1955): 167-179.

Levine, Elana. Review of The Astronaut Farmer, directed by Michael Polish. The

Journal of American History. (December 2007): 1039.

MacDougall, Robert. "Red, Brown and Yellow Perils: Images of the American Enemy in

the 1940s and 1950s." Journal of Popular Culture 32, no. 4 (1999): 59-75.

271

272

McDougal, Walter A. "Technocracy and Statecraft in the Space Age: Toward the History

of a Saltation." The American Historical Review 87, no. 4 (October 1982): 1025-

9.

Murphy, Geraldine. "Ugly Americans in Togas: Imperial Anziety in the Cold War

Hollywood Epic." Journal of Film and Video (2004): 3-19.

Novelli, Martin. Reviw of Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image

in Film. by Lawrence H. Suid. The Journal of Military History 66, no. 4 (2002):

1261-1263.

Schiller, Herbert I. Review of Television and the Red Menace, by J. Fred MacDonald.

Contemporary Sociology 15, no. 2 (1986): 77-78.

Shelton, William. "The United States and the Soviet Union: Fourteen Years in Space."

Russian Review 30, no. 4 (October 1971): 334.

Strickland, Donald A. "Physicists' Views of Space Politics." The Public Opinion

Quarterly 29, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 223-5.

U.S. Government Documents

Carter, Jimmy. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter,

1977-1980. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980.

Carter, Jimmy. Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: Jimmy Carter, 1977-

1980. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, Vol. 15, no. 22, 1979.

Kennedy, John F. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy,

1961-1963. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1962.

272

273

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 22nd Semiannual Report to Congress,

July 1-December 31, 1969. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,

1970.

Nixon, Richard M. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M.

Nixon, 1969-1972. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1971.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. Vol. 37. no. 23. June 1979.

1120.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 1.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 2.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 3.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 11.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 12.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945. Vol. 91, pt. 13.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957. Vol. 103, pt. 6.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957. Vol. 103, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 2d. sess., 1958. Vol. 104, pt. 3.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 2d. sess., 1958. Vol. 104, pt. 8.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 2d sess., 1958. Vol. 104, pt. 9.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 2d sess., 1958. Vol. 104, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 85th Cong., 2d sess., 1958. Vol. 104, pt. 14.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 2.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 3.

273

274

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 4.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 5.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105. pt. 6.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 8.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 9.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 11.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 12.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 13.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Vol. 105, pt. 14.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 4.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 5.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 6.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 7.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 8.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 9.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d. sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d. sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 11.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d. sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 12.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 86th Cong., 2d. sess., 1960. Vol. 106, pt. 13.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 1.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 6.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 7.

274

275

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 8.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 9.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 11.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 12.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 13.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 14.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 15.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961. Vol. 107, pt. 16.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 91st Cong., 1st sess., 1969. Vol. 115, pt. 15.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 91st Cong., 1st sess., 1969. Vol. 115, pt. 16.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 91st Cong., 1st sess., 1969. Vol. 115, pt. 17.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 96th Cong., 1st sess. 1979. Vol. 125, pt. 4.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 96th Cong., 1st sess. 1979. Vol. 125, pt. 7.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 96th Cong., 1st sess. 1979. Vol. 125, pt. 8.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 96th Cong., 1st sess. 1979. Vol. 125, pt. 9.

U.S. Congress. Congressional Record. 96th Cong., 1st sess. 1979. Vol. 125, pt. 10.

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. John Wayne

Gold Medal: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs. 96th Cong.,

1st sess., May 21, 1979. Serial 96-10. H. Res. 3767.

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Naval Affairs. Presentation to the Committee

of Painting Depicting the Raising of the American Flag on Mount Suribachi. 79th

Cong., 1st sess., September 8, 1945. H. Doc. 111.

275

276

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Naval Affairs. Providing for the Acquisition of

Exclusive Ownership of the Photograph Depicting Raising the American Flag of

Mount Suribachi. 79th Cong., 1st sess., May 26, 1945. H. Doc. 52. H. J. Res. 162.

U.S. Congress. Iwo Jima Commemoration Day—Designation. Public Law 96—196.

February 28, 1980.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Iwo Jima Commemoration Day. 96th

Cong., 2d sess. January 30, 1980. S. Rep. 96-573. S. J. Res. 140.

Newspapers and Magazines

Akron (OH) Beacon Journal.

American Association of Retired People.

American Mercury.

Aviation Week and Space Technology.

Baltimore Sun.

Berliner Illustrirte.

Boston Sunday Herald.

British Film Institute Companion.

Cato's Letter.

Chicago Daily Tribune.

Chicago Sunday Tmes.

Christian Crusade.

Chronicle of Higher Learning.

Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cleveland Press.

276

277

Cowboys and Indians

Daily Kent (OH) Stater.

Daily (MT) Missoulia.

Dallas Morning News.

Duluth-News-Times.

Entertainment Weekly.

Frankfurter Zeitung.

Great Falls Tribune.

Houston Post.

Imprimis.

Indianapolis Times.

Laramie Boomerang.

Life.

London Times.

Louisville Courier-Journal.

Luna Negra.

Manchester Guardian.

Maryland Cumberland Sunday Times.

Maxim Magazine.

National Geographic.

New York Daily Mirror.

New York Daily News.

New York Herald Tribune.

277

278

New York Times.

Ohio Schools.

Oregonian.

Parade Magazine.

Perspectives on History.

Philadelphia Enquier.

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

Playboy Magazine.

Providence Evening Journal.

Reader's Digest.

San Francisco Examiner.

Sight and Sound.

Ski Magazine.

Springfield Union.

Staunton News Leader.

Steubenville (OH) Herald Star.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

T.V. Guide.

U.S. News and World Report.

Wall Street Journal.

Washington Daily News.

Washington Post.

Washington Star.

278

279

Motion Pictures

Altman, Robert, Director. MASH. Twentieth Century Fox, 1970.

Badham, John, Director. Short Circuit. David Foster Productions, 1986.

Bay, Michael, Director. Transformers. Dream Works, SKG, 2007.

Brooks, Richard, Director. Battle Circus. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1953.

Coppala, Francis Ford, Director. Apocalypse Now. United Artists, 1979.

Dassin, Jules, Director. Reunion in France. Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, 1979.

Dmytryk, Edward, Director. Back to Bataan. RKO Radio Pictures, 1945.

Donaldson, Roger, Director. The Recruit. Touchstone Pictures, 2003.

Douglas, Gordon, Director. I was a Communist for the F.B.I. Douglas. Warner Brothers,

1951.

Douglas, Gordon, Director. Them! Warner Brothers, 1954.

Dwan, Allan, Director. Sands of Iwo Jima. Republic Pictures, 1949.

Emmerich, Roland, Director. Day After Tomorrow. Twentieth Century-Fox Film

Corporation, 2004.

Ford, John, Director. Stagecoach. United Artists, 1939.

Ford, John, Director. The Quiet Man. Argosy Pictures, 1952.

Ford, John, Director. The Searchers. Warner Brothers, 1956.

Frakes, Johnathan, Director. Star Trek: Insurrection. Paramount Pictures, 1998.

Frankenheimer, John, Director. The Manchurian Candidate. United Artists, 1962.

Gordon, Bert I., Director. The Beginning of the End. RKO Pictures, 1957.

Hathaway, Henry, Director. True Grit. Paramount Pictures, 1969.

Hawks, Howard, Director. Red River. United Artists, 1948.

279

280

Kramer, Stanley, Director. On the Beach. United Artists, 1964.

Kubrick, Stanley, Director. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and

Love the Bomb. Columbia Pictues, 1964.

Kurosawa, Akira, Director. The Seven Samurai. Columbia Pictures, 1956.

Lemet, Sidney, Director. Fail-Safe. Coumbia Pictures, 1964.

Lourie, Eugene, Director. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The. Warner Brothers, 1953.

Ludwig, Edward, Director. Big Jim McLain. Warner Brothers, 1952.

Lydecker, Howard, and Edward Ludwig, Directors. The Fighting Seabees. Republic

Pictures, 1944.

Mann, Anthony, Director. Strategic Air Command. Paramount, 1955.

Mate, Rudolph, Director. The 300 Spartans. Twentieth Century Fox, 1962.

McCarey, Leo, Director. My Son John. Paramount, 1952.

Milestone, Lewis, Director. All Quiet on the Western Front. Universal Studios, 1930.

Milestone, Lewis, Director. Pork Chop Hill. United Artists, 1959.

Miller, David, Director. Flying Tigers. Republic Pictures, 1942.

Reed, Carol, Director. The Man Between. London Film Productions, 1953.

Ritt, Martin, Director. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Salem Films Limited, 1965.

Rydell, Mark, Director. The Cowboys. Warner Brothers, 1972.

Seaton, George, Director. Miracle on 34th Street. Twentieth Century Fox, 1947.

Seaton, George, Director. The Big Lift. Twentieth Century Fox, 1950.

Siegel, Don, Director. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Allied Artists, 1956.

Singer, Bryan, Director. X-Men. Marvel Enterprises, 2003.

Sington, David, Director. In the Shadow of the Moon. Discovery Films, 2007.

280

281

Snyder, Zack, Director. The 300. Warner Brothers, 2006.

Spielberg, Steven, Director. E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial. Universal Pictures, 1982.

Stevenson, Robert, Director. I Married a Communist (a.k.a. Woman on Pier 1).

Twentieth Century Fox, 1950.

Stone, Oliver, Director. Platoon. Orion Pictures, 1986.

Wayne, John, Director. The Alamo. Batjac Productions, 1960.

Wayne, John, and Ray Kellogg, Directors. The Green Berets. Warner Brothers-Seven

Arts, 1968.

Wellman, William A., Director. Wings. Paramount Pictures, 1927.

Wellman, William A., Director. Iron Curtain (a.k.a. Behind the Iron Curtain). Twentieth

Century Fox, 1948.

Television Programs

American Movie Classics, part 3. An episode on History Channel. 2001.

American Photography: A Century of Images. Twin Cities Public Television. 1999.

Astro Spies. Nova Productions. C.Scott Films, LLC, WGBH Boston. 2007.

CBS News Sunday Morning. Zoeller, Chuck. CBS. June 3, 2007.

CSI Miami.

The Daily Show. Stewart, John. Comedy Central. August 21, 2002.

Dangerous Missions. History Channel. 2002.

Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima. Hackman, Gene, narrator. A&E Television. 2001.

Great Blunders in History. History Channel. 1998.

Guns of World War II. History Channel. 1999.

I Love the 80s. An episode on VH1, 2002.

281

282

Marine Raiders. History Channel. 2001.

Miami Vice.

Moments of Truth. History Channel. 2001.

National Memorial Day Concert. Public Broadcasting System. Washington, DC, May 28,

2007.

Nip Tuck.

Outlaw Biker Gangs. History Channel. 2002.

Pacific: The Lost Evidence. A&E Television. 2005.

Secrets of the Moon Landings. 2007.

Shooting War: WWII Combat Cameramen. Lorac Production, Dreamworks, Inc. 2000.

Shootout! History Channel. 2006.

To The Moon. Produced by WGBH Educational Foundation. Nova Productions by Lone

Wolf Pictures, 1999.

The War, episode ―The Ghost Front.‖ Burns, Ken. Public Broadcasting System. 2007.

WWE Monday Night Raw. Turner Network Televison. May 28, 2007.

WWE Smackdown. Turner Network Television. July 4, 2002.

Sound Recordings

Buffet, Jimmy. Incommunicado. 1980.

Cole, Paula. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? 1997.

Confederate Railroad. She Never Cried. 1992.

Greenbaum, Norman. Spirit in the Sky. 2001.

Millins, Tony, Donnie Van Zant, and Johnny Van Zant. These Colors Don't Run. 2007.

282

283

Philharmonic, City of Prague. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Comp. Richard Strauss. 1996

Reissue.

Advertisements, Flyers, and Pamphlets

American Movie Classics.

Argus Communications. 1990.

ATT, I-Phone Commercial.

Bradford Exchange.

Cleveland Institute of Art: Cinematheque.

Franklin Mint.

Kent Free Library, Kent, OH.

Littleton Coin Company.

Lunar Lander. Atari, Inc. Cedar Point Amusement Park. Main Arcade. Sandusky, OH.

1979.

Milso/Wilso Industries, Enterprises. Louisiana, USA.

Pioneer. D. Gottlieb and Co. Cedar Point Amusement Park. Main Arcade. Sandusky, OH.

1975.

Wayne Enterprises.

Web Sites Accessed http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/marshall_plan/ (accessed April 23,

2010) http://www.baskinrobbins.com (accessed January 16, 2008). http://www.bomertown.com (accessed April 13, 2007). http://www.cambridge.org/us/history (accessed Spring 2007).

283

284 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/06/sunday/main2764813.shtml (accessed May

6, 2007). http://www.cedarpoint.com (accessed June 1, 2006). http://www.christmas-time.com (accessed November 29, 2006). http://clevelandcinemas.com (accessed September 22, 2007). http://www.digicamhistory.com/moon%20footprint.jpg (accessed March 28, 2004). http://www.HistoryChannel.com (accessed July 9, 2002). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046031/ (accessed April 10, 2010). http://www.LittletonCoin. com (accessed December 15, 2008). http://www.natgeotv.com (accessed November 8, 2008). http://www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov (accessed April 1, 2004). http://www.ohiospirit.org (accessed November 2, 2004). http://www.pbs.org (accessed July 9, 2002). http://www.peterixplanet.com (accessed January 31, 2004). www.//pewhispanic.org (accessed March 16, 2010). http://www.princeton.edu/~nchow/earthrise.jpg (accessed February 16, 2004). http:www.socialstudies.com (accessed January 31, 2007). http://www.sports.espn.go.com/mlb/nes/story?id=3110184 (accessed November 19,

2007). http://www.store.aetv.com (accessed July 9, 2002). http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/onlinesamples.asp (accessed May 4, 2007). http://www.usnews.com (accessed June 18, 2007). http://www.usps.com (accessed July 16, 2003).

284

285

Interviews

Markley, Linda, interview by John T. Nelson. (November 13, 2002).

Nelson, Mary, interview by John T. Nelson. (May 15, 2003).

Raber, Elizabeth, interview by John T. Nelson. (March 12, 2002).

Wellman, Joey, interview by John T. Nelson. (August 1, 2007).

Wisma, Gary, interview by John T. Nelson. (December 28, 2002).

Personal E-mails

"Love That George Carlin." June 27, 2002.

285