We know that the cold war involved a nuclear arms race, and a series of
relatively local wars and conflicts all over the world, including Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. But it
was also a war of ideas about the economy and government. This assignment asks you to do two
questions related to this war of ideas:
1) Propaganda Analysis: If you Google &quot;cold war propaganda,&quot; &quot;communist propaganda,&quot; or
&quot;anti-communist propaganda&quot; for images, you will find many, many examples of the propaganda
that was used by both the USSR and its allies, and the USA and its allies. Choose one example
of this propaganda, and then, in one brief paragraph, explain how it is making an argument
for why one side is good and right and/or why the other side is evil and wrong. Make sure you
make specific reference to various details of the propaganda image you choose as you explain
what it is saying.

2) Clash of Ideas: After you have analyzed your chosen propaganda example, review the &quot;Bit of
Background&quot; section directly below, as well as your previous work on the Cold War, and the
chart included as the last page below entitled &quot;Cold War: Battle of Ideas and Propaganda.&quot;
Clearly state one major way in which the ideas of the two great adversaries of The Cold War
clashed, and then choose which side you most agree with, and provide some reasons for your
position.

A Bit of Background: For the perspective of the USA, communism is presented above all as an
enemy to freedom. It was against the freedom of the individual to own property, and to privately
create, own and profit from a business. Communism gave the government total control over
every aspect of its citizens&#39; lives, while the individual lost his or her basic rights not only to own
property and run a business, but also to practice a religion or engage in free speech. Communism
was seen to crush the individual. And after all, when communist leaders like Stalin in the USSR
violently took power, they did not share that power, but instead created elite groups of powerful
government officials that forced everyone to live under their totalitarian regimes.


But from the perspective of USSR, the USA was not really about freedom, but greed. It&#39;s liberal
ideal of equal rights for all was basically a lie. A few elite groups of people (almost always white
men in rich countries!) got to be wealthy owners, but just about everybody else, including poorer
peoples around the world, were forced to work in miserable jobs for them, to make them rich.
Workers did the work but it was the owners who kept the profits and the power and the privilege.
In the USA and the countries over which it had some control, the workers were basically being
robbed. But in the USSR, the workers were empowered heroes who had risen up against the evil
owners and reclaimed what was rightfully theirs.