Iron Curtain Twitchers: Russo-American Cold War Relations

(Hardback)

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The Cold War is often viewed in absolutist terminology: the United States and the Soviet Union characterized one another in oppositional rhetoric and pejorative propaganda. State-sanctioned communications stressed the inherent dissimilarity between their own citizens and those of their Cold War foe. Such rhetoric exacerbated geopolitical tensions and heightened Cold War paranoia, most notably during the Red Scare and brinkmanship incidents. Government leaders stressed the reactive defensive foreign policies they implemented to retaliate against their counterparts offensive maneuvers. Only brief periods of dtente gave glimpses into the possibility of concerted peaceful coexistence. Yet such characterizations neglect the complexities and rhetorical nuances that created fissures throughout the long-standing ideological conflict. Grassroots diplomacy rarely coalesced with official governmental rhetoric and often contradicted the discourse emanating from the White House and the Kremlin. Organizations such as Women Strike for Peace (WSP), the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), and the Moscow Trust Group (MTG) defied policy directives and sought to establish genuine peaceful coexistence. Traveling citizens posited that U.S. and Soviet citizens possessed more underlying commonalities than their governmental leaders cared to admit phenomena underscored in events such as the San-Francisco-to-Moscow Walk for Peace. Spacebridge programs railed against the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and proclaimed that figurative and literal links between their country and the Other proved more conducive to public opinion than Star Wars. Iron Curtain Twitchers examines such juxtaposing rhetorics through three lexical themes: contamination, containment, and coexistence. It analyzes the disparate perspectives of public politicians and private citizens throughout the Cold Wars duration and its aftermath to better understand the political, cultural, and geopolitical nuances of U.S.-Russia relations. Vacillating rhetoric among politicians, journalists, and traveling citizens complicated geopolitical relationships, sociopolitical disagreements, and cultural characterizations. These dialogues are contrasted with the cultural mediums of film and political cartoons to underscore fluctuating Cold War identity dynamics. Manifestations of ones own country contrasted with propagations of the Other and indicate that the Cold War lasted much longer and remains more virulent than previously conceived.

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Jennifer M. Hudson presents a thoughtful examination of rhetorical themes and strategies utilized by American and Russian political and cultural leaders during each stage of the Cold War era. She ambitiously analyzes diplomatic engagements and intellectual encounters to provide insights on assumptions and perceptions. Hudson mines a wide range of travel accounts, newspaper reports and editorials, artistic and documentary films, government documents, and memoirs for a thought-provoking reflection on the spectrum of responses of Russians and Americans to each other in a variety of settings. -- Matthew Lee Miller, University of NorthwesternSt. Paul

Author Bio

Jennifer M. Hudson is lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas.