Quote:
Originally Posted by prometheus
Communist countries were softned for decades by means of American mass-culture. I can assure you, since I lived in a Communist country: from my early childhood on, we watched almost exclusively American films, listened to the American music, wore American clothes. The official policy was (to a certian point) rhetorically anti-American, but in fact we were flooded with American propaganda through entertainment.
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Well, what I wrote was a bit simplified, 1968 and 1989 being merely very important (ie 'watershed') years of what appears to have taken place. There is of course more to it. What you say though is quite fascinating as it's almost a mirror image of what took place in the capitalistic United States, where I'm at. In the 'Cold War' we too heard official policy that was rhetorically anti-Soviet (ie anti-red), while simultaneously thru the culture receiving much red (read Marxist) propaganda. This was not in the form of products from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, or China, but primarily by way of the universities and the large number of Marxist college professors that taught...ten thousand of such professors in the US being one estimate made during the 1980's...a number I can believe having observed a bit of this myself among some professors from a major college. Of course what these professors taught entered the culture (ie radio, books, TV, films, etc) when their students graduated and began working.
Then there were the US 'wars' against communism, such as Korea and Vietnam. I put wars in quotes as while the fighting was real enough to those on the ground doing it as wars go they weren't much of a war. For instance the idea of winning suddenly disappeared when it came to the US fighting reds, and no, I do not consider Grenada a grand victory by the US against Marxism. ;-) Besides that, the US historically fought what is known as 'total wars' such as in WWI, WWII, US Civil War, etc...these having been wars about US ideology....again hardly the case with Korea, Vietnam, and lets not forget Archangel in about 1919. One does not wish to see long lasting harm come to something one is close to and cherishes after all.
Another example might be that in the midst of the 'Cold War', when the US was supposed to be fighting Communism, US television would regularly broadcast annual celebrations of the International Brigades (ie the US Abraham Lincoln Brigade which was part of this) that fought in Spain in the 1930's. It was quite obvious at the time (the 1980's) listening to these veterans talk and looking at the film clips (and seeing the hammer and sickle in them) that these were Marxists, yet, these people were being 'celebrated' (on US government channels such as PBS no less). So, yes, the US government rhetoric did not match it's actions, the actions being (in general) rather supportive of the reds, if but slyly.
At the time of the 'Cold War' it didn't make sense, though now these things do.
