Creating false enemies: John Bull and Uncle Sam as food for anti-Western propaganda in Poland

摘要

The Cold War conflict brought about a rivalry of two opposing camps in different fields and the ideological one belonged to those that came to the fore. Fighting for the minds of people, convincing them to the idea of the new, allegedly better world was crucial to raise the chances of winning the conflict. This is where propaganda came in useful. This article deals with this direct product of the East-West hostility in Polish newspapers and focuses on the propagandists' presentation of the Anglo-American relationships as driven by constant conflicts. Consequently, competition between the allies or rather the struggle by the British to maintain their position in the world is shown. Criticising both countries was of particular interest for Polish journalists. The US was the leader of the 'rotten' capitalist camp and the UK its staunch ally. What is more, damaging the image of co-operation between the leaders of the capitalist camp was meant to undermine the unity of the whole Western bloc and thus proclaim the self-destruction of the latter as a result of 'hostile contradictions' between its members, leaving the 'socialist' camp in the privileged position of the winner. Press was a particularly good tool for propagandists in Poland at that time because television broadcasting was not yet well developed. Thus newspapers became a 'transmission belt' for the communist party and a useful instrument for achieving the unity of knowledge in the country. Apart from the press articles, cartoons from a satirical magazine are analysed to show a broader scale of the propaganda's influence and to prove that its output was not only verbal but also visual one.