Introduction : 

“All propaganda is a lie, even when it’s telling the truth” -George Orwell, Orwell Diaries, 1942. 

How do we define propaganda? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word propaganda was used for the first time in the 1620s. It comes from the Latin word, Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which means “congregation for propagating the faith”. The notion of propaganda was first used by the Catholic Church and especially by Pope Gregory XV to define the mission put in place by the Church at this time to spread, and to indoctrinate non-Catholics in the XVII century.

The word propaganda has evolved over the centuries to reach the definition in its present form. In fact, propaganda can be defined through the spread of  information, ideas, opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that is broadcasted, published, or in some other way spread, intending to influence people’s opinions. Propaganda is essential for the establishment of the Frankenstein Theory because through this advent, the delegitimization of its adversary (the USSR during the Cold War and China during the New Cold War) largely through communication (such as through advertising and books) means a country creates its own “Frankenstein”. This theory is defined as the implementation of different forms of communication to discredit the enemy. The United States used this theory, especially during the Cold War.

This article will be contextualized in two major parts: the first one is called the Cold War which took place after WWII in 1947 and ended with the fall of the USSR and the second one takes place around 2010 when the relations between China and the United States began to distort themselves into alternative paths. The growing tensions, which are still prevalent between China and the US, started to be soon termed as the “New Cold War”. The term “the New Cold War” was first used in 1998 by George Kennan when the US wanted to expand NATO to ex-soviet countries. It was only in 2019 that the professors Steven Lamy and Robert D. English used this notion to describe the tensions between the US and China.

This article will show the differences and the common points between the definition of propaganda with the instances as mentioned in the previous paragraph. We will also see how this has evolved with the usage and implementation of new technologies such as mass media, social networks and how this can be construed as more dangerous in the digital age. We will see how propaganda during the Cold War and in the present time plays a key role in the indoctrination of people’s opinions in a conflict. 

Propaganda during the first Cold War 

Propaganda was widely encountered and responsible for the escalation of tensions between the two post WWII Superpowers, the USSR led by Communist ideology and the United States led by the main principles of liberalism and capitalism. The opposition between the ideologies of the countries created a rift that soon escalated into a conflict. One of the US’s concerns was the possibility that the USSR would become the world’s greater power. Therefore the US pursued an anti-communist policy. To legitimate its policy and to convince its allied countries of the validity of this policy, the American government used the means of propaganda. The goal of the propaganda was originally used to portray a very bad image of the communist ideology of the USSR through films, studies, advertisements, books, etc. Many different examples across history illustrate how this propaganda formed the Frankenstein Theory in the 20th century. This article will go through the different forms of the propaganda put in place by the United States to further the conflict. 

During the Presidential election of 1960, the then candidate and senator John F. Kennedy explained to the magazine, Musical America “There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth is also the age of Shakespeare.” The Kennedy's hypothesis shows how arts can be used and marked differently in particular historical events.  It was the case in the Cold War, in which art in the United States was widely used for propaganda purposes to lure the public towards American beliefs and values. 

The first step, usually in furthering the propaganda by using art, was acquired through the usage of cinema. American movies have an important role to play in the United States’ propaganda. Hollywood is often perceived as the place of birth of famous, American movies. This place is also conceived as a symbol of the United States’ soft power. Indeed they used films to display historical narratives, to spread their ideas around the world. The movies that were based on the historical stands of cold war had their plots used as a means to legitimize the anti-Soviet policies of the government and as a means to influence the majority opinion by casting a bad image of the USSR and communist state especially between the 1950s and 1960s when the use of propaganda in this war reached its peak. A clear example of this propaganda through movies was the famous film of 1985, “Rocky IV”, written by Sylvester Stallone, which narrates the story of a boxing match between Ivan Drago, a soviet boxer, and Rocky Balboa, the patriotic American boxer. In this film, America is represented as Rocky; as the courageous, victorious and powerful hero in contrast to the USSR which was depicted as the defeated, junky and heartless boxer. Here, we can clearly observe what message the American movies wanted to give to the spectators thanks to their successful box office reviews. Another good example of the use of propaganda against the USSR is the movie “Red Nightmare” written by Vincent Fotrze and directed by George Waggner in 1962. This film explains how the communist system can be dangerous and was substantially inferior to the American one. The film shows typical American citizens, played by Jerry Webb whose family lives a nightmare when the United States’ capitalism system transforms into a communist Soviet system. The USSR system is strongly criticized here, and is depicted as the worst political system and organization.

The Cold War propaganda of the United States against the USSR was also carried out  through the usage of posters and pop culture. The comic “ Captain America: His touch is death ” released in 1954 is a good example of how propaganda developed in the comic world. In the comic, the superhero Captain America fights against a Soviet official agent. The comic ends with the American superhero defeating the Soviet agent which shows the superiority of American power. 

Propaganda of the New Cold War: A Chinese-American version?

Nowadays, propaganda has reinvented itself. However, the omnipresence of this new way to communicate makes the perception of propaganda harder. In the example of the modern Frankenstein theory, the study of how the United States uses the theory against China is very interesting. Indeed, thanks to the rise of social media the affronts between the two great powers are now completely open to people. A new form of diplomacy was created with the massive use of social media, “the tweet diplomacy”, which means that diplomatic relations are now spread on social networks and are accessible to all users. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, are now one of the most important ways to spread American ideology, and therefore to threaten China’s image. The numerous tweets by Donald Trump, the 45th American President, were good examples of this propaganda, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The American president decided to accuse China for giving rise to the global spread, and pioneering the creation of the virus. He judged the Chinese government as guilty on social media and particularly on Twitter where he calls Covid-19 the “Chinese Virus”.

The propaganda of the New Cold War legitimizes the aggressive policies that the United States creates against China by using them to preserve the United States’ monopoly over certain markets and its rank in the world power ranking. The economic policies between the two protagonists of this New Cold War are the perfect example of why the propaganda is used in these kinds of conflict. The United States has limited the sale of certain Asian products such as smartphones, and the main objective behind this policy is to preserve American firms in these sectors. For example, the United States campaign and its broad attack on the Chinese tech giant Huawei led to the decision of the government to ban Huawei exports on its territory to reduce the company's expansion in the United States. The campaign’s aim was also to affect the image and impact the sales of Huawei worldwide by putting spying accusations on the company. They used this move to further their propaganda by stating that the company was secretly supplying the Chinese government with foreign information. Through these baseless allegations and social media spread, the Chinese firm was hugely impacted by this campaign. 

Comparison of the United States propaganda during the Cold War and the New Cold War 

The United States continued to use propaganda during conflict to establish their superpower. The advancement in the propaganda theory can be attributed to the many differences due to the modernization of societies and especially to the evolution of communication means such as the creation of social media. Propaganda today generally spreads ideologies through the internet and social networks while the propaganda of the Cold War used traditional ways of communication such as posters, films and comics. The propaganda of these two time periods are similar in one special way, which includes the goal the United States’ wanted to reach by furthering their powers over the ages. In fact, in both cases, propaganda legitimizes certain American policies that chose to destroy the power of a country with an opposing ideology considered as dangerous and as a menace for the United States’ power.

Conclusion 

The propaganda of the Cold War and the New Cold War clearly show how the United States chose to repeat the same schemes to impact the image of an enemy. An ideology can be spread in many different ways, for example, films, posters, comics and many more. The fact that the US used propaganda in both conflicts can explain the comparison that some scholars have made. The only difference of the propaganda in both cases is the new way to spread ideologies and its proposed modernization. Different questions can therefore be asked about the upcoming use of the Frankenstein theory model and how this model is now being used by other countries. 

And will the model of the Frankenstein theory, that we see applied to the USSR and China, be used to discredit another opponent leading America to victory according to the old cold war as opposed to an unchartered territory in the New Cold War?