Press Coverage During Truman's Administration

Since late in 1989, when the walls of the Moscow Kremlin began to open up to democratic reform, western journalists have heralded the "end of the Cold War." With such terms as perestroika and glasnost almost as much a part of the western vocabulary as they are the Soviet, a renewed interest is blooming into the origins, legacy, and intricacies of an undeclared war of words, deeds, sanctions, and rhetoric that has lasted at least since 1945. In fact, many western journalists, for example those in Time magazine, laud Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the man who brought the walls of the Cold War impasse down (Nelan 26-36).

With the advent of what many term to be the end of the Cold War, one is naturally concerned with its beginnings. One way to view the mounting tensions of the early period just after World War II is to examine the press coverage in the United States media during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. This paper will use two forms of media examples in order to analyze significant events in the early Cold War, The New York Times and Time magazine. Of course, with such a voluminous amount of material, the necessity of space limits us to some major issues and actions. These will include the 1945 Yalta Conference, V-E Day in Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the dropping of the atomic bomb in August, 1945, Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech of March 5, 1946, the infamous "Mr. X" article that was to stir U.S. reaction for the next two decades, and t

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he one held in San Francisco: Some of the wisest diplomats in San Francisco felt that [Stettinius's] seeming victory in getting the shabby Argentine Government admitted to the conference had in fact been a triumph for Molotov. Stettinius' forthright support of Argentina, said they, unnecessarily pointed up the disproportionate voting strength of the U.S.'s noisy Latin American bloc, gave Molotov a brilliantly used opportunity to pose as the conference's moral spokesman in opposing the Argentine jingoes, and generally cost the U.S. more than it gained ("Ed and His Friends" 10). Furthermore, Time commented that "the Americans have learned not to be too hasty" when dealing with the Soviets, and "a terse communique said that [Truman and Stalin] were making progress." Yet, the same article noted that there were several reasons for friction between the Russian and American armies: Friction between the Anglo-Americans and the Russians in the early days of joint occupation was caused by: 1) suspicion growing out of different languages, customs and behavior, and 2) the Russians' desire to make a good showing of their ten weeks of occupation. The Russians are proud of their Army's victories, not so proud of its appearance and pe

Category: Government - P