During the more than four decades of the Cold War, from 1947 to 1991, American culture went through a transformation that is evident in the poems and songs of that era. In 1947, when the Cold War began, the United States had just fought two world wars, survived the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, and was in the midst of the Korean War. A war mentality with understandable fears about the safety of the nation naturally prevailed.
The unique nature of the Cold War, with its absence of direct armed conflict between the superpowers involved, led to a new way of fighting predicated on subterfuge. The superpowers armed and funded smaller nations that fought each other openly, but much of the conflict between the larger nations was conducted ôundergroundö in the form of espionage. Spies and traitors proliferated. This indirect form of fighting engendered distrust, as it became impossible to tell who the allies really were and who the enemies might be. This situation affected American culture pervasively, making a discernible impact on the character of the nation.
America in the forties and fifties was a Norman Rockwell type of place. Wholesome innocence, family values, and peaceful neighborhoods predominated. Life followed a logical pattern, and people were comfortable in the status quo. Television shows like ôOzzie and Harrietö and ôLeave It To Beaverö reflected the happy family dynamic that the average American identified with.
In the sixties, however, the focus on the Cold War(particularly on stemming the tide of Communism(became a prominent feature of American thought. The poem ôHow Khrushchev Stole Khristmasö was written in 1961 as part of a comic novel. In spite of its droll Dr. Seuss-type format, it brings to light a number of the serious issues that characterized the Cold War of that time. John F. Kennedy was President, and Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet UnionÆs Premier. America lived in fear of nucle...