Are We Winning Mommy? America & the Cold War
Documentary film produced by the Better World Society, broadcast on Ted Turner's TBS Feb. 18, 1987, as counter-programming to ABC's "Amerika" mini-series, color, 87 mins.
Production:
- Directed by Barbara Margolis
- Cinematography by Tom Hurwitz
- Music by Wendy Blackstone
- Film Editing by Peter Kinoy, Kathryn Taverna
- Narrated by Anne Jackson
Introduction
The film begins with film clips of Yalta in 1945, and FDR saying "There can be no middle ground here" and we all must work together to build a "better world" and a lasting peace. Under the film credits, a montage of images suggests the inflammatory nature of the media in the cold war, and illustrates the revisionist theme of the film that America is partly to blame for the cold war, due to its capitalistic quest for profit and its fear of radicalism at home, especially in labor unions.
Part 1 - "Alliance"
- General Motors Production film - alliance to win the war
- Arthur Macy Cox of OSS worked with Russians
- "The Soviets emerged from the war with deep resentments and fears"
- Georgi Arbatov - 1st shot began with A-bomb on Japan
- Potsdam, Alamogordo
- "The patterns of the Cold War were set: mutual suspicion, hostile rhetoric, military buildup"
- Jerome Wiesner - predicting war actually caused it
Part 2 - "Uneasy Peace"
- Henry Ford II - labor-management cooperation needed
- Arthur Kinoy and UE strike at Bloomfield, NJ
- "The issue of the communist threat took center stage in American life"
- Republicans won 1946 election, accused Truman
- Truman responded with Clifford memo "American Relations with the Soviet Union" - "The language of military power is the only language the Soviets understand."
- Truman Doctrine to confront communism any place in the world
- "confrontational language of permanent global conflict raised expectations for future leaders"
- Noam Chomsky - passive country had to be whipped up
- "International Problems of 1947" newsreel
- "Answer to Stalin" newsreel by March of Time, 1947
Resources:
- Review by William L. O'Neill in Journal of American History, Dec. 1987, p. 1119, but the comments of the reviewer are superficial and negative and fail to explain the historical context of the film and why it was shown on TBS.
- Amerika: U. S. Miniseries from Museum of Broadcast Communications
- Bibliography Amerika from ibiblio
- Lasorsa, Dominic L. "Real and Perceived Effects of `Amerika.'" in Journalism Quarterly, Summer 1989, v 66 n 2, p. 373.
- Walker, James R. "The Impact of a Mini-Series: A Quasi-Experimental Study of 'Amerika'" in Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1989, v 66 n 4, p. 897.
- Cold War Policies
revised 4/23/01 by Schoenherr | part 2 | Filmnotes