Conversation Piece
Two seated men labelled "KENNEDY" and "MACMILLAN" talk across a table while a giant hammer-and-sickle looms behind them, its curved blade lettered "NUCLEAR TESTS - DISARMAMENT - VIET NAM - BERLIN" and its handle and hammer "LAOS - CUBA". The tell is fear-appeal: the hammer-and-sickle is made of the agenda items, so each issue is framed as a Soviet-linked threat.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- April 8, 1961
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Kennedy Administration
- Leader
- John F. Kennedy
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- War and the military, Security and surveillance
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, 5743290 (NAID 5743290).
Text on the object
NUCLEAR TESTS - DISARMAMENT - VIET NAM - BERLIN LAOS - CUBA KENNEDY MACMILLAN JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
