On Soviet Scales

A gloved fist grips a hammer whose head and handle form a balance with a sickle-shaped beam; a cross labelled CHRISTIANITY hangs from one pan on a chain, and a pistol labelled POLICE STATE lies below with smoke rising from its barrel. The tell is a symbolic equation of Soviet-style power with force: the cartoon argues that Christianity is being weighed against and answered with a police state, using a hammer-and-sickle emblem and a smoking pistol as fear imagery.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Fear appeal

Date: February 9, 1949
Period: Cold War
Made by: Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Cartoon
Issuer type: Media
Regime: Truman Administration
Leader: Harry S. Truman
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Warn or inform
Themes: Religion, Security and surveillance
Event: Cold War
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives, 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, 5743144 (NAID 5743144).