The Guns Are Quiet...But Still Loaded
A row of large gun barrels, drawn on a mass lettered "RED CHINA" beneath a hammer-and-sickle shape, points toward a small island lettered "QUEMOY" while bubbles rise around it. The caption says the firing has stopped but the guns remain ready. The tell is fear-appeal: the aimed barrels and the small island warn of renewed attack.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- October 7, 1958
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
- 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, 5743274 (NAID 5743274).
Text on the object
RED CHINA QUEMOY JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
