It's a pleasure to carve up this bird
Uncle Sam, in a star-patterned coat, sits at a table with a carving knife and fork, about to cut a roast bird labelled COMPLACENCY, while a small eagle perches on his hat. The tell is a Thanksgiving-table metaphor: the target of the cut is an attitude, so the picture frames complacency as something to be dealt with.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- November 28, 1957
- 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
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Security and surveillance, Home front
- 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, 5743256 (NAID 5743256).
Text on the object
COMPLACENCY JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
