Now Beat it Back Into Another Sword
A sweating worker labelled 'Russian People' holds a hammer beside an anvil on which a plough blade marked 'Malenkov's Program' rests, while a heavily decorated officer in a star-capped uniform, his sleeve labelled 'Bulganin', looks on and points down at the plough. The cartoon argues that the change of Soviet leadership will turn the plough back into a weapon, as its title says. The technique tell is a symbolic fear appeal: the sword-and-plough image carries the claim about Soviet policy by picture alone.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- February 10, 1955
- 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, Economy and finance
- 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, 5743197 (NAID 5743197).
Text on the object
MALENKOV'S PROGRAM RUSSIAN PEOPLE BULGANIN JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
