Every age has its bogeyman. If you grew up in 1950s and 60s America you would have been bombarded with anti-communist propaganda. In hindsight it is perhaps easy to raise a wry eyebrow. Yet at the time the threat was taken very seriously indeed. Here, hysteria intact, are a few of the stranger messages delivered to the American people.
If nothing works, tell them that they are going to steal your women. Just in case that doesn’t work tell them that they are going to be sterilized in to the bargain. It's little wonder that the word socialist can still be flung at someone in the US as an insult.
I Fell For a Commie by Senator Joe McCarthy
I Fell For a Commie by Senator Joe McCarthy
A 1950's propaganda ad from Radio Free Europe, printed at Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
The average citizen couldn’t exactly go out and ‘fight communism’ in any real way, but they were given plenty of small ways to support the cause. The public was asked to donate “truth dollars” to support causes like Radio Free Europe, which aimed to “keep up the morale of the Communist-ruled peoples, and express the kinship of the free nations, with the captive peoples.”
32 page anti-communism comic produced by the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC)
What Can I Do to Fight Communism?
Published by the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, c. 1962
Fidel Castro, the communist leader who stole Christmas, received three popes
After Cuba was officially declared a Socialist state in 1961, the Catholic University of Villanueva was closed, 350 Catholic schools were nationalized, hundreds of churches were expropriated, and 136 priests were expelled. In 1969, the communist leader abolished paid Christmas holidays, claiming he needed everyone to work on the sugar harvest.
It wasn’t until 1976 that a new constitution guaranteed freedom of worship, but it was restricted to Church premises.
The first papal visit to the island in 1998 was a pivotal moment and one which quite literally brought Christmas to Cuba, since as a welcoming gift the government announced the reinstatement of the holiday.
