Book

Cold war games : propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. foreign policy

Rider, Toby C

Overview

\"The U.S. Government became increasingly alarmed by Soviet attempts to exploit the Olympic Movement in the early 1950s, and responded to this challenge aggressively. Cold War Game chronicles that response and shows that it was not a replication of the state-directed Soviet sports system, but was instigated through covert psychological warfare operations and overt propaganda distributed to the \"free world.\" In the lead up to and during each Olympic festival throughout this period, the U.S. sent waves of propaganda material across the globe to advocate the American way of life and to denounce communism. It used the Olympic host cities as venues to advertise the American economic and political system; it also attempted to manipulate the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in clandestine ways. Cold War Games describes the emergence of government fears about communist sport in the late 1940s and, crucially, how these fears were channeled into the Olympic Games starting in 1950. It concludes its analysis in 1960 at the end point, in many ways, of covert government initiatives at Olympic festivals. Cold War Games situates sport in the larger discussion of how America was committed to a \"total\" Cold War by demonstrating that the Olympics Games was embroiled in the U.S. government's own cultural offensive\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Subject: Olympics Political aspects United States History 20th century. / Sports Political aspects United States History 20th century. / Sports and state United States History 20th century. / Sports Social aspects United States History 20th century. / Cold War Social aspects United States. / Propaganda, Anti-communist United States History 20th century. / National characteristics, American History 20th century. / HISTORY / United States / 20th Century. / SPORTS & RECREATION / Olympics. / United States Foreign relations Soviet Union. / Soviet Union Foreign relations United States. / United States Politics and government 1945-1989. / United States Social conditions 1945-
• ISBN: 9780252040238, 9780252081699

Item info:

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
GV721.5.R54 2016	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE