American Militarism and Anti-Militarism in Popular Media, 1945–1970

Scholars have characterized the early decades of the Cold War as an era of rising militarism in the United States but most Americans continued to identify themselves as fundamentally anti-militaristic. To them, “militaristic” defined the authoritarian regimes of Germany and Japan that the nation had defeated in World War II—aggressive, power-hungry countries in which the military possessed power outside civilian authority.
Much of the popular culture in the decades following World War II reflected and reinforced a more pacifist perception of America. This study explores military images in television, film, and comic books from 1945 to 1970 to understand how popular culture made it possible for a public to embrace more militaristic national security policies yet continue to perceive themselves as deeply anti-militaristic.

Lisa M. Mundey is an American and military historian who has worked both in academia and U.S. Army history. She has written extensively on U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Lisa M. Mundey
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 31 photos, notes, bibliography, filmography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6650-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8984-8
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
Introduction      5

1. Postwar Tributes, 1945–1950      13
2. The Dark Side of War, 1950–1959      46
3. The New Look, 1951–1959      80
4. Citizen-Soldiers and Civilian Control, 1959–1964      121
5. The Vietnam Era, 1965–1970      159

Conclusion      203
Chapter Notes      209
Bibliography      237
Index      247