ABSTRACT
In recent years, aided by the end of the Cold War itself, there has been a renewed interest in the wider social, political, and cultural implications and consequences of Cold War policies in the West. In particular, this has generated a re-evaluation of the relations between cultural activities and political agendas, and a broader understanding of the uses (and abuses) of power. As historian Tony Shaw has put it in a recent review article, ‘virtually everything, from sport to ballet to comic books and space travel, assumed political significance and hence potentially could be deployed as a weapon both to shape opinion at home and to subvert societies abroad.’ 1
