Fellow Cold War Kids: Did you ever feel as if you were fighting against "Ivan"?

[Taverner]

I remember the propaganda - even in the 1980's

"Ivan is a Brain Surgeon - yet he makes as much as the Janitor at his Hospital"

Did you remember this propaganda blitz?

[RandomThoughts]

1. Vanguard.

Van

Eye Van

Van down by the river.


Thought much on Van, noticed it is also in this video, wondered about that a bit.



The Flash A Music Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wibJRm3Lv4


Doubt it is about economics, most of the Ivans were older then that.

[Taverner]

2. Hmmm I'll admit I am confused

But then I thought how politics was discussed in the 1980's

We were the 'Good Guys'

They were the 'Evil Empire'

It's been this way since Churchill and Patton said so...

In their eyes, we were the 'Decadent West'

And so it goes...

In short, yup.

[RandomThoughts]

5. Hmm, I think Chris Farley is great.

Although I heard he had some troubles, everyone does, and most people said he was a great guy.

So Van down by the river.
And I like the way you undress matches two of his greatest skits.

Van Down By The River
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/down-by-the-river/243779/

Chip and dales Farley (although it has nothing to do with the topic of stripping but about being bold and not afraid to try your best when it may not seem you got what it takes, but you do. Although people should probably keep their cloths on, Although it is their choice, and doesn't bother me either way.)

Although this also matches some concepts from a book also.

http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=1422

And the two skits are different, but both inspirational.

So when Van came up I of coarse thought of him.

Plus I use to live in a van for awhile also.

[kentauros]

3. All that makes me think of is Fishbone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCaFe1yamg

:D

[Taverner]

4. Pretty much, yeah

That was it :)

[david13]

6. Basically no. I never got caught up in that flag waving crap,

and all the jingoism, and militarism, and all that.
I could have been classagorized as a peacenik, but a peaceful one, not a militaristic one.
dc

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. No, but I remember being terrified of nukes.

[BillStein]

8. I clearly remember

watching a National Geopgraphic type show on Russia in the early '60's (when I was like 8) and being surprised that the sun shone on the USSR... REALLY!

They laid it on pretty thick in those days

[The Midway Rebel]

9. I was connvinced the commies were coming to take over in 1970.

The hordes were waiting to invade. We'd have to run for the hills. I was only 8, so what did I know.

This song destroyed those fears in 1981.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoeLqtetizo

Ivan Meets GI Joe

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. Brezhnev and the "Red Menace"

as I recall. He always looked so cold and distant in those parade photoes with the mobile missile launchers going by.

[proteus_lives]

11. Sure.

I remember to talking to a Russian student at college who said he was having a fine old time in the States but his family was worried because they still thought the Yankees had horns and tails!

[mcollins]

12. I remember the hype about 'Red Dawn'.

Now they are re-branding it with the Chinese as the "bad guy".

[trof]

13. Aw man. The Rooskies and the Chicoms.

Boogey man gonna gitcha!
DUCK AND COVER!!!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo........
:eyes:

[Ikonoklast]

14. Hoo boy in Catholic grade school we got a double dose!

Those Godless Commies imprisoning the clergy in the Eastern Bloc were the very minions of Satan.

[Brickbat]

15. The propoganda I remember is THE RUSSIANS HAVE NO BANKS! and THE RUSSIANS HAVE NO WORD FOR FREEDOM!

Both of which I found laughable. In high school, I figured if Reagan hated it, it must be a pretty good thing, so I started reading Marx and Lenin. Then I went on to become a Russian language major in college.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. I guess I go back farther. They were going to nuke us.

Hide under your desk and cover your head. I was very lucky, my mother was a liberal skeptic who saw through all the "boogeyman" rhetoric and never let us buy into it. I learned the word "propaganda" early on.

[david13]

17. I wasn't scared of nukes. I would never duck and cover. I mean,

what difference would it make. None.
Hey you only die once.
I always opted out of stuff like that.
dc

[Art_from_Ark]

18. I never felt that I was fighting Ivan Sixpack

In fact, I envisioned a cartoon just after Ronald Reagan had made that stupid crack about bombing the "Evil Empire" in five minutes, set to the tune of the Beatles' Helter Skelter, that would have gone something like this if it had ever got onto the drawing board:

Scene shows Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Andropov at a table, talking, then they are suddenly at each other's throats, then they storm away.

"Well, they sit at a table and they talk, then they bicker and fight
And they try to decide whose position is right
But they don't, so they shout, then they cry for a war
Yeah yeah yeah yeah"

Next scene shows Reagan and Andropov as huge giants, stomping through their respective countrysides, grabbing up schools and factories and shaking the occupants out into their greedy warmongering hands, then loading them into huge cannons and shooting the cannon fodder at each other as they themselves conveniently hide behind protective barriers.

"Oh will you, won't you, die for these bozos?
They want you to fight 'cause they got bad mojo
Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me your answer
Well, they may be our leaders but they're dumb as ants, yeah"

Next scene shows the "little people" scattering in all directions to get away from the two giants

"Head for shelter
Head for shelter
Head for shelter
Yeah"