Learning to Love the Nuclear Pariah: From China to North Korea

By

Jonathan Hunt

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A 1952 comic depicting an American plane attacking a Soviet ship.

Atomic War!

A 1952 comic depicting an American plane attacking a Soviet ship with “atomic rockets.”

A 1962 test of an American nuclear weapon.

Nuclear Depth Charge

A 1962 test of an American nuclear weapon in the Pacific Ocean.

A mock-up of China’s first nuclear bomb.

First Chinese Nuclear Bomb

A mock-up of China’s first nuclear bomb in a Chinese museum.

A declassified U.S. satellite photo of the completed Israeli nuclear research complex.

Dimona Complex

A declassified U.S. satellite photo of the completed Israeli nuclear research complex at Dimona in 1968.

A North Korean propaganda poster.

North Korean Propaganda Poster

A North Korean propaganda poster showing a missile flying over Japan and striking the U.S.

An image taken by a U.S. intelligence satellite of the Lop Nur Nuclear Test Range in China.

Nuclear Test Site

An image taken by a U.S. intelligence satellite of the Lop Nur Nuclear Test Range in China in 1964, four days after China tested its first nuclear weapon.

Graffiti in Vienna, Austria of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Trump and Kim

Graffiti in Vienna, Austria of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with their hairstyles reversed.

A Tweet from President Trump.

Trump Tweet

One of the many Tweets from President Trump in which he refers to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “Little Rocket Man.”

A view of Hiroshima, Japan after the atomic bomb strike.

Hiroshima After the Bomb

A view of Hiroshima, Japan after the atomic bomb strike in August 1945.

New York schoolchildren during a 'take cover' drill.

Take Cover

New York schoolchildren during a “take cover” drill in 1962.

President Kennedy signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

President Kennedy signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963.

A 1951 U.S. Information Service poster.

Stop Communism

A 1951 U.S. Information Service poster warning against the spread of communism in Asia.

A Chinese propaganda poster from the 1950s.

Sino-American Relations

A Chinese propaganda poster from the 1950s depicting America as a monster attacking China.

A 1965 cartoon with a mushroom cloud with a likeness of Mao Zedong.

Mushroom Cloud

A 1965 cartoon with a mushroom cloud with a likeness of Mao Zedong rising between Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson looking on anxiously. A 1965 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation.

The U.S. carrier USS Lexington and USS Marshall.

USS Lexington and Marshall

The U.S. carrier USS Lexington and USS Marshall off the coast of Taiwan in 1958.

A 1958 poster showing Chinese soldiers invading Taiwan.

We Must Liberate Taiwan

A 1958 poster showing Chinese soldiers invading Taiwan.

The mushroom cloud from the first Soviet test of an atomic weapon in 1949.

RDS-1

The mushroom cloud from the first Soviet test of an atomic weapon in 1949.

In 1961, the Soviet Union tested the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created.

RDS-220

In 1961, the Soviet Union tested the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and it remains the most powerful explosive ever detonated.

Klaus Fuchs’s ID badge.

Klaus Fuchs

Klaus Fuchs’s ID badge from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The first detonation of a nuclear weapon in July 1945.

Trinity Test

The first detonation of a nuclear weapon in July 1945.

A Cold-War–era billboard outside the Hanford Site.

Loose Talk

A Cold-War–era billboard outside the Hanford Site, a nuclear production complex in Washington state.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Khrushchev and Mao

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Chinese leader Mao Zedong during a 1958 visit in China.

1953 Chinese poster.

Skill of the Soviet Country

Captioned “We use the skill of the Soviet country for the creation of heavy industry,” this 1953 Chinese poster emphasizes Sino-Soviet cooperation.

President Kennedy with CIA Director John McCone.

Kennedy and McCone

President Kennedy with CIA Director John McCone in 1961.

President Johnson with McGeorge Bundy in the Oval Office.

Johnson and Bundy

President Johnson with McGeorge Bundy in the Oval Office in 1967.

An 1899 cartoon of a Chinese man standing over a fallen white woman representing the Western world.

Yellow Terror in all His Glory

An 1899 cartoon of a Chinese man standing over a fallen white woman representing the Western world. Fears of a “Yellow Peril” or “Yellow Terror” grew in the late nineteenth century, relying on racist imagery and fear mongering. It continued thereafter as a vaguely ominous, existential fear of East Asians gaining power over Western nations.

A movie poster for The Face of Fu Manchu.

The Face of Fu Manchu

A movie poster for The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), a film that embodied the racist color-metaphor of Yellow Peril.

Chairman Mao at 20th Conference of World Communist and Workers’ Parties.

Conference of World Communist and Workers’ Parties

Chairman Mao at 20th Conference of World Communist and Workers’ Parties in 1957.

A Soviet propaganda poster captioned 'Friends Forever.'

Friends Forever

A Soviet propaganda poster captioned “Friends Forever” in both Russian and Chinese.

A Chinese poster from the 1960s.

Drive U.S. Imperialism Out of the Congo

A Chinese poster from the 1960s calling for U.S. imperialism to be driven out of the Congo.

A cartoon from the 1970s.

Sino-Soviet Split

A cartoon from the 1970s depicting the Sino-Soviet split.

A Chinese stamp commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance.

Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance

A Chinese stamp commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance in 1950.

Chairman Mao proclaiming the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

People’s Republic of China

Chairman Mao proclaiming the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

President Carter visiting China.

U.S. Recognizes China

President Nixon visited China in 1972, but the U.S. did not formally recognize the People’s Republic of China until 1979 under President Carter.

President Kennedy and Averell Harriman meeting in the Oval Office.

Kennedy and Harriman

President Kennedy and Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, Averell Harriman meeting in the Oval Office in 1962.

Averell Harriman with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Khrushchev and Harriman

Averell Harriman (second from left) with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (third from left) in Moscow in 1959.

A U.S. Civil Defense booklet.

Fallout Protection

A U.S. Civil Defense booklet commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1961.

President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara meeting.

Kennedy and McNamara

President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara meeting in the Oval Office in 1962.

The Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow in 1963.

Partial Test Ban Treaty Map

The Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow in 1963 with Secretary of State Dean Rusk signing for the U.S., Foreign Minister Andre Gromyko for the Soviet Union, and Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Hume for Great Britain.

A CIA photo of a Soviet medium-range ballistic missile in Red Square, Moscow.

Soviet Medium-Range Ballistic Missile

A CIA photo of a Soviet medium-range ballistic missile in Red Square, Moscow sometime between 1959 and 1968.

President Kennedy and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy Kohler in the Oval Office.

Kennedy and Kohler

President Kennedy and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy Kohler in the Oval Office in 1963.

France tested its first nuclear weapon in 1960.

Licorne Test

France tested its first nuclear weapon in 1960 and tested many subsequent nuclear weapons in French Polynesia, such as this one in 1971.

Students from Mali studying in Germany protested French atomic testing in Sahara.

Protesting French Testing

After France tested its first nuclear weapon in the Sahara in 1960, students from Mali studying in Germany protested the testing as “the African people need no atomic bomb. [They are] living in peace and calling for the immediate end of colonial rule in Africa.”

Premier Zhou Enlai announcing the successful first test of a Chinese nuclear bomb.

Premier Zhou Enlai

Premier Zhou Enlai announcing the successful first test of a Chinese nuclear bomb in 1964.

The mushroom cloud from China’s first test of a nuclear weapon.

First Chinese Atomic Test

The mushroom cloud from China’s first test of a nuclear weapon in 1964.

General Zhang Aiping reporting the successful first detonation of a Chinese nuclear weapon to Premier Zhou Enlai.

General Zhang Aiping

General Zhang Aiping reporting the successful first detonation of a Chinese nuclear weapon to Premier Zhou Enlai in 1964.

A United Nations stamp.

United Nations Stamp

A United Nations stamp to commemorate the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty.

A 1963 cartoon depicting negotiations for a nuclear test ban agreement.

How About One More Try?

During negotiations for a nuclear test ban agreement, President Kennedy remarked that if they did not act soon, “the genie [might be] out of the bottle.” This 1963 cartoon depicts this idea with President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan on one side of a jar and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on the other as a menacing hand rises between them like a mushroom cloud. A 1963 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation.

The emblem for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

International Atomic Energy Agency

The emblem for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Leftover bomb casings at an abandoned nuclear bomb production facility.

South African Warheads

Leftover bomb casings at an abandoned nuclear bomb production facility near Pretoria, South Africa, which stopped its nuclear weapons program in 1989 and dismantled all its bombs.

President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Trump and Moon

President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in South Korea in 2017.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holding a vial of anthrax.

Powell at UN

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holding a vial of anthrax during his 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council in the lead up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

A North Korean image of Kim Jong-un supposedly with a miniaturized nuclear bomb.

Miniaturized Nuclear Bomb

A North Korean image of Kim Jong-un supposedly with a miniaturized nuclear bomb in 2016.

Chinese President Xi Jinping invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to China for talks.

Xi Jinping and Kim

Chinese President Xi Jinping invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to China for talks in 2018 and received him with much fanfare.

Protesters in Chicago, IL in October 1962.

Cuban Missile Crisis Protest

Protesters in Chicago, IL in October 1962 against the Kennedy administration’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and seeking UN involvement.

800 women protested near the UN Building during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Women Strike for Peace

As part of a women’s peace activist group seeking to ban nuclear testing, 800 women protested near the UN Building during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

UN propaganda dropped over North Korea in 1952.

Mao, Stalin, and North Korean Worker

UN propaganda dropped over North Korea in 1952 in an attempt to demoralize the populace by showing them being manipulated and worked by Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin.

A propaganda flyer from 1951.

North Korean Propaganda Poster

A propaganda flyer from 1951 showing victory over American forces.

A North Korean postcard.

North Korean Postcard

A North Korean postcard.

A North Korean postcard.

North Korean Postcard

A North Korean postcard.

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Cite this Site

Jonathan Hunt , "Learning to Love the Nuclear Pariah: From China to North Korea" , Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective

March, 2018

https://origins.osu.edu/article/learning-love-nuclear-pariah-china-north-korea.