| Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy Contributor(s): Rider, Toby C. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252081692 ISBN-13: 9780252081699 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $23.70 Product Type: Paperback Published: April 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - History | Russia & The Former Soviet Union - Political Science | International Relations - General |
| Dewey: 796.48 |
| LCCN: 2015037811 |
| Series: Sport and Society |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.90 lbs) 256 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Russia - Chronological Period - 1950-1999 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: It is the early Cold War. The Soviet Union appears to be in irresistible ascendance and moves to exploit the Olympic Games as a vehicle for promoting international communism. In response, the United States conceives a subtle, far-reaching psychological warfare campaign to blunt the Soviet advance. Drawing on newly declassified materials and archives, Toby C. Rider chronicles how the U.S. government used the Olympics to promote democracy and its own policy aims during the tense early phase of the Cold War. Rider shows how the government, though constrained by traditions against interference in the Games, eluded detection by cooperating with private groups, including secretly funded émigré organizations bent on liberating their home countries from Soviet control. At the same time, the United States utilized Olympic host cities as launching pads for hyping the American economic and political system. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the government attempted clandestine manipulation of the International Olympic Committee. Rider also details the campaigns that sent propaganda materials around the globe as the United States mobilized culture in general, and sports in particular, to fight the communist threat. Deeply researched and boldly argued, Cold War Games recovers an essential chapter in Olympic and postwar history. |