Cold War Modernism

American Cold War modernism served state interests during the cultural Cold War. The United States government used modernism in art, literature, music, and print to highlight American advancements and respect for individual expressions in a free society. Literary modernism was thus employed to undermine a communist campaign seen as totalitarian, outdated, and void of any room for individual expression. The main targets of American modernism were Western intellectuals who generally looked down on American culture. Haddadian-Moghaddam compares and contrasts early American Cold War cultural diplomacy initiatives in Iran and Afghanistan, including both book programs and motion pictures. These two neighboring countries have been historically related to each other in terms of religion (Shi‘i Islam for the majority of the population in Iran and Sunni Islam in Afghanistan) and languages (Persian, as one of the major languages spoken in Iran, and Dari, or Afghani Persian, and Pashto in Afghanistan). The chapter takes up scholarship on Cold War modernism and the United States Information Agency Book Translation Program’s operations in Afghanistan and Iran.