Source:
http://quizlet.com/19708419/cold-war-cartoons-1969-85-flash-cards/
This is an American cartoon published in 1973 which entitled “The odd Couple”. This political cartoon was related to the period of detente during the cold war. In the early 1970s, the relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union began to improve and the detente began. In 1972, there was a shortage of wheat in the Soviet Union. The U.S. sold her wheat to the USSR at a low price. After that, the cartoon was published after this incident.
The cartoon uses both text and graphic to demonstrate the argument. The artistic technique “symbolism” is used to represent the U.S., the Soviet Union and peace. A couple of bear and an eagle are having a walk together with their pigeon baby. The bear eagle and pigeon baby represent the U.S., the Soviet Union and peace respectively. The author used some commonly recognised simple symbols to convey specific messages. For example, a pigeon is used to represent abstract concept “peace” which makes the message easier to understand.
The cartoon seems to imply that with the improvement of the relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, peace would come. Nevertheless, the cartoonist entitles his drawing “The Odd Couple” sarcastically. The author wants to show that the improvement of Soviet-American relations might only be temporary because the ideological differences between the two super powers were too big to settled. It is just like the odd marriage of an eagle and a bear can hardly last. The cartoonist seems to be in the clear expectation that the Soviet-American relations would deteriorate again.
This cartoon is persuasive enough to show the relationship between the U.S. and the USSR is going to deteriorate because the hostility and mutual distrust between them are too tense for them to alleviate by simply a wheat borrowing. Therefore, it is convincing that the honeymoon between the two countries will be over soon.