The Cold War in Political Cartoons, 1946 - 1963
Center for Legislative Archives
www.archives.gov/legislative/resources
Station 5, Document 1
“A Test He Can’t Abandon!” Jim Berryman. The Evening Star. October 30, 1956. NAID:
Democratic candidate for President, Adlai Stevenson, labeled hydrogen bombs a major
threat to mankind and made banning them a central issue of his campaign.
In 1956, the Democratic candidate for President, Adlai Stevenson, made the banning of
hydrogen bombs a central issue of his campaign. Stevenson declared universal disarmament
the “first order of business in the world today.” He argued that bomb testing endangered
public health, that the U.S. already had plenty of atomic weapons, and that an international
test ban treaty could work. However, the issue never caught on with the American public.
This cartoon was published on the day the Republican candidate, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
wrapped up his campaign by calling Stevenson’s plan a “design for disaster” that would leave
the country unprotected. Berryman shows Stevenson barely holding on to the H-bomb issue,
like a rodeo rider struggling to control a bull. In the end, Stevenson was thrown off:
Eisenhower beat him in a landslide.