Date of Award

5-2016

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee

Not specified

Abstract

Historians have extensively researched and reported on the images presented by United States presidents. Political cartoons have been an effective means of depicting government figures’ behaviors, actions and deficiencies. The goal of this thesis is to examine images of President Richard Nixon as captured in political cartoons, with particular attention to the themes represented in works following the President’s key speeches. Nixon’s “Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam” (1969), “Toasts of the President and Premier Chou En-lai of China at a Banquet Honoring the Premier in Peking” (1972), and the “Question-and-Answer Session at the Annual Convention of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association,” given in the midst of the Watergate investigation in 1973 present the opportunity to analyze how editorial cartoonists responded to Nixon’s words and character. For the most part, liberal political cartoonists during Nixon’s second term did not believe the promises made by the president. The speeches represent pivotal moments which instigated critical conversations between Nixon and cartoonists.

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