Blast to send Russia a message 

• 1967 
• Shevchik, John 
• Drawing 
• Historical item 

6102059

Drawings / paintings

Blast to send Russia a message

33 x 26 cm

1967

Original editorial cartoon in ink on paper for the Beaver Falls News Tribune (Pa.), 1967, shows Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev shocked by ‘Red China's whopper H-bomb test’ and Uncle Sam likewise shocked by ‘Chinese fallout’. On 17 June 1967 China successfully tested a three-stage thermonuclear device, and so became the fourth country to have developed a thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) after the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. The test probably did not come as much of a surprise to the Russians and Americans, but did demonstrate that China was now a force to be reckoned with and the bipolar balance of power in the world had now become multipolar. Although both communist states, China and Russia had been on bad terms since the beginning of the 1960s, and the ‘message’ to Russia is that China is still in the race for domination of the communist world. Paper size 33 x 26 cm (13 x 11 inch), image size 28 x 24 cm, signed lower right, caption in pencil in upper border and in ink lower left. Cartoon has been folded along the width at some time so there is a light crease, otherwise in good condition.