A Small Paintbrush in the Hands of a Small Child

Children’s art became a powerful weapon in America’s Cold War arsenal. Through art exchange programs like Art for World Friendship, American children functioned as cultural ambassadors as their assumed innocence came to symbolize national innocence. Children’s art functioned as propaganda and public relations, a tool of statecraft, and a means of citizen education. But peace activists and educators also encouraged children’s cultural diplomacy through the visual arts as a means of achieving “world friendship.” Art for World Friendship highlights the fact that children were considered crucial actors in national and international Cold War politics. Educators, government officials, and peace activists believed that children could and should help to foster international understanding of the United States in an increasingly dangerous world. Implicit in postwar youth art exchange programs was a belief in the political and cultural innocence of children, coupled with the explicit politicization of childhood innocence.