All The King's Horses And Manned Missiles By Kurt Vonnegut

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After the two World Wars, competition between countries was still going on. The United States and the Soviet, as two most powerful countries at that time, driving the globe politically and economically. In Kurt Vonnegut’s two short stories, “All the King’s Horses” and “Manned Missiles,” both reflected the international backdrop during that period, revealed the brutal fact of war and the human wishes of peace. The story “All the King’s Horses” takes place in the early years of Cold War . The main character is a U.S. Army Colonel names Bryan Kelly, whose plane crash-landed on the Asiatic mainland and survived with his wife, two sons and some enlisted men. All of them are captured by the Communist guerrilla chief Pi Ying. He forced Kelly to play …show more content…
Pi doesn’t really want to win the game but to kill Kelly’s men as many as possible. One of the move is to sacrifice Kelly’s son. Before Pi gives the order to execute, Pi’s companion kills him and suicides. The other game-watcher, a Russian military officer Barzov takes over for Pi but defeated by Kelly. Barzov suggests playing chess with Kelly involving no one’s life. Kelly rejects and says he will play at a later time. This story was written in 1951 and it reflected the relationship between the United States and the Soviet. Since the Truman doctrine established in 1947, these two countries were in the Cold War. As the Barzov says in the story, the United States and the Soviet were not officially in war. However, both of them tried to take moves forward in order to take advantage. For example, Eisenhower and Dulles favored to use covert action as a way of fighting communism without resorting to open warfare . They saw their actions in Korea, Iran, Formosa and Guatemala as major victories. What Eisenhower and Dulles did was to give the communism a global wide pressure, to inform that capitalism is better and the United States was stronger than the Soviet. What’s more, …show more content…
Both Stepan and Bud were astronauts. They died in the space for missions that were co-related. Stepan was from Russia and Bud was from the United States. One was from a communism country and the other was from a capitalism country. Their father supposed to be enemy with each other, but the death of son brought them together. In the letters, they shared things about their own sons, gave out opinions and encouraged each other. They forgot the issue between countries, but crossed the political boundary with the role of a father. This story was written in 1958. One year before that, the Soviet launched the Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite placed in orbit around the earth, which surprised the United States. Most Americans believed that the Soviet was stronger than the United States. Besides, during mid-1950s, the Cold War rivalry was becoming more complex . The tension between East and West eased. For example, the US, Britain, France, and Soviet Union agreed to withdraw troops from Austria, which became neutral in Cold War. Then authority within each Cold War camp decreased. In the United States, Civil Rights struggle and antinuclear movement occurred. In the Soviet Union, Khrushchev led to a de-Stalinization campaign. Last but not the least, the emergence of independent actors in “non-aligned” nations gave great

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