“Keeping the Home Fires Burning” (est. late 1960s)
By Eddie Germano (1924 – )
11 x 15, ink and wash on board
Coppola Collection

A native Bostonian, Germano became a full-time cartoonist in 1948, at age 24, after serving in WWII. Among other positions, he worked as the editorial and sports cartoonist for the Brockton Enterprisefrom 1963-1990.

After its founding in 1949, the PRC was eager to promote and support comparable movements in Asia as part of its general strategy to establish itself as the leader of communism. Southeast Asia was strategic: geographical proximity, less presence of other major powers, and political disorder thanks to weak colonial or newly independent governments. This made things ripe for communistic insurgencies (and the rising fear, in the West, of the domino theory).

The relationship between China and the Soviet Union was always tense, and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis reinforced Mao’s view that the Soviets were weakening under American pressure. Beijing really sought to take the lead in the international communist movement among the newly decolonized countries of SE Asia. China did a better job at fomenting the revolution of the rural masses, which was in sharp contrast to the more urban building approach of the USSR.

With the Cultural Revolution (1965), China’s domestic and international politics became more radical. Attempts to export revolution escalated. There were several places where Chinese-inspired revolutionary violence spilled over in the late 1960s (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Burma), although nothing organized ever came of it. Significant changes were just around the corner, with China normalizing its relationship with the US in 1972, Mao’s death (1976), and the movement towards economic capitalism.