with its childlike drawings and terse text that served as a cautionary parable
on the nature of armed conflict, and War is No Damn Good ( 1946 ) by Robert
Osborn, the first antiwar book of the nuclear age, the first time that the
mushroom cloud is transformed into a death’s head. In this same spirit
Chwast used a simple visual lexicon to show centuries of warfare’s futile
recurrence.
In the early 1960 s American military advisers were sent to
Vietnam, followed by a limited number of ground troops. In 1964 , just prior
to the launch of massive U.S. buildups, Chwast designed his first protest
poster,War is Good Business, Invest Your Son, the slogan based on a button
that he had seen. During this early stage of the burgeoning “alternative
youth culture,” head shops as well as poster and button stores were popping
up in so-called bohemian districts like the East and West Village of New
York City and catering to a rebellious clientele. Wearing political and social
statements on their clothing was fashionable, and buttons became one way
of publicly expressing antiestablishment points of view. In addition to the
ubiquitous peace sign and buttons with slogans like I Am an Enemy of the
Peopleand Frodo Lives(a reference to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit),War is
Good Business.. .touched a very raw nerve among draft-age baby boomers.
Chwast borrowed the slogan for use on his darkly colored (blues,
purples, and reds) poster, which included nineteenth-century decorative
woodtypes and old engravings of a mother and a soldier. It looked akin to
one of those vintage call-to-arms broadsheets that summoned civilians into
battle in the days when war was a heroic exercise. Chwast sold the idea to
Poster Prints, one of the leading commercial poster and button outlets,
where it was retailed among an array of cheaply printed movie, rock-and-
roll, and protest posters. Although it appeared decorative,War is Good
Business.. .was by no means benign. Without employing such frightening
images as dismembered bodies and napalmed children, the poster
cautioned that war (and particularly the Vietnam conflict) exacted the
most costly price.
By the time that the United States had committed total man-
and firepower to the Vietnam quagmire, LBJ decided not to run for a
second term as president (acknowledging public dissension). Nonetheless,
he continued to aggressively pursue the war, which had gathered such
momentum that it was not about to be concluded at that time.End Bad
Breathacknowledged the frustration Chwast—and many Americans—
felt over the inevitability of an out-of-control war.
End Bad Breathwas distributed through Poster Prints, and—
compared to the other inventory of celebrity and psychedelic posters—it
was fairly strident. But Chwast admits it was by no means an innovation.
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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