Interesting how political cartoons can resurface as real life.  Theodor Geisel created this cartoon almost 80 years ago as satire.  Just the other day we heard similar words from a US newscaster (Brian Kilmeade). The only difference is that Mr. Kilmeade was not being satirical when he said: “Like it or not, these are not our kids.  It’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas.  These are people from another country.”

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Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) served in the army during World War II as a Hollywood propagandist for the war effort.  On January 7, 1943 Geisel reported for duty leaving behind New York apartment and his budding career writing and illustrating children’s books under his distinctive pseudonym—Dr. Seuss. 

Actually Geisel had already put behind his children’s projects three years prior to joining the army.  When Paris fell to the Nazis, he began to create political cartoons aimed at Adolf Hitler and American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh who wanted to keep the country out of the war in Europe.  In  1941 and 1942 he drew over 400 editorial cartoons for PM. (PM was a liberal-leaning daily newspaper published in New York City by Ralph Ingersoll from June 1940 to June 1948 and financed by Chicago millionaire Marshall Field III.)

Following are a couple of my favorites from his time at PM:

[From:  Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla}

This one, featuring the USA as the Thanksgiving roast turkey being served up by Hitler was created by Geisel on November 20, 1941--just a few weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The following one was created on February 10, 1942--only about two months after the USA entered into World War II.  its purpose is of course to warn against over confidence.  There are many ways in which this cartoon could be applied to today's world--depending of course on your world view.