The Cold War and the Olympics: Coverage in the 'New York Times' and 'Los Angeles Times' of the United States' and Soviet Union's pursuit of athletic supremacy, 1948--1988

The Olympic Games, throughout the Cold War, were used by the American and Soviet governments for distinct political purposes. Each side argued that the athletic success of their athletes demonstrated the viability of their political, economic, and social systems. The sports fields thus became symbolic battlefields; unwilling to use military weaponry, the governments substituted their athletes and sent them to defeat the enemy.;Through the use of primary documents---including those at the University of Illinois' Avery Brundage collection and the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles library---and secondary material---especially many of the available textbooks about the Olympic Games---this dissertation also explored how the Soviets and Americans sought to influence the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) policies regarding television rights, amateurism, and the interference of politics into the Games.;Finally, through a content analysis, this dissertation reviewed how two prominent American newspapers---the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times---covered the Games, the participation of American and Soviet athletes in them, and the larger issues highlighted above.;This dissertation concludes that the Soviet Union was far more interested in comparison to the United States in seeking to use its political influence on the IOC, and that the Americans became keenly interested in these debates after the explosion of television rights fees. Meanwhile, this research concludes that both newspapers during the Games over-reported the successes of American and Western athletes and under-reported the successes of Soviet and Eastern bloc athletes.