Tintin Forums

I feel that the Cold War partially influenced some of the later Tintin books. The Calculus Affair dealt with a superweapon.

Destination Moon involves nuclear power, spies and an attempt to land on the Moon. Was this influenced by the cold war?

I have not read all of the Tintin books, so I don't know if there are other examples.

"The Calculus Affair" was definitely inspired by the Cold War: agents from both sides trying to obtain a weapon of mass destruction which, as we see in the demo before the Bordurian officials is aimed at destroying a foreign city.

The feel given to Borduria is that of a typical East European nation under a Communist/Stalinist regime.

I doubt if the moon books were influenced by the Cold War. It may have been an factor but then again it was set some five years before Sputnik, the first satellite, was even launched.

It has been suggested that Sponsz's presence in South America in "Picaros" is a reflection on the way both sides were trying to extend their influence there.

The Moon books were done before the Cold War began. The oppressive atmosphere in the double-adventure probably has more to do with the left over anxiety and paranoia from World War 2.

The Calculus Affair though is definitely a Cold War tale.

The Moon story was originally published in the early 1950s at about the time that spies like Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were being arrested in America for passing on atomic secrets to the Russians.

In fact, some have speculated that Fuchs (the German for "Fox") became Wolff, so there is an element of early Soviet-Western antagonism in the story.