It's What the Patient Needs

This cartoon originally appeared in the December 1945 issue of the Canadian Countryman. It depicts Santa Claus delivering to an injured and ailing planet the gifts of “international goodwill and understanding” accompanied by the caption “it’s what the patient needs.” The cartoon represents the combined senses of war-weariness and optimism that followed the end of the Second World War on September 2nd of that year. For the first time in six years, citizens of the victorious nations could celebrate Christmas in a world at peace. This was especially significant to Canadians, who had sent over 400,000 of their young men to fight and die overseas.

The sentiments of international goodwill and understanding, whose scarcity were widely seen to have caused the War, were reflected in international institutions such as the United Nations which was founded on October 24, 1945. Such hope and optimism were not to last, however, as the breakout of the Korean War in 1950 and the ensuing Cold War threatened to drive humanity once more towards the precipice of destruction.