1939.08.23 "Anxious" by Howard Fisher

1939.08.23 “Anxious”
by Howard Fisher (1890-1962)
14 x 19 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

For 27 of his 37 years with The Oregon Journal (1919-1956), Howard Fisher was the newspaper's editorial cartoonist.  His originals were requested by many famous people of the day — Harry S. Truman and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, to name a few. His trademark was an impish beaver wearing a pair of checkered rousers supported by a single suspender.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met in Moscow for the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939. This pact was a non-aggression agreement between the two nations, but it also included a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe.

The pact was a surprise to the world, as it seemingly allied two ideological opposites. 

This pact significantly impacted the start of WW2, as it allowed Germany to invade Poland without immediate Soviet intervention and provided the Soviet Union with a buffer zone in Eastern Europe.