As the term implies, “images” of another country are subjective interpretations of reality. They are based not on intimate acquaintance with the country but on indirect communication from a variety of other sources. Since Walter Lippmann's seminal study in 1922, such images have been termed stereotypes. These need not be negative images; they derive from the need to make sense of one's world amidst plentiful but imperfect information. Their defining characteristic is therefore abbreviation, not bias. Although impressionistic, these images carry political weight: The closer the relationship between two countries, the more importance attached to the images they have of one another.

This was certainly true for Germany and America during the Cold War, which affected virtually all aspects of people's lives. The ideological conflict assigned a crucial importance to the image other members of the West had of the state that led them in it: the United States. By the same token, Germany's image of America was more important and had greater political implications than that of any other member of the Western alliance. The Federal Republic's acceptance in the Western community was based on its fundamental break with the antidemocratic and anti-Western traditions that had led to World War II and the ensuing Cold War in the first place. An Allied occupation regime led by the United States had refashioned Western Germany's political system, economy, and society. In the Cold War, the Federal Republic's unique vulnerability as a frontline state made it uniquely reliant on the United States for its own security.