Hanna-Barbera’s Bizarre Nixon Kids Propaganda Cartoon

Dere Mr. President, by Carl Urbano, is based on the popular children’s book compilation; this unusual animated short doubles as a cheerful slice of Cold War–era public relations. Produced while the United States Information Agency was still actively promoting America’s image abroad, the film highlights a collection of funny, quirky, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious letters that children supposedly sent to Richard Nixon.

The idea was simple: show the president through the innocent and playful lens of kids’ curiosity, turning the Oval Office into a kind of national pen-pal club.

To bring the concept to life, the project enlisted the cartoon powerhouse Hanna-Barbera, the same studio behind countless Saturday-morning classics. The result is a brightly animated, kid-friendly production that packages politics with the same visual energy normally reserved for talking bears and mystery-solving teenagers. Adding another layer of charm is the narration by Dick Van Dyke, whose warm, familiar voice guides viewers through the parade of pint-sized presidential correspondence.

The result feels like a time capsule from an era when even geopolitics could be wrapped in colorful animation and upbeat storytelling. A U.S. propaganda film… made by Hanna-Barbera… narrated by Dick Van Dyke… about kids writing to Nixon? It’s the kind of historical oddity that makes you blink twice and say, “Wait… this actually happened?” Apparently, in this particular cartoon universe, kids didn’t just love cartoons. They loved writing to the president, too.