The biggest con is that it is a con. It’s a lie or exaggeration intended to deceive people into thinking that one side is right and one side is wrong. Start telling people what they think is true already, but slip another ‘fact’ in there. When they believe in that ‘fact’, do it again until they believe what you want them to believe. Ever see the ’80s movie Red Dawn? It (probably) wasn’t propaganda. It was the end product of decades of propaganda. Everybody knew that, naturally, the commies are going to attack America because they hate freedom and want to be evil sadistic monsters to us since they do the same to their people. Oh, I almost forgot - they aren’t allowed to have Bibles either. By the time Red Dawn came out people believed that some Soviet-backed Nicaraguan commies might paratroop in and shoot rocket launchers down a high school hallway just because. Watch the movie now and it’s an amusing sci-fi. Back then, well, the s-t could happen!
The pro is that you can unify people with propaganda. People were willing to fund rockets to the moon just to get there before the commies (who weren’t actually trying to get to the moon). Funding an insane nuclear arms race was a no-brainer - the question was whether to spend a lot or a whole lot on it. Having a screw Russia no matter what they do policy made total sense to everyone. You didn’t hear anyone saying, “we should just let the Soviets have Afghanistan.” Instead you heard about those Hitler-esque expansionists who can’t be appeased. Propaganda united the people of the US against the USSR and created a concerted effort from the government to fund military spending on a war that wasn’t even being fought
