---
title: America is worth defending! Buy U.S. Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/america-is-worth-defending-gb-national-bank-1941/
description: 'Bank-sponsored defense bond sheet: a colour photograph of three costumed Revolutionary-era figures (flag, drum.'
section: Collection
---

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3. America is worth defending! Buy U.S. Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps

[![America is worth defending! Buy U.S. Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps, 1941 US advertisement: Bank-sponsored defense bond](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/america-is-worth-defending-gb-national-bank-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/america-is-worth-defending-gb-national-bank-1941.jpg)

# America is worth defending! Buy U.S. Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps

Bank-sponsored defense bond sheet: a colour photograph of three costumed Revolutionary-era figures (flag, drum, fife) rising above three children (a girl with a doll, a boy with a hoe, a boy with a model plane), with a Minuteman statue and the line 'You help your country when you help yourself'. The Revolutionary figures lend their prestige to the bond appeal (transfer); the slogan joins duty with personal gain.

## Propaganda techniques used in this advertisement

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
America Is Worth Defending!
You Help Your Country
When You Help Yourself
BUY U.S. DEFENSE
SAVINGS BONDS
AND STAMPS
This poster presented in the cause of National Defense by
The G-B National Bank
Complete Banking Service
[imprint:] SPIRIT OF AMERICA (on photograph); COPYRIGHT [illegible]
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION $5,000 MAXIMUM INSURANCE FOR EACH DEPOSITOR MEMBER
```

[← America Calling: Take your place in Civilian Defense](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/america-calling-civilian-defense-1941/) [America will be as strong as her women →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/america-strong-as-her-women-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)