Content note: Caricature cartoon of a moustached Stalin-like figure with hammer and sickle, kept whole. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Sweet Talk Kills (Thai poster, Bangkok Poster #6)
A Thai-language cartoon poster. A large moustached figure with a hammer in one hand and a sickle in the other, followed by a smaller copy, strides toward silhouettes of villagers carrying loads while speech lines promise 'no need to work' and 'live free, eat free'. The headline answers that honeyed words kill. The label is the caricature itself: the promise is shown as bait and the danger is stated in the closing proverb.
- Date
- January 16, 1952
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of State, International Information Administration (records later held by the U.S. Information Agency)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Economy and finance
- Techniques
- Name-callingFear appeal
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NAID 5729915); image copy via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5729915). Item page: Use Restriction Unrestricted.
Text on the object
ไม่ต้องทำงาน ก็มีกิน อยู่ฟรี กินฟรี หวานลมลิ้นย่อมกินตาย กินง่ายก็ตายก่อน
No need to work, you'll still have food. Live free, eat free. Sweet wind of the tongue [honeyed words] will eat you dead. Eat easy, die first.
The first four lines are printed in white on the dark panel at upper right; the last two lines are the black headline. FRAME translation (machine, not fluent-reader verified); 'หวานลมลิ้น' is rendered literally.
