Between the Hammer and the Sickle poster, PO-17-VN, 1951 US poster: A Vietnamese-language poster

Between the Hammer and the Sickle poster, PO-17-VN (Vietnamese poster distributed in Saigon)

A Vietnamese-language poster. Four hands wearing the flags of the Viet Minh, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China wield a cleaver, a sickle and hammers marked 'VM' against a map of Vietnam that cracks and bleeds. The headline asks whether a 'general counter-offensive' means destroying the country, and the foot urges resistance. The tell is fear-appeal with scapegoating: one named side is cast as foreign-backed destroyers of the nation.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal Scapegoating

Date: September 12, 1951
Period: Cold War
Made by: Cao Dai Army Central Information Office; U.S. Information Agency, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East series
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Truman Administration
Leader: Harry S. Truman
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes: War and the military, Empire and colonialism
Event: Cold War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, 1951. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6948939, 306-PPB-89).

Text on the object

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

TỔNG-PHẢN-CÔNG ! TỔNG-PHẢN-CÔNG ?
NGHĨA LÀ TIÊU-HỦY NON SÔNG CƠ-ĐỒ

[on the weapons:] VM
[on the map:] VI ... T ... N ... A ... [letters of VIỆT-NAM broken across the map]

Triệt để chống cuộc Tổng-phản-công !

[signature, lower right, illegible]

PHÒNG THÔNG-TIN TRUNG-ƯƠNG
QUÂN-ĐỘI CAO-ĐÀI

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

General counter-offensive! General counter-offensive? It means destroying the homeland and its heritage. [...] Resolutely oppose the General Counter-offensive! [Imprint:] Central Information Office, Cao Dai Army.

Diacritics read from a printed display face; the third headline word is uncertain. Letters on the map spell VIỆT-NAM in fragments.