Beware of the Communists poster (Kachin poster distributed in Rangoon)
A Kachin-language anti-Communist poster. A hairy, naked, ape-like seated figure whose arm is lettered with a Kachin phrase holds a small doll marked 'Jinghpaw' while, beside him, several human figures hang bound over a fire like roasting meat under a lettered banner. The tell is name-calling by dehumanisation, with fear-appeal: the opponent is drawn as a beast that consumes the viewer's people.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- August 24, 1954
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- War and the military, Race and ethnicity
- 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, 1954. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6948938, 306-PPB-88).
Text on the object
KUNMYUNIT HPE SADI MU [on the figure's arm:] KUNMYUNIT AH NA SHIN LAI [on the doll:] JINGHPAW [on the carcass hung over the fire:] MUNGKAN MASHA NI A AHKANG AYA
[Headline, literal reading:] Communists, watch out for / be on guard against [them]. [Other lettering is left untranslated because the reading is uncertain; NARA's title is 'Beware of the Communists'.]
Romanised Kachin transcribed as printed; the translation is tentative and rests on NARA's title plus a literal reading of the headline.
