---
title: Building a Better Life by Working Together
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/building-a-better-life-working-together-1966/
description: Sheet SP-1109 sets a photograph of a school wrecked 'by a Viet Cong mine on 17-3-1966' beside one of a new school being built 'in close cooperation between
section: Collection
---

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[![Building a Better Life by Working Together, 1966 US poster: Sheet SP-1109 sets a photograph of a school wrecked 'by a Viet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/building-a-better-life-working-together-1966.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/building-a-better-life-working-together-1966.jpg)

# Building a Better Life by Working Together

Sheet SP-1109 sets a photograph of a school wrecked 'by a Viet Cong mine on 17-3-1966' beside one of a new school being built 'in close cooperation between the people and the authorities'. The text offers government building materials to people willing to build for themselves, and the foot of the sheet reads 'Viet Cong destroy - Republic of Vietnam government builds'. The tell: a before-and-after pair assigns the damage and the rebuilding to opposite sides.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
HỢP TÁC ĐỂ XÂY DỰNG CUỘC SỐNG TỐT ĐẸP HƠN

Chính Phủ sẵn sàng hỗ trợ vật liệu xây cất cho những đồng bào có tinh thần tự lực xây dựng cho mình và cho những người sống xung quanh mình. Với tinh thần cọng tác xây dựng chúng ta sẽ đem lại một cuộc sống nhiều triển vọng cho tất cả mọi người.

Trường Long Hiệp (Bến Lức) bị Việt Cộng dùng mìn giựt sập ngày 17-3-1966

Một ngôi trường mới đang được xây cất với sự cọng tác chặt chẽ giữa nhân dân và Chính Quyền

VIỆT CỘNG PHÁ HOẠI — CHÍNH PHỦ V.N.C.H. XÂY DỰNG

SP-1109
```

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

```
COOPERATING TO BUILD A BETTER LIFE

The Government is ready to support building materials for compatriots who have the spirit of self-reliance in building for themselves and for those living around them. With the spirit of cooperative building we will bring a life with many prospects to everyone.

Long Hiep school (Ben Luc) blown down by the Viet Cong with a mine on 17-3-1966

A new school is being built in close cooperation between the people and the Authorities

THE VIET CONG DESTROY - THE R.V.N. GOVERNMENT BUILDS

SP-1109
```

Translation by FRAME from the Vietnamese text on the poster, literal and machine-assisted, not checked by a fluent reader; the claims are the poster's own and FRAME has not checked them against other records. Diacritics are transcribed as printed to the best of legibility at this image resolution.

[← Bringing Welfare to the People and Eliminating Illiteracy and Disease](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bringing-welfare-eliminating-illiteracy-disease-phuoc-long-1966/) [Các bạn còn chần chờ gì nữa? Chính quyền tỉnh Gia-Định đang chờ đón các bạn (What Are You Still Waiting For? Gia Dinh Province Is Waiting to Welcome You) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cac-ban-con-chan-cho-gi-nua-gia-dinh-1966/)

## 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)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.