---
title: President Bush holds up a bag of crack in the Oval Office
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bush-crack-bag-address-1989/
description: President George H. W. Bush holds up a bag of crack cocaine during his first prime-time Oval Office address, 5 September 1989, saying it had been seized…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![President Bush holds up a bag of crack in the Oval Office](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bush-crack-bag-address-1989.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bush-crack-bag-address-1989.jpg)

# President Bush holds up a bag of crack in the Oval Office

President George H. W. Bush holds up a bag of crack cocaine during his first prime-time Oval Office address, 5 September 1989, saying it had been seized by Drug Enforcement agents in a park across the street from the White House. The Washington Post later reported that speechwriters wanted the prop and that DEA agents lured an 18-year-old seller to Lafayette Park to make the buy. The spoken line was literally true; how the bag came to be seized there was left out.

- **Date:** September 5, 1989
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** U.S. government (President George H. W. Bush and White House speechwriters, with the Drug Enforcement Administration)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [George H. W. Bush Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=george-h-w-bush-administration)
- **Leader:** [George H. W. Bush](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=george-h-w-bush)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance), [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [War on Drugs](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=war-on-drugs)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (George Bush Presidential Library)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_H._W._Bush_holds_up_a_bag_of_crack_cocaine_during_his_Address_to_the_Nation_on_National_Drug_Control_Strategy.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) White House photograph, George Bush Presidential Library and Museum (P06075-35).

## Text on the object

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

```
[illegible]
```

Two printed text elements are visible but not legible at this image's resolution: (1) a red-covered bound document on the desk shows two lines of light-colored lettering near its lower-right corner and a small circular emblem; (2) a typed page held in the President's right hand shows several lines of typed text (apparently speech notes). Individual words could not be made out in either case, so nothing was guessed at; no text was read from either object.

[← Дым, в котором мы живём (The Smoke in Which We Live)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dym-v-kotorom-my-zhivyom-1988/) [Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.