Chieu Hoi Center, the Friendly First Stop for Those Who Return to the National Just Cause

A pink-and-magenta photo-montage poster shows six black-and-white scenes from a Chieu Hoi reception centre: volleyball, a shared meal, vegetable plots, a primary school, and a family listening to a radio. Each photo has a short caption saying the returnees now enjoy games, plentiful meals and schooling for their children. The tell is the selection: only comfortable scenes of the centre are shown, as an implied answer to what a defector can expect.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Testimonial Card stacking Plain folks

Date: 1965
Period: Cold War
Made by: Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government (code SP-1764)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Johnson Administration
Leader: Lyndon B. Johnson
Audience: Enemy forces
Purpose: Mobilize or secure compliance
Theme: War and the military
Event: Vietnam War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Psychological Warfare Posters, Vietnam War (NAID 561393), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-3-1764.

Text on the object

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

TRUNG TÂM CHIÊU HỒI

NƠI DỪNG CHÂN ĐẦU TIÊN CỦA NHỮNG NGƯỜI TRỞ VỀ CHÍNH NGHĨA

Bóng chuyền là môn giải trí mà anh em hồi chánh viên thích nhất. Giờ thể thao còn là dịp cho tình bạn tự do cởi mở.

Những ngày sống cơ cực trong hàng ngũ Cộng Sản đã qua. Giờ đây tại Trung tâm Chiêu Hồi, anh em hồi chánh viên vui vẻ hưởng những bữa cơm không độn ngô khoai.

Những khoảng đất trống trước đây ở Trung tâm bây giờ đã lần lượt được anh em thay thế bằng những luồng khoai vông sắn.

Con em của họ hằng ngày cũng được vui vẻ cấp sách đến trường.

Gia đình của một hồi chánh định cư tại làng Chiêu Hồi đang vui vẻ quay quần quanh chiếc máy thu thanh để nghe tin tức.

[in photograph: TRƯỜNG SƠ CẤP / ẤP CHIÊU-HỒI]

SP. 1764

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

CHIEU HOI CENTER

THE FIRST STOPPING PLACE OF THOSE WHO RETURN TO THE JUST CAUSE

Volleyball is the pastime that the returnee brothers like best. Sports hour is also an occasion for free and open friendship.

The days of wretched life in the Communist ranks are over. Now at the Chieu Hoi Center the returnee brothers happily enjoy meals with no corn or sweet potato mixed in the rice.

The empty ground formerly at the Center has now gradually been replaced by the brothers with rows of sweet potato, yam and cassava.

Their children are also happily carrying books to school every day.

The family of a returnee settled in Chieu Hoi village is happily gathered around a radio receiver to listen to the news.

[in photograph: PRIMARY SCHOOL / CHIEU HOI HAMLET]

SP. 1764

Captions transcribed in reading order of the layout; the phrase 'khoai vông sắn' is read at image resolution and the plant names are rendered approximately.