---
title: Cholera
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cholera-1965-1969/
description: Sheet SP-1003 is a public-health poster in bold line drawings on orange panels showing patients lying under blankets.
section: Collection
---

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3. Cholera

[![Cholera, 1965 US poster: Sheet SP-1003 is a public-health poster in bold line drawings on orange panels showing patients](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cholera-1965-1969.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cholera-1965-1969.jpg)

# Cholera

Sheet SP-1003 is a public-health poster in bold line drawings on orange panels showing patients lying under blankets, a man clutching his stomach while another figure walks away, and a person vomiting into a bowl. The text says cholera is very dangerous, spreads very fast and can kill within a few hours, and lists symptoms: abdominal pain, urinating 15 or 30 times a day, heavy vomiting, thirst, rapid weight loss and a weak pulse. The tell: the urgency rests on the speed of death, with no instruction on this sheet beyond recognising the signs.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
BỆNH TẢ
TẦM QUAN TRỌNG

BỆNH TẢ RẤT NGUY HIỂM
LAN TRUYỀN RẤT NHANH

BỆNH NHÂN CÓ THỂ CHẾT SAU VÀI BA GIỜ

DẤU HIỆU VÀ TRIỆU CHỨNG

ĐAU BỤNG ĐI TIỂU NHIỀU TỚI 15 HAY 30 LẦN MỖI NGÀY

NÔN MỬA NHIỀU, KHÁT NƯỚC, SỤT CÂN NHANH MẠCH YẾU

SP-1003
```

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

```
CHOLERA
IMPORTANCE

Cholera is very dangerous and spreads very fast.

A patient can die after a few hours.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Abdominal pain, urinating a lot, up to 15 or 30 times a day.

Heavy vomiting, thirst, rapid weight loss, weak pulse.

SP-1003
```

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.

[← Chieu Hoi Village, Resettlement Centre of the Hoi Chanh](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chieu-hoi-village-resettlement-1965-1969/) [The Common Struggle: Asian Military Forces Assist South Vietnamese Troops →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/common-struggle-asian-forces-assist-south-vietnamese-1965-1969/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)