Content note: Painted scene of uniformed cadres separating families onto trucks, with distressed women and children. This object is shown as it was published. Why
คอมมิวนิสต์ หรือ เสรีภาพ (Communism or Freedom), Thai-language poster no. III, family panel
Two-panel colour poster with the Thai headline 'Communism or Freedom'. On the left, uniformed cadres separate men, women and children and load them onto separate trucks; the caption says that in communist China regulations force families apart, husband in one place, wife in another, children elsewhere, all working like slaves. On the right, a family feeds poultry and tends a buffalo beside thatched houses; the caption calls family life together the foundation of Thai life. The tell: a staged family-separation scene set against an idealised home (fear-appeal; transfer).
- Date
- 1966
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (USIA), Thai-language 'Communism or Freedom' poster series distributed in Thailand
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Johnson Administration
- Leader
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- Cold War
- Techniques
- Fear appealTransfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LOT 10536, transferred from the U.S. Information Agency), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (US government work, USIA transfer; LOC: 'No known restrictions on publication.')
U.S. Information Agency, c. 1966; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-3587
Text on the object
คอมมิวนิสต์ หรือ เสรีภาพ [left panel caption] ในประเทศจีนคอมมิวนิสต์ มีระเบียบบังคับให้ครอบครัวแยกกันอยู่ ผัวอยู่ทางหนึ่ง เมียอยู่ทางหนึ่ง ลูก ๆ อยู่อีกทางหนึ่ง ทุกคนทำงานหนักเหมือนทาส [right panel caption] ชีวิตครอบครัวอันผาสุกที่พ่อแม่ลูกหลานอยู่ด้วยกันพร้อมหน้า คือรากฐานแห่งความเป็นอยู่ของเราชาวไทย ทำให้เป็นปึกแผ่นและเกิดความมั่นคงแก่ประเทศชาติ [lower left corner] (III)
COMMUNISM or FREEDOM [left panel caption] In communist China there are regulations forcing families to live apart: the husband in one place, the wife in one place, the children in another place; everyone works hard like slaves. [right panel caption] The happy family life in which parents, children and grandchildren live together, all present, is the foundation of the way of life of us Thai people; it makes for solidarity and gives stability to the nation. [lower left corner] III
Read from 1024 px LOC image with 3x crops. Several words in the left caption's first line are partly overprinted by a figure's outline and are read with lower confidence. The right caption's middle line ('...ของเราชาวไทย') is partly obscured by a bamboo pole. Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader.
