--- title: Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/ description: A U.S. government photo poster answering the 1952 germ-warfare charges, printed in French and at least eight Asian languages. section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/communists-caught-lying-1952.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/communists-caught-lying-1952.jpg) # Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying) A U.S. government photo poster answering the 1952 germ-warfare charges, printed in French and at least eight Asian languages. It sets Jacob Malik's accusation beside Dean Acheson's and Trygve Lie's denials and the refusal of Red Cross and WHO help, then fills the bottom row with U.S. and UN medical work on prisoners and the wounded. Those photographs do not bear on whether germ weapons were used; their effect is to attach 'health and truth' to one side, under a UN emblem and the Red Cross's 'universally recognised' neutrality. - **Date:** May 8, 1952 - **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war) - **Made by:** U.S. Department of State, International Information and Educational Exchange Program (records later held by the U.S. Information Agency) - **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america) - **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states) - **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster) - **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state) - **Regime:** [Truman Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=truman-administration) - **Leader:** [Harry S. Truman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=harry-s-truman) - **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public) - **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information), [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health) - **Event:** [Korean War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=korean-war) - **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (from U.S. National Archives, RG 306, NAID 5729954)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Germ_Warfare_-_NARA_-_5729954.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency, 1952. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5729954). ## Text on the object Original (French) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` LES COMMUNISTES PRIS EN FLAGRANT DÉLIT DE MENSONGE. Les Communistes Chinois et Nord Coréens, incapables de veiller à la bonne santé de leurs soldats et de leurs civils en Corée du Nord, ont accusé les Nations Unies d'avoir employé des ''bombes bactéorologiques''. D'un côté Jacob Malik (à droite) représentant soviétique, accuse les Nations Unies et de l'autre, le Secrétaire d'Etat des Etats-Unis, Dean Acheson (à gauche) réplique immédiatement que l'accusation est absolument ridicule. Le Secrétaire Général des Nations Unies, Trygve Lie, (au centre), lance immédiatement un déni. La Croix-Rouge dont la neutralité est universellement reconnue, accepta d'ouvrir une enquête sur les accusations communistes et consentit à aider les malades, sans tenir compte de la cause de leurs maladies. Les différentes personnalités des Nations Unies ont donné leur accord sur cet offre. Mais les Communistes, de peur que le monde sache la vérité refusèrent, tout comme ils avaient auparavant exclu les agents neutres de la Croix-Rouge suisse et rejetèrent l'aide offerte par l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé des Nations Unies. Le monde et les prisonniers de guerre communistes savent que les Nations Unies et le monde libre sont pour la santé et la vérité et non pour les maladies et les mensonges. Les prisonniers comme celui à gauche, et le blessé dans la photo au centre, sont les premiers à recevoir les vrais soins médicaux. Tous ceux qui ont pu assister à l'œuvre médicale des Etats-Unis et des Nations Unies (à droite) réalisent ainsi la vérité et savent que les Communistes leur débitent des mensonges. (F) ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` THE COMMUNISTS CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF LYING. The Chinese and North Korean Communists, unable to look after the good health of their soldiers and civilians in North Korea, have accused the United Nations of having used ''bacteriological bombs''. On one side Jacob Malik (right), Soviet representative, accuses the United Nations, and on the other, the Secretary of State of the United States, Dean Acheson (left), immediately replies that the accusation is absolutely ridiculous. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie (center), immediately issues a denial. The Red Cross, whose neutrality is universally recognized, agreed to open an inquiry into the Communist accusations and agreed to help the sick, without regard to the cause of their illnesses. The various United Nations personalities gave their agreement to this offer. But the Communists, for fear that the world would learn the truth, refused, just as they had previously excluded the neutral agents of the Swiss Red Cross and rejected the aid offered by the World Health Organization of the United Nations. The world and the Communist prisoners of war know that the United Nations and the free world stand for health and truth and not for disease and lies. Prisoners like the one on the left, and the wounded man in the center photo, are the first to receive real medical care. All those who were able to witness the medical work of the United States and the United Nations (right) thus realize the truth and know that the Communists are feeding them lies. (F) ``` The '(F)' at bottom right is a small circled plate/page marker printed on the sheet, not part of the caption prose. [← Freedom-Gram: Help Truth Fight Communism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/freedom-gram-1952/) [建設馬來亞 / 破壞馬來亞 (Building Malaya / Destroying Malaya) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/building-and-destroying-malaya-1953/) ## 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.