Content note: Photographs of a woman weeping beside a closed coffin and of a body in an open coffin, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Communists Murder Village Farmers to Obtain Support by Intimidation
A yellow English-language page headed 'Communists... murder village farmers to obtain support by intimidation' pairs a photographed typed form labelled a blank 'Death Sentence', a weeping woman beside a coffin, and a photograph of a body in an open coffin. Captions name two victims in Darlac Province, Y Prat and Nguyen Thanh, and attribute both killings to the Viet Cong. The tell is the pairing of grief imagery with a blanket claim of intimidation; the sheet gives no dates, sources or investigation for the killings or the form.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1965
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, Saigon, for the South Vietnamese government
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Johnson Administration
- Leader
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Security and surveillance
- Event
- Vietnam War
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- 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, Saigon, for the South Vietnamese government. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-011-32.
Text on the object
6 COMMUNISTS ...murder village farmers to obtain support by intimidation. Blank form "Death Sentence" by which any Viet Cong can sentence a civilian leader to death at his whim. The VC bring grief and fear to widows. Y Prat was killed by Viet Cong communists in Darlac Province. Nguyen Thanh was killed by Viet Cong terrorists in Darlac Province. [Typed Vietnamese form in the photograph, mostly illegible]
