---
title: Defend Your Country
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/defend-your-country-army-1940/
description: 'Army enlistment poster: a stern Uncle Sam figure in star-and-stripe trousers strides before a gold disc and a bald eagle.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Defend Your Country

[![Defend Your Country, 1940 US poster: Army enlistment poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/defend-your-country-army-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/defend-your-country-army-1940.jpg)

# Defend Your Country

Army enlistment poster: a stern Uncle Sam figure in star-and-stripe trousers strides before a gold disc and a bald eagle, his discarded coat and hat on the ground. The headline 'Defend Your Country' and the flag colours attach national symbols to the call to 'Enlist Now in the United States Army' (transfer, with glittering generalities).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
DEFEND
YOUR COUNTRY
ENLIST NOW in the
UNITED STATES ARMY
[signature: Tom Woodburn]
[imprint: Copyright 1940, Tom B. Woodburn]
[imprint: P-25-RPB-5-20-40-12,500]
```

[← Chodźmy na roboty rolne do Niemiec! (Let us go to agricultural work in Germany!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chodzmy-na-roboty-rolne-do-niemiec-1940/) ['Dig for Victory' banner across the Royal Exchange, London, used as a Ministry of Information poster site →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dig-for-victory-royal-exchange-banner-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)