Don't Discuss: Troop Movements, Ship Sailings, War Equipment
Sticker-format poster showing a close-up Uncle Sam in a stars-and-stripes hat with a finger to his lips beside a list of three subjects not to discuss. The technique is transfer, borrowing the authority of the national symbol for a request for silence; the threat is only implied.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-158 (NAID 513604).
Text on the object
DON'T DISCUSS: TROOP MOVEMENTS SHIP SAILINGS WAR EQUIPMENT OWI Sticker No. 82 [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1943-O-534900 AN OFFICIAL WAR MESSAGE DISTRIBUTED BY THE OWI
