---
title: Don't tell strangers anything they cannot read in newspapers
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-tell-strangers-anything-1941/
description: 'Counter-intelligence sheet for servicemen: a line drawing of two soldiers and a woman talking at a bar table while a man in a hat leans over the booth'
section: Collection
---

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3. Don't tell strangers anything they cannot read in newspapers

[![Don't tell strangers anything they cannot read in newspapers, 1941 US poster: Counter-intelligence sheet for servicemen](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-tell-strangers-anything-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-tell-strangers-anything-1941.jpg)

# Don't tell strangers anything they cannot read in newspapers

Counter-intelligence sheet for servicemen: a line drawing of two soldiers and a woman talking at a bar table while a man in a hat leans over the booth partition writing in a notebook. A five-line limerick and the slogan tell soldiers not to share anything beyond what newspapers print. The technique is a fear-appeal built on a spy in plain sight.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
There once was a sly saboteur
Whose methods at times seemed obscure
But the boys on vacation
Would give information
For he used a fair maid as his lure.

DON'T TELL STRANGERS ANYTHING
THEY CANNOT READ IN NEWSPAPERS

8
G-2 VI AC
REPRODUCED BY ENGR. HQS., VI ARMY CORPS
[signature: illegible]
```

[← Don't tell Aunty & Uncle or Cousin Jane](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-tell-aunty-and-uncle-1941/) [Don't transfer now! Stick to your job →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-transfer-now-stick-to-your-job-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)