Evolution in South Vietnam: To Build While We Fight

A blue-toned English-language panel quotes the Government of South Vietnam's Declaration of Honolulu of 9 February 1966: '... we pledge again: to win the war of Independence; to build while we fight; to construct our nation when terror ceases.' Above the quotation soldiers in helmets and rifles plough a flooded rice field behind water buffalo beside farmers; below it soldiers stand and sit around a seated man in a forest clearing. The tell is soldiers shown doing farm work beside a pledge to 'build while we fight.'

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Glittering generalitiesTransfer

Date

1966

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

Foreign public

Purpose

Persuade or win support

Themes

War and the military, Home front

Event

Vietnam War

Source

Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure

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-011-53.

"... we pledge again: to win the war of Independence;
to build while we fight; to construct our nation when terror ceases."

Government of South Vietnam
Declaration of Honolulu
Feb 9, 1966

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