---
title: Halt the Hun! Buy U.S. Government Bonds, Third Liberty Loan
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/halt-the-hun-1918/
description: Against a wall of flame, an American soldier grips the shoulder of a German soldier in a spiked helmet who holds a bayoneted rifle and has seized a…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** "Hun" epithet for Germans, and a German soldier seizing a half-clothed woman holding a child, implying sexual assault. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Halt the Hun! Buy U.S. Government Bonds, Third Liberty Loan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/halt-the-hun-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/halt-the-hun-1918.jpg)

# Halt the Hun! Buy U.S. Government Bonds, Third Liberty Loan

Against a wall of flame, an American soldier grips the shoulder of a German soldier in a spiked helmet who holds a bayoneted rifle and has seized a half-clothed woman clutching a child. The label 'Hun' names the enemy (name-calling), and the staged threat of assault on a mother and child sits directly above a single remedy, buying bonds (fear-appeal).

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** U.S. Treasury Department (Third Liberty Loan); Henry Raleigh (artist)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/93515947/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) Raleigh, Henry, 1880-1945, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-2792.

## Text on the object

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

```
HALT the HUN!

BUY U.S. GOVERNMENT BONDS
THIRD LIBERTY LOAN
```

The photographed copy of this poster is bordered by a Kodak color-control/gray-scale calibration strip and card, added for archival photography; that strip's own printed text (color and tone labels) is not part of the poster and is not transcribed here.

[← The Greatest Mother in the World: Red Cross Christmas Roll Call](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/greatest-mother-in-the-world-1918/) [Suomen Mies ja Nainen! Äänestä Kansallista Kokoomuspuoluetta! (political postcard of the National Coalition Party) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kokoomus-suomen-mies-ja-nainen-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)