Những bàn tay xây dựng đất nước (Hands That Build Our Country)
A photo-montage sheet in Vietnamese reports that more than 40 U.S. paratroopers of the 173rd Brigade helped with social work in Pleiku province, clearing school grounds and carrying furniture. Photographs show shirtless and uniformed Americans raking, mixing plaster and carrying a bench, ending with a smiling Vietnamese man wearing a U.S. fatigue suit. The sheet pairs American soldiers with ordinary manual labour and the language of friendship in hard times.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1965
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the U.S. and South Vietnamese cause
- 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
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- 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. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-01-686.
Text on the object
NHỮNG BÀN TAY XÂY DỰNG ĐẤT NƯỚC TRÊN 40 QUÂN NHÂN NHẢY DÙ MỸ THUỘC PHI ĐOÀN 173 ĐÃ HỢP TÁC TRONG CÔNG TÁC XÃ HỘI TỈNH PLEIKU. HỌ ĐÃ DỌN SỬA LẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG HỌC, VÂN VÂN ... Dĩ nhiên là những bàn tay Việt nhưng ta cũng không thể quên trong đó có những bàn tay thân hữu của những người bạn Hoa Kỳ đã rời bỏ quê hương xa xôi sang giúp ta xây dựng ... trong giai đoạn tranh tối tranh sáng của đất nước. Các anh này ra tay dọn cỏ sân rồi ... khiêng bàn ghế, vân vân ... Anh này giúp dân chúng ban đất. Anh này trộn hồ, quét tường. Nụ cười chất phác trong bộ áo Mỹ xùng xình nói lên tình Việt Mỹ trong gian khổ thắm thiết biết chừng nào.
HANDS THAT BUILD THE COUNTRY More than 40 American paratroopers of the 173rd Brigade [printed 'Phi đoàn', literally 'air group'] cooperated in social work in Pleiku province. They cleaned up and repaired schools, and so on ... Of course these are Vietnamese hands, but we also cannot forget that among them are the friendly hands of American friends who left their distant homeland to come and help us build ... in the half-light, half-dark period of the country. These men have set to clearing the yard ... carrying tables and chairs, and so on ... This one helps the people level the ground. This one mixes mortar and plasters walls. The artless smile in a baggy American outfit shows how deep the Vietnamese-American feeling is in hardship.
Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, not verified by a fluent reader. Small caption fragments near the photographs are paired to the nearest picture; 'ban đất' is read as 'level the earth'.
