Health Means Happiness poster, No. 349, 1965 US poster: A Thai-language poster headed 'Look after health for complete

Health Means Happiness poster, No. 349 (Thai, Bangkok)

A Thai-language poster headed 'Look after health for complete happiness'. Photographs show villagers using a bathing and water point, concrete latrine slabs sold cheaply, children at a school tap and water-testing equipment, beside a silhouette of a parent-and-two-children family. The text says local public-health work supports the economy. The tell is plain-folks and glittering-generalities: ordinary villagers and a family silhouette stand for 'complete happiness'.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Plain folks Glittering generalities

Date: February 2, 1965
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East series
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Johnson Administration
Leader: Lyndon B. Johnson
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Warn or inform
Themes: Health, Economy and finance
Event: Cold War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Posters in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, February 2, 1965. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949274, 306-PPB-349).

Text on the object

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

รักษาอนามัย
เพื่อความสุขสมบูรณ์

การอนามัยของประชาชนเป็นปัจจัยสร้างเสริมเศรษฐกิจของประเทศอย่างสำคัญ พัฒนาการด้านอนามัยจึงต้องกระทำพร้อมกันไปกับด้านอื่น ๆ โดยการส่งเสริมประชาชนให้รักษาความสะอาด ใช้น้ำบริสุทธิ์ และใช้ส้วมที่ถูกสุขลักษณะ เพราะสิ่งเหล่านี้จะทำให้โรคภัยเบาบางลง นี่คืองานที่โครงการพัฒนาการอนามัยท้องถิ่นกำลังดำเนินอยู่ในขณะนี้

[five photo captions in small Thai type, partly illegible]

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

Look after health for complete happiness.

Public health is an important factor in building up the country's economy. Health development must therefore proceed together with other fields, by encouraging people to keep clean, use pure water and use sanitary latrines, because these things will lessen disease. This is the work that the local health development project is carrying out at present.

[photo captions not transcribed]

Small photo captions are not fully legible at this resolution and are omitted.