---
title: How long will this war last? Fight the peril behind the lines
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/how-long-will-this-war-last-malaria-1944/
description: 'Anti-malaria sheet for servicemen: a large headline ''How long will this war last?'' over a drawing of a mosquito.'
section: Collection
---

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3. How long will this war last? Fight the peril behind the lines

[![How long will this war last? Fight the peril behind the lines, 1944 US poster: Anti-malaria sheet for servicemen](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/how-long-will-this-war-last-malaria-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/how-long-will-this-war-last-malaria-1944.jpg)

# How long will this war last? Fight the peril behind the lines

Anti-malaria sheet for servicemen: a large headline 'How long will this war last?' over a drawing of a mosquito, answered 'Perhaps longer than you think' if soldiers do not protect themselves, then 'Malaria knocks out more men than the enemy!!' The technique is fear-appeal: the prolonged war and the claim of losses greater than enemy action are the stated stakes.

## 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

```
How Long Will
This War Last?
Perhaps longer than you think, if you and every other soldier do not protect yourselves from the malaria mosquito.
MALARIA KNOCKS OUT MORE MEN THAN THE ENEMY!!
FIGHT THE PERIL BEHIND THE LINES
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-574718]
```

[← How he feels about the WAC](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/how-he-feels-about-the-wac-1944/) [How to Handle a G.I. Range →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/how-to-handle-a-gi-range-1944/)

## 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)