Content note: Photographs of a wrecked bus and of a wounded woman on a stretcher with relatives, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. Why
How? The Viet Cong Blow Up Bus Loads of Civilians
A yellow English-language sheet headed 'HOW?' sets photographs of a man holding a mine casing, a cratered road, a wrecked bus and a wounded woman on a stretcher among relatives under the captions that the Viet Cong 'blow up bus loads of ordinary civilian passengers with pressure-type mines' and 'bring unbearable pain to the mother of two children.' The tell is the question headline answered by a photo sequence that runs from weapon to wreck to casualty, with no other context given.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1965
- 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
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Demonize
- 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-011-29.
Text on the object
3 HOW ? THE VIET CONG ... blow up bus loads of ordinary civilian passengers with pressure-type mines. ... bring unbearable pain to the mother of two children.
