---
title: If you must talk, tell it to the Marines
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-must-talk-tell-it-to-the-marines-1942/
description: 'Security-of-information poster: the headline ''If you must talk'' sits above a red brush-stroke block reading ''Tell it to the Marines''.'
section: Collection
---

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3. If you must talk, tell it to the Marines

[![If you must talk, tell it to the Marines, 1942 US poster: Security-of-information poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-must-talk-tell-it-to-the-marines-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-must-talk-tell-it-to-the-marines-1942.jpg)

# If you must talk, tell it to the Marines

Security-of-information poster: the headline 'If you must talk' sits above a red brush-stroke block reading 'Tell it to the Marines', with the word MARINES in large navy capitals and the Marine Corps eagle, globe and anchor emblem at upper right. There are no figures. The technique is faint: the Corps emblem and name carry the message, a light use of transfer.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
IF YOU MUST TALK ...
TELL IT
TO THE
MARINES
[imprint: small print at lower left, partly legible, appears to read: MCPR [illegible] 7-16-42 20M]
```

[← If you can't GO across - COME ACROSS! Produce! Keep 'em firing!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-cant-go-across-come-across-produce-oldsmobile-1942/) [I'll give 'em hell! You give me the stuff! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ill-give-em-hell-you-give-me-the-stuff-ordnance-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)