---
title: If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-want-to-fight-join-the-marines-1917/
description: A smiling young woman in a Marine Corps uniform with field gear stands before a column of marching troops and a flag.
section: Collection
---

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3. If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines

[![If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines, 1917 US poster: A smiling young woman in a Marine Corps uniform with field gear](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-want-to-fight-join-the-marines-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-want-to-fight-join-the-marines-1917.jpg)

# If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines

A smiling young woman in a Marine Corps uniform with field gear stands before a column of marching troops and a flag, under the headline 'If you want to fight! Join the Marines.' The tell is the appeal to the viewer's own wish to fight, carried by a glamorous figure whose presence makes enlistment a test of the viewer's self-image.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
IF YOU WANT
To
FIGHT!
JOIN THE MARINES

Howard Chandler Christy. 191[final digit uncertain]
```

[← I Want You for U.S. Army](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-want-you-for-us-army-1917/) [In the Name of God, the Father, Have Pity →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-the-name-of-god-the-father-have-pity-1917/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [A Little American's Promise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-little-americans-promise-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Identity fusion, Transfer)
- [All Together! Enlist in the Navy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/all-together-enlist-in-the-navy-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Bandwagon, Identity fusion)
- [Members of U.S. Food Administration: America Has Promised to Feed the Hungry Millions of Europe, Waste Nothing](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/america-food-pledge-20-million-tons-1917-1919/) (United States · 1917 · Identity fusion)
- [Do Your Duty. Join the U.S. Marines. Help Them Defend America on Land and Sea](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/do-your-duty-join-the-us-marines-1917-1919/) (United States · 1917 · Glittering generalities, Identity fusion)
- [50-50 (The Job of Beating Up the Hun)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/fifty-fifty-service-series-11-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Name-calling, Identity fusion)
- [Food Will Win the War: Member of United States Food Administration (Pledge Card)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-will-win-the-war-member-pledge-card-1917-1919/) (United States · 1917 · Identity fusion, Bandwagon)
- [Hit the Bull's Eye! Are You on This List? Get Your Name in the Circle: It's the Ring of Liberty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hit-the-bulls-eye-ring-of-liberty-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Bandwagon, Identity fusion)
- [I Am a Soldier of the United States (Service Series No. 12)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-am-a-soldier-of-the-united-states-service-series-no-12-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)