---
title: '''Johnson Oorlogsmisdadiger'' (Johnson, war criminal): placard at an anti-American demonstration, Amsterdam'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/johnson-oorlogsmisdadiger-banner-1968/
description: Marchers in Amsterdam carry a printed placard reading 'JOHNSON / [O]ORLOGSMISDADIGER' (Johnson, war criminal), with flags behind and mounted police…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!['Johnson Oorlogsmisdadiger' (Johnson, war criminal): placard at an anti-American demonstration, Amsterdam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/johnson-oorlogsmisdadiger-banner-1968.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/johnson-oorlogsmisdadiger-banner-1968.jpg)

# 'Johnson Oorlogsmisdadiger' (Johnson, war criminal): placard at an anti-American demonstration, Amsterdam

Marchers in Amsterdam carry a printed placard reading 'JOHNSON / [O]ORLOGSMISDADIGER' (Johnson, war criminal), with flags behind and mounted police alongside. The placard applies a legal-criminal label to the U.S. president by name as a substitute for an argument about policy; it is the only text on the placard.

- **Date:** March 16, 1968
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Participants in an anti-American demonstration, Amsterdam (photographed by Anefo)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Netherlands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=netherlands)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [De Jong Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=de-jong-government)
- **Leader:** [Piet de Jong](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=piet-de-jong)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Nationaal Archief, Fotocollectie Anefo)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-Amerikaanse_demonstratie_in_Amsterdam._Het_spandoek_Johnson_Oorlogsmisdadi,_Bestanddeelnr_921-1707.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC0 1.0 (Nationaal Archief / Anefo release; Commons file page tagged CC0) Jack de Nijs / Anefo / Nationaal Archief, item 921-1707 (CC0; no attribution required)

## Text on the object

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

```
JOHNSON
[O]ORLOGSMISDADIGER
```

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

```
JOHNSON
WAR CRIMINAL
```

The first letter of the second word is partly hidden by a marcher; the Nationaal Archief title reads 'Oorlogsmisdadiger'. A second placard further back carries the same first line; other text in the frame is illegible.

[← "Lenin, prebuď sa, Brežnev sa zbláznil": wall slogan after the Warsaw Pact invasion, Slovakia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/slovak-wall-slogan-lenin-wake-up-1968/) ["Vous l'aimez votre pays": Communist Party of Belgium election poster, Brussels →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/belgian-communist-votez-555-1968/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [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/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)