--- title: Lá phiếu là viên đạn đồng (The Ballot Is a Bronze Bullet), National Assembly election flyer, 30 August 1959 url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-phieu-la-vien-dan-dong-1959/ description: Colour flyer in which the digits 3, 0 and 8 (30 August) are drawn as the mouths of three large gun barrels, firing rolled ballots at a shattering red… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Lá phiếu là viên đạn đồng (The Ballot Is a Bronze Bullet), National Assembly election flyer, 30 August 1959](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-phieu-la-vien-dan-dong-1959.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-phieu-la-vien-dan-dong-1959.jpg) # Lá phiếu là viên đạn đồng (The Ballot Is a Bronze Bullet), National Assembly election flyer, 30 August 1959 Colour flyer in which the digits 3, 0 and 8 (30 August) are drawn as the mouths of three large gun barrels, firing rolled ballots at a shattering red shape bearing a yellow star. The slogan reads 'The ballot is a bronze bullet, scatter the Viet Cong, set the people's mind at rest', over 'National Assembly election' and '1959'. The tell: voting is fused with military ammunition (transfer), and the opponent is named only by the issuer's label 'Viet Cong' (name-calling). - **Date:** 1959 - **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war) - **Made by:** Government of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), National Assembly election flyer; no printer named - **Region:** [Southeast Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=southeast-asia) - **Country:** [South Vietnam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=south-vietnam) - **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster) - **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state) - **Regime:** [Diem Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=diem-government) - **Leader:** [NGO Dinh Diem](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=ngo-dinh-diem) - **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public) - **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply) - **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military) - **Event:** [South Vietnamese National Assembly Election 1959](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=south-vietnamese-national-assembly-election-1959) - **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Michigan State University Archives, Wesley R. Fishel Papers UA 17.95, MSU Vietnam Group Archive)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UA17-95_000373.jpg_Election_poster,_1959.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (South Vietnamese government work; Commons tags PD-South VietnamGov and PD-1996) Government of the Republic of Vietnam; Michigan State University Archives, MSU Vietnam Group Archive, via Wikimedia Commons. ## Text on the object Original (Vietnamese) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` [on the rolled ballots and paper slips: LÁ PHIẾU / PHIẾU] LÁ PHIẾU LÀ VIÊN ĐẠN ĐỒNG, BẮN TAN VIỆT CỘNG, YÊN LÒNG NHÂN DÂN. BẦU-CỬ QUỐC-HỘI 1959 [the digits 3, 0 and 8 are drawn as large red digits on the mouths of gun barrels] ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` [on the rolled ballots and paper slips: BALLOT / BALLOT] THE BALLOT IS A BRONZE BULLET, SCATTER THE VIET CONG, SET THE PEOPLE'S MIND AT REST. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION 1959 [the digits 3, 0 and 8 are drawn as large red digits on the mouths of gun barrels] ``` Read from the 960 px image; the lettering is large and clear. 'Đạn đồng' is literally 'copper' or 'bronze' bullet (brass ammunition). Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader. [← "Denkt an Ungarn: Seid wachsam!" CDU poster, 1957 Bundestag election](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cdu-denkt-an-ungarn-1957/) [Crowd at the Arkansas State Capitol protesting school integration, with signs reading "Race mixing is Communism," Little Rock, Arkansas →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/race-mixing-is-communism-1959/) ## Using the same techniques - [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer) - [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer) - [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking) - [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon) - [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [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)