忠誠 / 作惡 (Loyalty / Evildoing) (Chinese poster distributed in Malaya; NARA title 'Truth and Disillusionment')
A split poster. Above, a smiling man in a scout-style uniform and wide hat salutes beneath a flag with a crescent, a many-pointed star and red and white stripes, beside the word for 'loyalty'. Below, a grimacing man in a red-star cap pushes a plunger box among flames and a wrecked car, beside the word for 'evildoing'. A red seal reads 'Free people, joined in strength, build a free world'. The tell is contrast framing: loyalty is joined to the flag, while the red-star figure is drawn as a distorted saboteur (name-calling by caricature) amid fire (fear-appeal).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- August 7, 1953
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Security and surveillance
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, August 7, 1953. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730101, 306-PPA-201).
Text on the object
忠誠 作惡 [seal, columns read right to left:] 自由人民 / 合力建設 / 自由世界
Loyalty Evildoing (committing evil) [seal:] Free people / join forces to build / a free world
Seal characters are arranged in three columns of four characters; the middle column reads 合力建設 and the outer columns 自由人民 and 自由世界.
