---
title: Never a Dull Moment, Uncle
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/never-a-dull-moment-uncle-1957/
description: A smiling man marked 'H.S.T.' gestures toward a sweating Uncle Sam, who carries a stack of books labelled 'World War II and Korean War'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Never a Dull Moment, Uncle

[![Never a Dull Moment, Uncle, 1957 US cartoon: A smiling man marked 'H.S.T.' gestures toward a sweating Uncle Sam, who carries](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/never-a-dull-moment-uncle-1957.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/never-a-dull-moment-uncle-1957.jpg)

# Never a Dull Moment, Uncle

A smiling man marked 'H.S.T.' gestures toward a sweating Uncle Sam, who carries a stack of books labelled 'World War II and Korean War', 'United Nations Founding', 'Truman Doctrine & Marshall Plan', '"5-Percenters" ...and "Give-'Em-H---"', '"Fair Deal"' and '"Red Herring"', with a tag reading 'Truman Library'. The cartoon presents a presidency as a library whose volumes mix major policies and controversies. The technique tell is card-stacking: achievements and scandals are selected and set side by side in a single list.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
WORLD WAR II
AND
KOREAN WAR

UNITED NATIONS
FOUNDING

TRUMAN DOCTRINE
& MARSHALL PLAN

"5-PERCENTERS"
...AND "GIVE-'EM-H---"

"FAIR DEAL"

"RED HERRING"

TRUMAN
LIBRARY

H.S.T.

JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
```

[← Soviet Sleigh Ride](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-soviet-sleigh-ride-1957/) [Chitra Katha photo poster No. 17: U.S. Independence Day in East Pakistan (Bengali photo poster distributed in Dacca) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chitra-katha-17-us-independence-day-dacca-bengali-1957/)

## 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)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.