Content note: Drawn caricatures of three heads, one in the likeness of Ho Chi Minh, and cartoon scenes of armed fighters abusing villagers, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Partners in Crime
A portrait sheet headed 'Partners in Crime!' puts three caricatured heads at the centre, labelled Liberation of the South, Hanoi and Peking, under the words 'the 'Three Togethers' commit evil'. Six surrounding panels, each labelled in red, show armed communist fighters forcing conscription, forced labour, killing and wounding, 'people's justice' in the dark, seizure of food and property, and terror and destruction. The tell is the linking of the Viet Cong, Hanoi and Peking as one criminal body, with the closing line calling on the viewer to help the government 'wipe out the communist plague'.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1965
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Johnson Administration
- Leader
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Security and surveillance
- Event
- Vietnam War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Psychological Warfare Posters, Vietnam War (NAID 561393), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-5-712.
Text on the object
BỌN CHÚNG ĐỒNG PHẠM ! "TAM CÙNG" GÂY ÁC GIẢI PHÓNG MIỀN NAM HÀNỘI BẮC KINH CƯỠNG BÁCH TÒNG QUÂN CƯỠNG BÁCH NHÂN CÔNG GIẾT CHÓC VÀ ĐẢ THƯƠNG THI HÀNH CÔNG LÝ MỜ ÁM TỊCH THU THỰC PHẨM VÀ TÀI SẢN KHỦNG BỐ VÀ PHÁ HOẠI HÃY TIẾP TAY VỚI CHÁNH QUYỀN ĐỂ DẸP SẠCH CÁI DỊCH CỘNG PHỈ KHỎI MIỀN NAM THÂN YÊU CHÚNG TA
THE ACCOMPLICES! The "Three Togethers" commit evil Liberation of the South Hanoi Peking Forced conscription Forced labour Killing and wounding Carrying out "justice" in the dark Seizing food and property Terror and destruction Join hands with the authorities to wipe out the communist plague from our beloved South
Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering from the Vietnamese printed text, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader; a few diacritics are faint at this resolution. 'Bọn chúng đồng phạm' is rendered 'The accomplices' (title in the NARA catalogue is 'Partners in Crime'); 'cộng phỉ' is rendered 'communist' with the pejorative sense of 'bandit' noted here; 'công lý mờ ám' is rendered 'justice in the dark' (shady or covert justice).
