Content note: Photographs, as issued, show a wrecked bus and a surgeon treating a patient with a bandaged leg after a mine blast. This object is shown as it was published. Why

The People Condemn VC Crimes

A portrait sheet under an orange headline reports that a Viet Cong mine blew up a passenger bus between Quang Tri and Hue on the morning of 5 November 1966. Photographs show villagers with banners in protest, a surgeon treating a mine victim, soldiers sweeping the road and the wrecked bus. The text calls the attack proof that the Viet Cong hold innocent lives cheap and says such scenes will make the people hate them for ever, a direct appeal to anger resting on a single event.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal Scapegoating

Date: 1966
Period: Cold War
Made by: Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, Saigon, 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, Home front
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, Saigon, for the South Vietnamese government. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-5-1580.

Text on the object

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

NHÂN DÂN LÊN ÁN TỘI ÁC VIỆT-CỘNG!

SÁNG NGÀY 5-11-1966 BỌN VIỆTCỘNG KHỦNG BỐ ĐÃ GIỰT MÌN MỘT CHIẾC XE ĐÒ GIỮA KHOẢNG ĐƯỜNG QUẢNG TRỊ VÀ HUẾ. VIỆC GIỰT MÌN CHIẾC XE ĐÒ CHỞ HÀNH KHÁCH THƯỜNG DÂN LÀ BẰNG CHỨNG VIỆTCỘNG COI RẺ TÍNH MẠNG NGƯỜI VÔ TỘI.

SAU VỤ MÌN DÂN CHÚNG ĐÃ HỌP MẾT TINH LÊN ÁN BỌN VIỆTCỘNG. NHỮNG TÀI XẾ XE ĐÒ ĐÃ QUYÊN GÓP MỘT SỐ TIỀN DỰNG MỘT MIẾU THỜ TẠI CHỖ ĐÃ XẢY RA VỤ GIỰT MÌN.

NHỮNG BÁC SĨ TRONG ĐOÀN Y-TẾ HOA KỲ ĐANG CỨU CHỮA MỘT NẠN NHÂN BỊ MÌN V.C.

ĐỂ NGĂN NGỪA MỌI HÀNH ĐỘNG KHỦNG BỐ KHÁC CỦA BỌN VIỆT CỘNG, BINH SĨ CỦA TIỂU ĐOÀN 101 CÔNG-BINH ĐÃ TUẦN TIỂU THƯỜNG NGÀY TRÊN QUÃNG ĐƯỜNG GIỮA HUẾ VÀ QUẢNG TRỊ.

NHỮNG CẢNH TÀN PHÁ DO V.C. GÂY RA NHƯ ĐÂY SẼ LÀM CHO DÂN CHÚNG HẬN THÙ MÃI MÃI.

[in photograph, banners, partly legible: ...DÂN QUẬN MAI-LĨNH ... TRẢ THÙ CHO NHỮNG ĐỒNG BÀO ... CHƯỢNG-XÁ ... [illegible]]

SP-1580

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

THE PEOPLE CONDEMN THE CRIMES OF THE VIET CONG!

On the morning of 5-11-1966 the terrorist Viet Cong blew up a passenger bus between Quang Tri and Hue. Blowing up a bus carrying ordinary civilian passengers is proof that the Viet Cong hold the lives of innocent people cheap.

After the mine blast the people assembled in a mass meeting to condemn the Viet Cong. The bus drivers contributed a sum of money to build a shrine at the place where the mine blast occurred.

Doctors of the American medical team are treating a victim of a V.C. mine.

To prevent any other terrorist acts by the Viet Cong, soldiers of the 101st Engineer Battalion patrol the road between Hue and Quang Tri every day.

Scenes of destruction caused by the V.C. like these will make the people hate them for ever.

[in photograph, banners, partly legible: ...PEOPLE OF MAI-LINH DISTRICT ... AVENGE THE COMPATRIOTS ... CHUONG-XA ... [illegible]]

SP-1580

'Hoa Kỳ' is the Vietnamese name for the United States. Diacritics transcribed as printed to the best of legibility at this image resolution.