Content note: Photographs of civilian dead (a body among debris, a mourner beside a body) and a funeral procession, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. Why
People Protest (Dân chúng phản đối!)
A poster (code SP-949) blames the Viet Cong for a shelling of Trảng Bàng district (Hậu Nghĩa) that, it says, killed 15 civilians, 10 of them schoolchildren, and wounded 45, including 19 schoolchildren. Photographs show a street march, a mass rally with banners, a corpse among debris, a mourner beside a body and a funeral procession. The tell is the pairing of casualty photographs with the loaded labels 'cruel Viet Cong' and 'inhuman', and a rhetorical question answering that the attackers 'dare not' fight the army.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1965
- 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
- Enemy civilians
- 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, Saigon. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-5-949.
Text on the object
DÂN CHÚNG PHẢN ĐỐI ! VỤ VIỆT-CỘNG PHÁO KÍCH QUẬN TRẢNG-BÀNG (HẬU-NGHĨA) LÀM CHẾT 15 THƯỜNG DÂN (TRONG SỐ 10 EM HỌC-SINH) VÀ 45 NGƯỜI BỊ THƯƠNG (TRONG SỐ CÓ 19 EM HỌC-SINH). TẠI SAO CHÚNG KHÔNG DÁM TẤN CÔNG QUÂN-LỰC VNCH MÀ LẠI GÂY CHẾT CHÓC 1 CÁCH VÔ LÝ CHO NHỮNG NGƯỜI VÔ TỘI ? VÌ TẤN CÔNG NHỮNG NGƯỜI VÔ PHƯƠNG TỰ VỆ LÀ PHƯƠNG CÁCH DUY NHẤT ĐỂ CHÚNG BIỂU DƯƠNG SỨC MẠNH. DÂN CHÚNG ĐÃ BIỂU TÌNH... ...ĐẢ ĐẢO HÀNH ĐỘNG VÔ NHÂN ĐẠO CỦA BỌN VIỆT-CỘNG. BỌN VIỆT-CỘNG TÀN ÁC PHẢI CHỊU TRÁCH NHIỆM VỀ NHỮNG SỰ CHẾT CHÓC VÔ LÝ NÀY —HỌ CHẲNG MẢY MAY NGHĨ ĐẾN NỖI ĐAU KHỔ CỦA DÂN CHÚNG. SP-949 [Signs in photographs, partly legible: Ambrella; HOÀNG-ÍCH; A-CHÂU; [illegible]]
THE PEOPLE PROTEST! The Viet-Cong shelling of Trang-Bang district (Hau-Nghia) killed 15 civilians (10 of them schoolchildren) and wounded 45 people (19 of them schoolchildren). Why do they not dare attack the forces of the Republic of Vietnam, but instead cause senseless death to innocent people? Because attacking defenceless people is the only way for them to display strength. The people demonstrated... ...denouncing the inhuman act of the Viet-Cong. The cruel Viet-Cong must bear responsibility for these senseless deaths - they hardly give a thought to the suffering of the people. SP-949
Signs inside photographs are small and only partly legible; the banner and funeral-arch wording is marked [illegible] and is not part of the poster's own text.
