Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b, 1954 US poster: Two images on a yellow ground

Religious Oppression poster, No. 171b (Thai poster distributed in Bangkok)

Two images on a yellow ground. A photograph shows young men in winter coats around a snow or ice statue of a seated Buddha labelled 'BUDDA' in Cyrillic; below it is a stark black-and-white drawing of a pig carrying food, with a figure above. Thai captions say communists dragged a Buddha figure through Moscow and that the drawing is Soviet propaganda attacking Orthodox priests. The tell is card-stacking: two items stand for a systematic campaign against religion.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal Card stacking Transfer

Date: September 15, 1954
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East 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: Religion, Security and surveillance
Event: Cold War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, September 15, 1954. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949073, 306-PPB-171b).

Text on the object

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

[in photograph, Cyrillic:] БУДДА.

พวกคอมมูนิสต์ที่ไร้ศาสนาลากพระพุทธรูปไปตามถนนในกรุงมอสโคว์ วิธีการของ
โซเวียตเพื่อทำลายศาสนานั้นจัดกันอย่างเป็นระเบียบ มีตั้งแต่เที่ยวรังควานสังหาร
นักบวชทุกนิกาย การทำลายวัดวาอารามให้พินาศไป จนถึงวิธีการโฆษณาอย่างชั่วช้า
เช่นในขณะนี้

แผ่นภาพโฆษณานี้โจมตีศาสนากรีกนิกายออร์โธ
ดอกซ์ และวาดภาพของนักบวชให้เห็นเป็น
เหมือนพวกขโมยเที่ยวฉกอาหารเขากิน

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

[in photograph:] BUDDHA.

Godless Communists drag a Buddha image along the streets in Moscow. The Soviet methods of destroying religion are organised in a systematic way, ranging from hunting down and killing the clergy of every sect, destroying temples and monasteries until they are ruined, to vile propaganda methods such as the present one.

This propaganda picture attacks the Greek Orthodox religion and draws the clergy to look like thieves who go around snatching others' food to eat.

Thai spacing reproduced as printed; reading by eye.