---
title: 'Silence means security: be careful what you say or write'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/silence-means-security-recon-1945/
description: 'Painted night scene: a mud-streaked infantryman in helmet and pack crouches by a rock in jungle foliage, rifle in one hand, glancing back as if listening.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Silence means security: be careful what you say or write

[![Silence means security: be careful what you say or write, 1945 US poster: Painted night scene](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/silence-means-security-recon-1945.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/silence-means-security-recon-1945.jpg)

# Silence means security: be careful what you say or write

Painted night scene: a mud-streaked infantryman in helmet and pack crouches by a rock in jungle foliage, rifle in one hand, glancing back as if listening. 'Silence' and '-means security' frame the picture, with 'Be careful what you say or write' below. The danger is implied rather than shown (fear-appeal).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
silence -
-means security
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU
SAY OR WRITE
[signature: SCHLAIKJER 45]
[imprint: WD Poster No. 32-2, "Recon" Security Poster. Additional copies may be requisitioned as prescribed in AR 310-200, 1 May 1943, as changed by Changes No. 2, 15 September 1943.]
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1945--O--624527]
[imprint: DISTRIBUTION: AAF (2); AGF (2); ASF (2); T of Opns (2); Def Comd (2); SvC (Dir of Intell and Sec) (5); PC&S (2); PE (Intell Off) (5); A (2); CHQ (2); D (1); B (1); R (1); Bn (1); C (1); AF (1); W (1); G (1); S (1); F (1).]
```

[← Serve Those Who Served, Nurses Are Needed in Veterans Administration Hospitals](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/serve-those-who-served-nurses-1945/) [Smokey says - Hold 'til it's cold... prevent forest fires →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/smokey-says-hold-til-its-cold-1945/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)