Content note: Cartoon strip depicting German officers as comic figures with swastika armbands and a swastika-marked submarine. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The Secret: Silence Means Security
Cartoon strip in twelve panels in which a secret is whispered from person to person, then passes through a door and a hidden radio to men wearing swastika armbands and ends with a submarine surfacing. The tell is a fear-appeal built as a chain: each retelling brings the information closer to the enemy. The closing line is 'The Only Secret Is the One Never Told!'.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. War Department, Adjutant General's Office (design by Frank Hanley, courtesy of the Walls Have Ears organization)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. War Department, Adjutant General's Office. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-162 (NAID 513608).
Text on the object
The Secret by FRANK HANLEY DESIGN, COURTESY OF "WALLS HAVE EARS" ORGANIZATION THE ONLY SECRET IS THE ONE NEVER TOLD! ★ SILENCE MEANS SECURITY ★ W. D., A. G. O. "Secret" Security Poster [imprint:] ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-514853
