To Build the Nation photo poster (Lao poster distributed in Asia)
A Lao-language photo poster headed 'To build the nation', with a short text and six captioned black-and-white photographs: dam construction, a school frame going up, soldiers marching, relief supplies being unloaded, rice planting and road building. The text says a strong nation needs the labour of many and calls on every reader to take part. The tell is glittering generalities, with unity and sacrifice asserted as virtues, and a bandwagon appeal that everyone is joining in.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- May 29, 1959
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Dept. IIE 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
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Economy and finance, War and the military
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Posters in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, May 29, 1959. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949108, 306-PPB-200).
Text on the object
ເພື່ອຈະສ້າງປະເທດຊາດ [body text, five short paragraphs in decorative Lao script: [illegible] in detail at available resolution] [photo captions:] ການກໍ່ສ້າງຝາຍ / ການກໍ່ສ້າງໂຮງຮຽນ / ການປ້ອງກັນປະເທດຊາດ / [illegible] / ການປູກເຂົ້າ / ການສ້າງຖະໜົນຫົນທາງ 9-8899
To build the nation. [Body, gist: to build the nation strong and complete, the labour of many people is needed; nation-building cannot be done by government alone, since developed countries were built by sincere cooperation between government and the whole people; loyalty, sacrifice and steady work are duties no one can avoid; every reader should share in building the nation to prosper.] [Captions:] Building a dam / Building a school / Defence of the nation / [illegible] / Planting rice / Building roads.
Body text is rendered in a decorative Lao typeface and is not reliably legible; the translation of it is a gist, flagged as such, not a literal rendering.
