Is there any need to choose death for the Soviet Union and Communist China?
A red-ink cartoon leaflet in Korean. A uniformed figure standing for the Soviet Union pushes a soldier labelled 'Chinese Communist army', who in turn pushes a bayonet-armed soldier labelled 'North Korean army' toward a shell burst. The headline asks whether there is any need to choose death for the Soviet Union and Communist China. The tell: the war is recast as a foreign errand with the North Korean soldier at the front, and what the alternative to dying would be is left unstated.
- Date
- 1951
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- United Nations Command psychological warfare (U.S. Army)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Enemy forces
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Korean War
- Techniques
- Fear appealScapegoating
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work, 1951; Commons PD-USGov tag)
United Nations Command / U.S. Army psychological warfare; via Wikimedia Commons (File:Demoralization Leaflet 1040 Korean War.jpeg), copied from psywarrior.com.
Text on the object
소련과 중공을 위해서 죽엄을 택할 필요가 있는가? (on the figures) 중공군 / 북한군 (near the burst) 한국
Is there any need to choose death for the Soviet Union and Communist China? (on the figures) Chinese Communist army / North Korean army (near the burst) Korea
Read from a 375 x 294 px image; 죽엄 is the period spelling of 죽음 (death). The small labels are partly obscured by the cartoon and are read at low resolution; the label near the burst is read as 한국 (Korea).
