--- title: À qui le crime profite-t-il? (Viet Minh leaflet on the back of a French Indochina one-piastre note, 1948) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/viet-minh-piastre-leaflet-1948/ description: 'Back of a Banque de l''Indochine one-piastre note carrying French-language slogans: ''To whom does the crime benefit?'', ''We must end the Indochina war''…' section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![À qui le crime profite-t-il? (Viet Minh leaflet on the back of a French Indochina one-piastre note, 1948)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/viet-minh-piastre-leaflet-1948.png)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/viet-minh-piastre-leaflet-1948.png) # À qui le crime profite-t-il? (Viet Minh leaflet on the back of a French Indochina one-piastre note, 1948) Back of a Banque de l'Indochine one-piastre note carrying French-language slogans: 'To whom does the crime benefit?', 'We must end the Indochina war', 'We must negotiate with Ho Chi Minh'. The blame for the war is laid on an unnamed set of profiteers who 'traffic the blood of the peoples' (scapegoating), and the message rides on legal currency and cites the Penal Code and the constitution to borrow their authority (transfer). - **Date:** 1948 - **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war) - **Made by:** Việt Minh (resistance authorities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) during the First Indochina War - **Region:** [Southeast Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=southeast-asia) - **Country:** [Democratic Republic of Vietnam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=democratic-republic-of-vietnam) - **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet) - **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement) - **Regime:** [Democratic Republic of Vietnam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=democratic-republic-of-vietnam) - **Leader:** [Ho Chi Minh](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=ho-chi-minh) - **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed) - **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism) - **Event:** [First Indochina War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=first-indochina-war) - **Techniques:** [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Art Hanoi collection)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_Piastre_-_Vi%E1%BB%87t_Minh_propaganda_leaflet_(1948)_02.png), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (Commons tags PD-Vietnam, PD-old; issued 1948 in Vietnam) Việt Minh leaflet on a Banque de l'Indochine note, 1948; via Art Hanoi and Wikimedia Commons ## Text on the object Original (French) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` 1 [corner numerals, both ends] A QUI LE CRIME PROFITE-T-IL ? IL FAUT METTRE FIN A LA GUERRE D'INDOCHINE IL FAUT NÉGOCIER AVEC HO CHI MINH LE CODE PÉNAL PUNIT QUICONQUE TRAFIQUE DU SANG DES PEUPLES DANS UNE GUERRE CONTRAIRE A LA CONSTITUTION. IMP. DUVAL, ROUEN [small printer's line, top right and bottom right] ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` 1 [corner numerals, both ends] TO WHOM DOES THE CRIME BENEFIT? THE INDOCHINA WAR MUST BE ENDED WE MUST NEGOTIATE WITH HO CHI MINH THE PENAL CODE PUNISHES ANYONE WHO TRAFFICS THE BLOOD OF THE PEOPLES IN A WAR CONTRARY TO THE CONSTITUTION. PRINTED BY DUVAL, ROUEN ``` Read from the 500 px image, checked against the transcription in the Commons file description. The printer's line is very small and partly cut at the sheet edge, so its exact wording is as given in the Commons description. [← 총선거 5월 10일 (General Election, May 10): 총선거로 독립문은 열린다 (The General Election Opens the Independence Gate)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/general-election-may-10-poster-south-korea-1948/) ['Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950/) ## Using the same techniques - [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal) - [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling) - [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating) - [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating) - ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating) - ["Negro Rule" vampire cartoon with sworn affidavit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/negro-rule-vampire-1900/) (Jul 4, 1900 · Accusation in a mirror, Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Racist "Negro Rule" caricature. - [Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904/) (1904 · Name-calling, Scapegoating) - [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.