Who Builds? And Who Destroys?
A horizontal photo-sheet (code SP-1155) asks 'Who builds? Who destroys?' beside photographs of the 11 May 1966 opening of the Dong Tron bridge in Thu Duc district, Gia Dinh province, with a ribbon-cutting by the deputy province chief and a U.S. Army engineer officer. A caption says the Viet Cong blew the bridge up four months earlier and that it was rebuilt under the Rural Construction and New Society programme. The paired questions lay destruction on one side and construction on the other, and the pictured ceremony is offered as the answer.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1966
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government (GVN) pacification and information effort
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Johnson Administration
- Leader
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- Vietnam War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Psychological Warfare Posters, Vietnam War (NAID 561393), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) printing section, for the South Vietnamese government (GVN) pacification and information effort. National Archives and Records Administration, 306-VP-7-1155.
Text on the object
AI KIẾN THIẾT ? AI PHÁ HOẠI ? Lễ khánh thành cầu Đồng-Tròn tại ấp tân sinh Thái-Bình, xã Long-Bình, quận Thủ-Đức, tỉnh Gia-Định ngày 11 tháng 5 năm 1966 đã được cử hành dưới quyền Chủ toạ của Thiếu Tá Trương-Tiến-Thành, Phó Tỉnh Trưởng Nội-An, đại diện Đại Tá Trương-Quang-Ân, Tỉnh Trưởng Gia-Định. Quang cảnh buổi lễ: đồng bào tấp nập vui mừng vì sự giao thông đi lại từ nay không bị khó khăn trở ngại nữa. Cách đây 4 tháng, chiếc cầu này đã bị Việt-Cộng giật mìn phá hoại. Trong chương trình Kiến Thiết Nông Thôn và Xây Dựng Xã Hội mới, nay chiếc cầu đã hoàn thành để đem lại thịnh vượng cho sinh hoạt dân chúng nhờ phương tiện giao thông thuận lợi. SP-1155 [signs in photographs:] Bridge repair by the people of Long Binh COMBAT ASSISTED BY: 168th ENGINEER BATTALION U.S. ARMY MAY 1966; LỄ KHÁNH THÀNH CẦU ĐỒNG TRÒN NGÀY 11.5.66 / INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF DONG TRON BRIDGE MAY 11 1966
WHO BUILDS? WHO DESTROYS? The opening ceremony of the Dong-Tron bridge in the new-life hamlet of Thai-Binh, Long-Binh village, Thu-Duc district, Gia-Dinh province, on 11 May 1966 was held under the chairmanship of Major Truong-Tien-Thanh, Deputy Province Chief for Internal Security, representing Colonel Truong-Quang-An, Gia-Dinh Province Chief. Scene of the ceremony: the people crowd together happily because travel from now on will no longer be hindered. Four months ago this bridge was blown up by the Viet Cong with mines. Under the Rural Construction and New Society Building programme, the bridge has now been completed to bring prosperity to the people's lives through convenient transport. SP-1155 [signs in photographs, in English as printed:] Bridge repair by the people of Long Binh COMBAT ASSISTED BY: 168th ENGINEER BATTALION U.S. ARMY MAY 1966; LỄ KHÁNH THÀNH CẦU ĐỒNG TRÒN NGÀY 11.5.66 / INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF DONG TRON BRIDGE MAY 11 1966
