---
title: Who Is the People's Friend poster (Vietnamese, Saigon)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/who-is-the-peoples-friend-poster-ppb-381-vietnamese-saigon-1964/
description: A Vietnamese-language photo poster asking 'Who is the people's friend?'. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

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3. Who Is the People's Friend poster (Vietnamese, Saigon)

[![Who Is the People's Friend poster, 1964 US poster: A Vietnamese-language photo poster asking 'Who is the people's friend?'.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/who-is-the-peoples-friend-poster-ppb-381-vietnamese-saigon-1964.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/who-is-the-peoples-friend-poster-ppb-381-vietnamese-saigon-1964.jpg)

# Who Is the People's Friend poster (Vietnamese, Saigon)

A Vietnamese-language photo poster asking 'Who is the people's friend?'. The text says the Viet Cong claim to liberate the South but only destroy, citing a bridge at Cho Tram, Long An province, blown up on the night of 3 August 1964. Photographs show the wrecked bridge, people carrying loads across it, and the bridge rebuilt by the Government. The tell is card-stacking: one incident is set against a rebuilding photograph, and the labelled opponent is shown only as destroyer.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (Vietnamese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
AI LÀ BẠN DÂN ?

VIỆT CỘNG VẪN RÊU RAO LÀ GIẢI PHÓNG MIỀN NAM, SỰ THẬT CHÚNG CHỈ NHẰM PHÁ HOẠI, GIẬT MÌN ĐỔ XẬP CẦU, ĐÀO ĐƯỜNG CẢN TRỞ SỰ LƯU THÔNG CỦA ĐỒNG BÀO. NHƯ HỒI ĐÊM 3-8-64, CHÚNG ĐÃ GIẬT MÌN LÀM XẬP CHIẾC CẦU CHỢ TRẠM, CÁCH QUẬN THANH-ĐỨC THUỘC TỈNH LONG-AN CHỪNG 7 CÂY SỐ.
HÀNH ĐỘNG PHÁ HOẠI NÀY CỦA VIỆT CỘNG ĐÃ LÀM CHO DÂN CHÚNG ĐỊA PHƯƠNG PHẢI RẤT VẤT VẢ KHI MUỐN QUA LẠI, NHẤT LÀ KHI ĐỒNG BÀO PHẢI GÁNH NẶNG ĐI HOẶC VỀ CHỢ VỪA MẤT THÌ GIỜ, VỪA TỐN TIỀN CHUYÊN CHỞ THÊM.
ĐỂ ĐÁP ỨNG NHU CẦU CỦA ĐỒNG BÀO, CHÍNH PHỦ ĐÃ LÀM LẠI CHIẾC CẦU MỚI. NHƯ VẬY, MỘT BÊN CHÍNH PHỦ KIẾN THIẾT, MỘT BÊN VIỆT CỘNG PHÁ HOẠI, HỎI AI LÀ BẠN CỦA DÂN ?

Cầu sắt Chợ Trạm thuộc tỉnh Long-An bị Việt Cộng giật mìn xập đêm 3-8-64.
Sự lưu thông của các xe cộ trên đường đi Cần-Đức và Gò-Công đều bị gián đoạn.
Những đồng bào gánh nặng phải rất vất vả khi chuyển qua cầu.
Cầu xập, đồng bào phải khó khăn mới sang được qua cầu.
Cầu Chợ-Trạm đã được Chính phủ làm lại, trên đó xe cộ qua lại dễ dàng.
Khách bộ hành tấp nập qua lại trên cầu mới.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
WHO IS THE PEOPLE'S FRIEND?

The Viet Cong keep claiming to liberate the South, but in truth they only aim to destroy: mining and collapsing bridges, digging up roads to obstruct the compatriots' traffic. For example on the night of 3-8-64 they mined and collapsed the Cho Tram bridge, about 7 km from Thanh-Duc district, Long An province.
This act of destruction by the Viet Cong made the local people's travel very hard, especially when compatriots must carry loads to or from the market, losing time and paying extra transport costs.
To meet the compatriots' needs, the Government rebuilt a new bridge. So, with the Government building on one side and the Viet Cong destroying on the other, who is the people's friend?

The iron Cho Tram bridge in Long An province, mined and collapsed by the Viet Cong on the night of 3-8-64.
Vehicle traffic on the roads to Can-Duc and Go-Cong was interrupted.
Compatriots carrying heavy loads had great difficulty crossing the bridge.
With the bridge collapsed, the compatriots could cross only with difficulty.
The Cho-Tram bridge has been rebuilt by the Government, and vehicles cross it easily.
Pedestrians crowd back and forth across the new bridge.
```

Captions are listed in reading order by position; the order on the sheet is scattered around the photographs.

[← Labor Day in the United States, Free World poster (English poster distributed in Manila)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/labor-day-in-the-united-states-free-world-manila-1964/) [Gros-plans lunaires du Ranger poster (French, Beirut) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gros-plans-lunaires-ranger-poster-french-beirut-1964/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.